Bus Éireann may sell company property and assets to pay for redundancy scheme?
AS PART OF REVISED SURVIVAL PLAN, MOVE CONSIDERED FOR VOLUNTARY REDUNDANCY SCHEME.
BUS ÉIREANN SUGGESTED IN A CONFIDENTIAL EMAIL TO THE WRC THAT FUNDING COULD BE SECURED TO MEET THE COST OF A VOLUNTARY REDUNDANCY SCHEME.
Bus Éireann may sell assets including property to part fund a voluntary redundancy scheme for staff as part of a revised survival plan for the company.
Bus Éireann believes the board of its overall parent holding group, CIÉ, will provide it with additional funding in the short term if it produces a viable plan to tackle potential insolvency and uncompetitiveness.
The company suggested in a confidential email on Friday to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that funding could be secured to meet the cost of a voluntary redundancy scheme to be put in place over the next 12-18 months.
Sources suggested this money could be provided by both the CIÉ holding group and by Bus Éireann itself including by means of a sale of assets including property.
The company also indicated for the first time that the immediate threat of insolvency at the company could be overcome by staff co-operation with improved efficiency measures and the implementation of all existing national agreements across the company. Plans for cuts to terms and conditions and further cost-saving measures which were to be included in an all-embracing survival plan which was to have been completed by the end of March would appear to have been shelved.
Talks suspended?
A planned all-out indefinite strike at the State-owned transport company, which was scheduled to go ahead on Monday, was suspended on Friday after the intervention of the WRC, which invited the parties to talks on Monday.
Management at the company agreed to hold back on the planned unilateral introduction of work practice changes and new efficiency measures next Monday and in turn trade unions suspended their plans for strike action.
The planned closure of the Clonmel-Dublin route on March 12th and the scheduled reduction in frequency of Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Galway services on the same date have also been deferred pending the outcome of the new talks.
In an email on Friday afternoon, Bus Éireann management told the WRC: “We all want Bus Éireann to survive and prosper. We are very conscious of the significant long-term damage that could be caused by a strike and are willing to engage with the unions and compromise to reach a sustainable agreement. With this in mind and in a final effort to avoid a dispute the company are putting forward the following position. We believe that if we can put forward a viable plan that demonstrates that we are addressing the insolvency and competitiveness issues that we can expect financial support in the short term. This proposal covers all items and there will not be a need for any additional plans such as those suggested for the end of March.”
Bus Éireann said that the issue of uncompetitiveness at the company would significantly be addressed by “restructuring and rationalisation”.
A staff reduction?
“The implementation of streamlining structures together with improved efficiencies will allow for a reduction in staff numbers. We are confident that if we reach agreement on improved efficiencies and show how this is addressing the imminent threat of insolvency that funds will be made available to provide for the costs of voluntary severance. Releasing staff through voluntary severance could then begin rolling out over the next 12 to 18 months. Redeployment will be a critical element of achieving the core manning numbers as will voluntary severance. The potential voluntary severance packages are likely to be available across all grades. “
Bus Éireann also said in the email it was willing to negotiate with the unions on the issue of a pay increase for staff “in the context of ensuring a plan for future survival without pre-conditions”.
It said any increase must be justified in its own right.
Siptu sector organiser Willie Noone said the union’s representatives would continue to play their part in trying to avert a national public transport dispute “but we rely on the management of Bus Éireann making genuine efforts to reach a resolution”.
NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary said his members remained on a “war footing” and would be prepared to engage in an immediate all-out strike “should the company plough ahead with any attack on members’ terms and conditions.
Parkinson’s treatment app founder named as “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur”
THE APP HAS HELPED PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S DISEASE IN 40 COUNTRIES.
THE FOUNDER OF AN APP TO HELP PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S DISEASE HAS BEEN CROWNED IRELAND’S BEST YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR.
The 26 year old Physiotherapist Ciara Clancy, developed Beats Medical which emits a beat or soundwave from your smartphone to help control movement and speech.
She will now receive a €45,000 investment through the Local Enterprise Offices to help develop her company further.
Minister Mary Mitchell O’ Connor and Minister Pat Breen announced the winner of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition at the Google European HQ in Dublin earlier today.
The competition, which is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland and run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices, attracted entries from over 1,800 18-to-35-year-olds and showcased some of the country’s best and brightest business talent.
In addition to becoming Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur, Ciara Clancy also won the ‘Best Established Business’ category.
The Beats Medical app provides individually tailored physiotherapy, speech and language and occupational therapy exercises through mobile phones.
Ciara Clancy said that her aim is to continue supporting more and more people with Parkinson’s around the world, as an estimated 10 million people currently live with the disease.
She is also developing digital treatments for other neurological conditions such as MS, Stroke, Dyspraxia and Cerebral Palsy.
Speaking after winning the award she said “These success stories keep all of the team at Beats Medical motivated every day to do more for the people that use our service.”
U2 at the top of Irelands rich list chart
U2 ARE THE RICHEST ENTERTAINERS IN IRELAND WITH A COMBINED WEALTH OF €645 MILLION, ACCORDING TO THE 2017 SUNDAY TIMES IRISH RICH LIST.
Irish entertainers Niall Horan, Colin Farrell, Graham Norton, Michael Flatley, Daniel O’Donnell, and Enya also feature on the new list, which examines the wealth of the 300 richest individuals and families in Ireland across entertainment, sport, business, technology and construction.
U2’s last world tour took in $133m but the band are still some way behind the world’s richest entertainer, Paul McCartney, who was estimated to have a fortune of £730m on 2015’s Sunday Times list.
One Direction star Horan is the only person under 40 on the Richest Entertainers List, and has securing a place among the top 10. Donegal star Daniel O’Donnell also makes the grade with an estimated wealth of €31m.
Alastair McCall, Editor of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: “U2’s status as one of Ireland’s most recognisable exports is confirmed by their position at the top of our Entertainers’ Rich List, accounting in their own right for more than 30% of the wealth measured. They are to Ireland what Abba were to Sweden in the 1970s – a global brand with instant recognition.”
Actors including Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Farrell also appear on the Richest Entertainers List. Wicklow residents Daniel Day-Lewis and his wife Rebecca Miller are in at 8th place on the list with a fortune of €55m between them.
Threat to Sligo vet lab is against Irish rural policy says Marian Harkin
THE INDEPENDENT MEP MARIAN HARKIN.
THE INDEPENDENT MEP MARIAN HARKIN HAS SAID THE POSSIBLE CLOSURE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE’S REGIONAL VETERINARY LABORATORY (RVL) IN SLIGO CONFLICTS WITH GOVERNMENT RURAL POLICY.
The proposal by the Department to close the lab in Sligo and others is flying in the face of good animal health practice and in contravention of recent Government policies to stimulate development in rural areas, according to Marian Harkin MEP.
She was speaking after it was revealed by the Irish Farmers Journal that RVLs are subject to a major internal review headed by Professor Alan Reilly, the former chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
One of the recommendations from the report is to, in time, close Limerick, Sligo and Kilkenny, with an upgrading of the facilities at the other three labs.
“The Sligo laboratory also plays a significant role in helping to protect Ireland’s animal health status, which is a major positive marketing tool in promoting the country’s food products on a worldwide basis,” Marian said.
A SIX-HUNDRED KILOMETRE ROUND-TRIP?
“We have seen successive lip service plans to supposedly bring long overdue balanced regional development and the latest Ireland 2040 plan’s strategy is to ensure that ‘the enormous potential of the rural parts of our country are maximised’”, she said.
If the closure goes ahead, it will leave farmers having to travel a 600km round-trip from the Inishowen Peninsula to the proposed centralised facility in Athlone.
Bringing a dead animal for the examination would have significance for both the farmer concerned and for the build-up of knowledge, which is vital to protecting the country’s animal disease status, the Independent MEP said.
She questioned how this aspiration for regional development could be taken seriously in the northwest when a service vital to the region’s most important economic sector was proposed to be removed.
Saving the lab petition.
In an effort to save the RVL, part-time suckler farmer Trevor Boland, who is from Dromard in Co Sligo, set up a petition.
He told the Irish Farmers Journal the RVL is of vital importance to farmers from Donegal to Sligo.
“If this RVL closes, the nearest one to us will be in Athlone and that will affect the speed of post-mortem tests and their results,” he said.
Obesity now linked to 11 types of cancer as our overweight population grows
A new research finds a link between obesity and 11 cancers as the worldwide obesity rate continues rising, according to the World Health Organization.
Obesity is strongly linked to the development of 11 types of cancers, including breast, kidney, rectum, colon, and pancreatic cancer, scientists warned in a new study.
The research on excess body fat and cancer, published in the British Medical Journal, reviewed more than 200 studies on cancer and obesity and found “strong evidence” of a connection between increased body fat and 11 cancers.
“Other associations could also be genuine, but there is still substantial uncertainty about them,” lead study author Dr. Maria Kyrgiou, of Imperial College London, said by email, according to reports from several news outlets.
Researchers specifically reviewed the data on body mass index (BMI), a ratio of weight to height, and discovered links between an increase in BMI and a higher risk for cancers of the pancreas, kidney, bone marrow, esophagus and biliary tract.
The strongest connection was discovered between obesity and cancer of the digestive organs, and excess fat and hormone-related cancers in women, according to the survey.
But, the study authors cautioned that more research is needed to better understand the connection between obesity and cancer.
Cancer is a leading cause of death globally, with almost 9 million people dying from a form of the disease in 2015, according to the World Health Organization, and the numbers are expected to continue increasing by about 70 percent over the next two decades, the WHO said on its website.
Almost 2 million adults are overweight or obese, the WHO reported. Obesity increases the risks for all kinds of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
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