Westport & Kilkenny win Ireland’s Best Town & City awards in top 100 towns/cities survey
Westport in Co. Mayo has been named the Best Town in Ireland, while Kilkenny has been named the best city. Galway City made it in 14th place in the top 25 town towns and cities in Ireland and Letterkenny Co Donegal came in 24th place, Roscommon came in 45th place Ballina and Ballybofey came in 52nd & 53rd respectively while Sligo came in at 99th.
The award has been given by Retail Excellence Ireland following a survey it conducted with more than 16,000 citizens and stakeholders in over 100 towns and cities in the country.
The survey is part a Retail Excellence Ireland (REI) initiative to encourage all business owners to work together to form a “Town Team”, design and implement a “Town Plan” which will reinvigorate towns and cities, and re-engage with customers.
Cormac Kennedy, Head of Property, Eason and Chairman REI Town and City Revival Committee said: “It is critically important that the report and the survey results are used to help improve our towns and cities. This should act as a road map for towns and cities to help them focus on areas that they can improve on.
“As retailers, we need to invest into our shops, and as customers, we need to visit our local towns and cities more often and remind ourselves what great things they have to offer.”
See the top quartile results below.
Ireland will defend its 12.5% corporate tax, says Enda Kenny
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said corporation tax would stay ‘at the heart’ of FDI strategy
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has finished his two-day visit to the United States, which aimed to enhance business links between the two countries.
Ireland would “vigorously defend” its position on corporation tax which was being challenged by other countries, Mr Kenny told the Mayo Society Annual Ball at Westlake, near Cleveland, Ohio last night.
He told the audience that the State’s 12.5 per cent corporation tax would continue to remain “at the heart” of the strategy to attract foreign direct investment.
Employment had not come from Government spending but from “creating an environment that fosters more exports and investment”, he said.
The “hard sacrifices” being made by the Irish people were “delivering results”, he said.
Mr Kenny said t he would be aiming to make progress on a comprehensive trade agreement between the European Union and the United States when Ireland assumed the EU presidency in January.
Mr Kenny’s visit included a series of engagements in Philadelphia and Cleveland.
It is his sixth visit to the US since becoming Taoiseach and underlines the extent to which the Government hopes foreign investment will help kick-start the economy.
Great fears that some 200,000 in Ireland may face blank TV screens
AS DIGITAL DEADLINE DRAWS NEAR
There is growing concern both within the Department of Communications and in TV stations RTE and TV3 about the continuing high number of people who are still not prepared for ‘the big switch’ to digital on October 24.
According to a source in RTE, the figure could be as many as 200,000 people whose screens will go blank in less than two weeks. However, the Department of Communications disputes that figure and says that it is based on Nielsen figures from the end of August.
More recent statistics, compiled by Lansdowne Millward Brown, suggest that the number of those who still haven’t made the switch is closer to 100,000 viewers.
Many of these are thought to be elderly people, living in isolated areas who are not aware of the need to install technology or buy a new TV to complete the switchover.
Without either of these, they will be faced with a blank TV screen on October 24. Subscribers to Sky satellite or broadband providers UPC are not affected.
Irish borrowers pay higher interest on short-term loans than than our Eurozone counterparts
Central Bank figures also show the average interest rate on an outstanding mortgage has fallen 0.22 per cent since January.
IRISH BORROWERS pay significantly higher interest on short-term borrowing than people living elsewhere in the eurozone, new figures have shown.
Data published yesterday by the Central Bank shows that the average interest rate on loans falling due within a year stood at 9 per cent in August, an increase of 0.05 per cent when compared to July.
By comparison, the average interest rate for similar loans in the eurozone as a whole was 7.77 per cent – much lower than the rate applied in Ireland.
The Central Bank includes short-term loans for consumption, overdrafts and credit card debt in this short-term category.
The data also shows that the interest rate on the average Irish mortgage fell in the first eight months of this year.
The weighted average interest rate on mortgages which have over five years left to run is 2.84 per cent, down from 3.06 per cent at the start of the year.
Over 99 per cent of mortgages fall into the category mentioned. The interest rates applied to those mortgages fell by 0.02 per cent in August.
The decreases can largely be attributed to the 0.25 per cent fall in the ECB’s main interest rate this year – the rate was cut in July – which takes a direct effect on the interest rates of tracker mortgages.
Variable mortgage interest rates usually, though not always, adjust their rates to correspond to the ECB rate.
The interest rate on other household loans fell to 5.74 per cent at that time, down almost 0.6 per cent so far in 2012. The interest on five-year loans at the end of August stood at 3.98 per cent, which is down by 0.45 per cent compared to the same point in 2011.
Patrick the giant 50ft+ lobster saved from the boiling pot
Staff member Juan Iraola left with a lobster more than 50 years old and almost a metre in length.
A massive lobster more than 50 years old and almost a metre in length has been saved from the cooking pot by a fish merchant.
The giant crustacean, which tips the scales at 4.5kg, was hauled up in lobster pots off Plymouth in Devon and had been destined for the Spanish market.
But a kind-hearted fish merchant from Kingsbridge in Devon deemed the lobster too old and too special to be eaten and donated him to a Bristol Aquarium.
Now the giant lobster, named Patrick, is looking forward to a peaceful retirement in the aquarium’s native marine display tank.
Curator Dan de Castro said: “Patrick is a truly impressive specimen. He is in fantastic condition with a bright blue body and a red-coloured claw.
“In spite of his age and his size the lobster appears to be in truly excellent condition.
“His claws are so large that he can hardly hold them up when he is out of the water and you need to be careful when you handle him.
“There are many lobster-sized hiding places in the display and he will be able to live out the remainder of his days in very comfortable surroundings, with a regular supply of fresh food and be forever safe from the pot.”
Lobsters are extremely long-lived with some individuals reaching ages in excess of 60 years, a spokesman for the harbourside aquarium said.
The heaviest recorded crustacean is an Atlantic lobster nicknamed Mike who was caught in 1934 and tipped the scales at 19kg.
No comments:
Post a Comment