The Household tax: 60% of Phil and Enda’s constituents reject it
Over 60% of constituents in Minister Phil Hogan’s constituency have failed to pay the household charge, it has emerged. And in Enda Kenny’s Mayo homeland 60pc have so far not paid the €100 levy.
Eamon Gilmore’s affluent Dublin constituency of Dun Laoghaire has a compliance rate of 64pc – despite the anti payment campaign mounted by Independent Richard Bot Barrett who also hails from the borough.
The figures, produced in today’s Daily Mail, do not include the 235,000 applications yet to be processed.
Overall just one of 34 councils nationwide has a compliance rate in excess of 50pc and 22 have less than 40pc paid up.
In Environment Minister Hogan’s own constituency just 34pc have signed up in Carlow and 35pc in Kilkenny.
Many families who decided to bite the bullet and pay the household charge have been hit with late-payment fines and interest penalties of almost €300,000.
This is because they failed to pay the €100 charge by the March 31 deadline and were forced to stump up an additional €10 late-payment fee and €1 interest payment.
A total of 890,184 homeowners have registered to pay the charge, figures from the Local Government Management Agency showed earlier this month.
Some 648,739 have paid the tax in full, with just over 27,000 paying since March 31, meaning they were liable for late-payment fees.
Homeowners who pay no later than six months after the due date are hit with a 10pc late-payment fee. This rises to 20pc after six months and 30pc after a year. An additional interest penalty of 1pc is added per month it is unpaid.
Inquiry at school that bars 16 year old pregnant teenager from attending class
Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan has requested a school apologise for excluding a girl because she was pregnant
The school that excluded a 16-year-old pregnant teenager is being investigated by the Department of Education and Skills following a complaint from Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan.
Ms Logan has requested the Munster school apologise for excluding the girl because she was pregnant.
Ms Logan said she has been lobbying for years for a clear admissions policy for parents and children.
“The best way that I think I could handle this is to make it known to the members of the Oireachtas and to the Minister who has responsibility for legislating in this area,” she said. “It is important that the public is aware that there are still children who are being mistreated and this is not acceptable.”
Ms Logan said she never experienced such hostility as when investigating the decision by the school to exclude the teenager.
“It is very, very unusual. Generally people are respectful of the level of independence of my office,” she said. “By and large people co-operate in relation to the fact that we have a role to do.”
In a report published on the Children’s Ombudsman website, Ms Logan said the girl in question tried unsuccessfully twice to enrol in the school, once when she was pregnant and secondly after she had the baby in 2010.
According to the report, when her mother wrote to the school principal, he replied: “Your letter surprises me. A neighbour called at your request and stated that your daughter was pregnant. I was shocked and I told her that I did not take in such girls. She conveyed the message to you.”
Ms Logan wrote to the school in July last year following a complaint from the girl’s mother.
She requested the school furnish a copy of its admissions policies and complaints procedures along with outlining its board of management structure.
In response the school manager wrote to her: “Neither am I obliged to have any other frills that you mention. This school is NOT [manager's emphasis] a haven for young pregnant people or for young mothers who, in particular, have been in two other post primary schools. The school has an uncompromising ethos and will not become a dumping ground for those rejected elsewhere.”
Ms Logan said she could not see any evidence of an admissions policy publicly available to families and potential students nor did the school appear to have a complaints mechanism.
She concluded the school had treated the teenager unfavourably and had discriminated against her based on family status.
A statement from the Department of Education said they do not want to prejudice the outcome of the inspector’s report and so will not be commenting on the specific case.
However, the department pointed out Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn unveiled a discussion paper on school enrolment last year to make the process of enrolling schools more “open, equitable and consistent”.
The statement continued: “Education partners and interested parties were invited to submit their views and the Department is currently co-ordinating their submissions. The feedback from this consultation will help inform the nature and scope of a new regulatory framework for school enrolment.
The Minister plans to bring proposals to Government this year.” Attempts to contact the school by phone and email this afternoon were unsuccessful.
Irish property prices have over-corrected - Say’s the Central Bank
The Central Bank has said Irish property prices have overcorrected by between 12% to 26% compared with the fundamental value of properties.
The Central Bank has said that Irish property prices have overcorrected by between 12% to 26% compared with the fundamental value of properties.
The bank suggests that a lack of consumer confidence and expectations about further price falls is holding back purchases.
It also said that a lack of mortgage finance from banks is restricting market activity and price levels.
The bank warns that any immediate revival of the sector still appears to be some way off.
The bank’s researchers used four separate models to assess property prices for the research.
One model found that prices were 26% below what economic fundamentals in the economy would warrant. Two other models found that prices were 16-18% undervalued.
A fourth model suggested that they were under valued by 12%.
The Central Bank said that as it enters its fifth year, the severe downturn in the residential property market has already become one of the OECD’s largest and most protracted.
The CSO’s residential property price index showed that the decline in value since the peak of the market in 2007 was over 47%.
The research pointed out that Ireland’s housing prices have fallen for 16 quarters in row, but this compares to 82 quarters in Japan and 41 quarters in Switzerland.
It also noted that just 11,000 new mortgages were issued last year, down from 110,800 in 2006. It said that almost 10,500 housing units were built last year, down from 14,600 in 2010. At the height of the housing boom about 93,000 houses were built in 2006.
The Central Bank pointed out that a positive trend in the housing market is the fact that affordability has improved in recent years, but it adds that the imposition of tighter credit conditions by the banks could diminish much of this benefit.
Figures in Ireland show a rise in sexual crimes
New crime figures for the Republic show an alarming rise in number of sexual offences, kidnappings and drug-related crimes between 2006 and 2010.
New crime figures for the Republic show an alarming rise in number of sexual offences, kidnappings and drug-related crimes between 2006 and 2010.
Conversely, the figures show a decline in the murder rate as well as a fall-off in the number of offences linked to property damage.
The Central Statistics Office figures, published today, outline trends in recorded and detected offences across 16 different crime categories.
The volume of recorded sexual offences jumped by 66 per cent during the four-year period.
However, gardaí warned that part of the rise in sexual offences reflected a decision to review of all outstanding allegations, including historic child sex abuse cases.
The figures indicated sharp rises in kidnappings and related offences (up 59 per cent), in controlled drug offences (up 40 per cent), in the rate of gun and explosives-related crime (up 30 per cent) as well as robbery, extortion and hijacking offences (up 28 per cent).
On the other hand, the number of recorded homicide offences fell by 35 per cent and damage to property and to the environment offences fell by 10 per cent.
The figures, which also analysed detection rates, showed that three out of every four burglaries across the State were going undetected.
Barely a quarter of the 25,377 burglaries carried out in 2010 were detected, with only 38 per cent of 76,492 thefts solved.
However the detection rate for the 55 murders, five manslaughters and 30 deaths by dangerous driving was 83 per cent. Criminal charges were brought in 64 cases, while 15 remain undetected.
The highest number of killings were recorded in Dublin’s north inner city, with 4.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
The detection rate for drugs offences was also high, with more than 98 per cent of the 19,943 cases closed.
There were also 4,092 recorded incidents of weapons and explosives offences, with more than 90 per cent solved.
The cost of keeping a home in Ireland increases by €138 a week
Feeling like your wallet is getting increasingly more roomy? You’re probably right if figures released today about the cost of living are anything to go by.
Apparently the cost of just keeping a decent roof over your head have risen dramatically by €138. And what makes it much worse is that it’s €138 every week.
The figures have been collated with figures from data released by the CSO Central Statistics Office and it makes for pretty upsetting reading.
The average cost of keeping a home has gone from €275 to over €400. This means the average couple are now finding themselves having to pay over €21,000 a year before they even think about feeding or clothing themselves.
The increase is put down to higher cost of mortgage repayments, insurance and fuel.
The even worse news for many is that these increases don’t take into account the household charge, water charge or rubbish collection fees.
The data analysed comes from the period between January 2006 and March of this year.
There was a 20.5 per cent increase in the cost of gas and a 11.2 per cent in the cost of electricity last year alone.
So the only reasonable conclusion can be that Irish people are every year being asked to pay more just to get by.
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