August 30th, 2010
This new scheme gives participants a higher weekly payment (€210 for 19.5 hours), allows them the opportunity of taking up work while avoiding the necessity of a means test, improves their own community, whilst at the same time it will combat welfare fraud and partipation in the black market.
Minister Ó Cuív was absolutely correct when he stated “maintaining people’s employability through regular work activity will be important for getting people back into the competitive economy” as the vast majority of people have an innate desire to be useful. This scheme will counter the scarring effects of long term unemployment which make it harder to become reemployed the longer a person is out of work, but also once reemployed, people who have been out of work for long periods of time tend to perform less well than their peers.
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Posted in National, Wicklow | No Comments »
August 24th, 2010
There has been no change in motor tax regime for commercial vehicles.
The Department earlier this month issued a circular on the rules and regulations regarding motor tax for commercial vehicles, following an increase in the number of vehicles switching from private motor tax classes to commercial vehicle classes.
Owners of vehicles currently taxed for commercial purposes face no additional requirements regarding forms or declarations.
The RF 111A Goods Declaration, which requires applicants to make a declaration the vehicle will be used for commercial purposes, has always been a requirement when first taxing a small commercial vehicle. One change has been made to Form RF 111A - it now requires an applicant who is applying for a vehicle to be taxed at the goods rate to provide a Revenue registration identity number. This is to help ensure that the appropriate rate of tax is paid.
Circulars on a variety of areas from planning to councils are issued on a regular basis by the department, and this circular was in no way out of the ordinary.
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August 6th, 2010
Paul Williams, the respected crime correspondent, put the hard questions to John Brady, Sinn Fein’s chief apologist in Co Wicklow.
Williams exposed SF’s jobs protest as nothing more than a cheap political stunt, as Brady was unable to put forward any credible plans for job creation, he also repeatedly avoided the questions put by Williams that linked SF with criminality.
Brady was so rattled by the interview that he was reduced to telling a bare faced lie about myself, by stating I was paid by Fianna Fáil, when everyone knows I am an unpaid volunteer for the party.
The interview can be heard here.
This isn’t the first time Brady has run away from answering the hard questions, as earlier this year he refused to comment on the accusations of a link between Gerry Adams and the brutal murder of Mrs. Jean McConville, a mother of ten children. Traditionally the response of Sinn Fein and in particular of Cllr. Brady and his colleagues has been to adopt a stony silence when asked to respond to the type of revelations which have recently been made in this case.
Posted in Radio Interviews, Wicklow | No Comments »
August 4th, 2010
My letter published in today’s Wicklow People
Posted in Wicklow | No Comments »
July 6th, 2010
An expert group on mortgage arrears has recommended the introduction of a new Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process to help struggling home-owners.
Download report here.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the Government had accepted all of the recommendations of an interim report by the Mortgage Arrears and Personal Debt Expert Group.
Posted in Economics, National | No Comments »
June 22nd, 2010
Can’t help but thinking how ironic it is, that Enda Kenny’s political career was saved by the very people who’s career he wanted to end, i.e. the Senators!
What will Enda think of next? Perhaps reduce the Cabinet to 10 members in light of the number of his frontbenchers who expressed support in his leadership.
Posted in National | No Comments »
May 31st, 2010
The changes proposed in the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2010 are long overdue. As Minister O’Cuiv highlighted last month in Galway, one of the big things that genuinely unemployed people complain about is forced inactivity. The Minister promised he would tackle this problem quickly, having for many years argued that enforced idleness was not a great policy.
The Government spends about €4.2 billion annually on unemployment payments with a further €0.5 billion on activation. This bill is part of the Minster’s strategy to use activation measures to differentiate between those who are genuine jobseekers and those who may not be genuinely unemployed and use savings arising from this approach to create more activation and opportunities for people to be gainfully involved in community work and so on.
The reaction of the main opposition parties to this bill is a continuation of their two faced policies, sending contradictory messages as to what they would do to different audiences.
In March 2010 at his party conference, FG’s leader, Enda Kenny, complained about borrowing billions to subsidise idleness and dependency for unemployed people. Yet his party’s spokesperson now complains about the very measures her leader called for.
On 5th November 2009 Labour’s leader, Eamon Gilmore, stated on RTE’s The Panel progamme that “there is a requirement to get any dole payment that you have to be available for work or available for education or whatever, and if someone doesn’t comply with that you don’t pay them”, which is in direct contradiction to his party’s spokesperson on Social and Family affairs.
Just as with the Croke Park agreement, Labour is again talking out of both sides of its mouth in a desperate bid to buy votes.
Posted in Economics, National | 1 Comment »
