Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG Tuesday

Taoiseach Enda Kenny supports cutting income tax for middle-income families

 Tax cut 

Scope for reduction will not be clear until the budget, says Enda Kenny

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has expressed support for reducing income tax on middle-income families but cautioned that the timing will depend on the state of the Irish economy.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan have already backed the notion of reduced taxes on middle-income earners.

In a Christmas interview, Mr Kenny said the scope for tax cuts would not be known until much closer to the next budget in October 2014.

“There will be no income tax increases in the next budget. That is consistent with the programme for government. The scope for any income tax reductions, which I have seen commented on, will not be known until much closer to the budget and they depend upon growth rates and job opportunities,” Mr Kenny said.

Flexibility
He said that whenever room for the required flexibility emerged, action would follow on income tax as well as jobs.

“The priority will be to reduce the very high tax rates faced by families on middle incomes,” said Mr Kenny.

He said the Government expected to get a report by April from a specially established advisory group on tax and social welfare. “That’s likely to focus on family income supplement, on child income supports and rent supplements, and on barriers faced by part-time workers moving into full-time employment,” he added.

‘Relentless push’
Mr Kenny repeated his view that in 2014 he wanted to see a “real relentless push” by the Government on jobs.

“I’ve told Ministers that. I expect all Ministers to come forward now with their own detailed plans with the structure of the medium-term economic plan. We will do that in the new year. There will be a special Cabinet meeting on jobs by end of January, early February. And I want to drive that on so that we focus on helping Irish business to grow and to export more.”

He said he hoped to open 31 new local enterprise offices around the country next year.

“These are the revamping of the local authority system which will provide, hopefully effectively, the sort of one- stop shop for people who have ideas about business or want to form a company, to find out what assistance may be available to them.”

He also said he hoped to attend at the new Intreo offices being opened by the Department of Social Protection to help people find work.

“I actually think, having seen all of this over the years, that this is an initiative which is going to pay dividend. I have seen some of the impact from the group meetings they hold with people, where they ask what you did, your experience, what you didn’t do, what you’d like to do, how you would want to make a contribution,” said Mr Kenny.

“It is about motivating people who have been in the rut of unemployment for some time to get them out of that, in the knowledge that they are respected for the contribution they can make.”

Marie’s Fleming parting message to her family “I’m not frightened”

 

Partner Tom Curran with Marie’s son Simon and daughter Corrinna at the funeral of Marie Fleming at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Castlemacadam,

Right to-die campaigner Marie Fleming penned a final letter of goodbye that was read out at her emotional funeral.

In the note revealed by her daughter Corrina, Ms Fleming thanked her family and friends and said: “I’m not frightened. There is so much to say, and so little time to say it.”

Marie, who died in the arms of her partner Tom Curran in the early hours of Friday, also thanked her legal team for helping her fight for the right for Mr Curran to help her die.

“It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all,” she wrote in the note read to mourners at the funeral in Co Wicklow.

She also left instructions for her “beautiful” children Simon and Corrina.

SPECIAL: She wanted them to think of their own futures and her young grandchildren, and to “guide these seven beautiful stars through life”.

She furthermore had a special message for Mr Curran, who quit his job to act as her full-time carer when the multiple sclerosis she was diagnosed with in 1986 tightened its grip.

“Thank you for loving me, for carrying me, for caring for me, for making sure my voice was heard,” she wrote.

“And if you waver, know that I’m in your heart and walk about the beautiful garden we made together.”

Ms Fleming had meticulously planned her funeral. As requested, she was laid to rest in a simple wicker coffin, and the mass, which was celebrated by family friend Canon George Butler, was shaped to reflect her 59 years of life.

There were flashes of defiant humour – her coffin was brought into the church to the sound of Come On Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Eileen was her middle name – and carried out to I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.

SONGS: Her friend, Mary Graham, sang a mixture of hymns , Christmas carols and songs including Marie’s favourite, Little Drummer Boy.

And seated in the front pew, her son Simon was wearing a red Christmas jumper – Marie had requested that her family avoid wearing black

Mr Curran painted a picture of his partner’s remarkable courage in her final days.

“She had strength and determination beyond belief,” he said. “She died in my arms – she died a peaceful death in her own home. Unfortunately it was dark so she couldn’t look out on the garden.”

Archbishop Martin says action is needed to halt Ireland’s emigration exodus

 

Diarmuid Martin Archbishop of Dublin has said there needs to be greater action on emigration, as families will have an “empty chair” at the kitchen table this Christmas.

He said Irish society is right to miss its emigrants at this time of year, because they should never have had to leave here  in the first place.

He said companies need to create opportunities for young people.

“Many more big firms should be looking at that and trying to see that there are apprenticeships available to young people,” he told the Herald.

“MOST YOUNG PEOPLE WANT TO WORK.”

The Archbishop also warned that young people who find themselves out of work for a long period of time are “the most vulnerable”.

Referring to the Europe-wide context, he said high youth unemployment wasn’t just a problem for Ireland.

The Archbishop said he felt particularly for those families who would have an “empty chair” at the kitchen table this year.

EDUCATION: Acknowledging that young emigrants might be enjoying their Christmas in places such as Australia and Canada, the Archbishop said: “Their parents will miss them and we should miss them – because they shouldn’t have had to emigrate.”

The Archbishop said other areas needing investment were education, social protection and the health system.

Irish retailers say Christmas spend for this year is down on 2012

  

Cautious consumers believed to be holding on to shop at reduced prices in sales

Spending on Christmas shopping will be down this festive season, according to Retail Excellence Ireland.

Spending on Christmas shopping will be down this festive season, according to retailers.

Retail Excellence Ireland claimed customers are being cautious and keeping their cash for the sales, while adverse weather in recent weeks has also impacted footfall.

The organisation’s chief executive David Fitzsimons said retailers are preparing to reduce prices by upwards of 70 per cent in the sales “in a bid to convert stock to cash”.

 “Having contacted over 300 leading retailers nationwide over the past few days it is disappointing to confirm that retail sales are likely to be down marginally against Christmas 2012,” he said.

“While consumers might have a little more discretionary income than this time last year, even with cash in our wallets we have become habitually frugal and discerning.

“It would seem that six years of cautious spending behaviour has become a hard habit to break.”

Mr Fitzsimons said the retail industry was bullish entering the festive season due to the rescheduling of Budget 14 to October, a return to economic growth and the departure of the troika.

“Unfortunately these positives did not impact on spending in the run up to Christmas 2013,” he continued.

“Instead customers remained cautious and retailers responded with significant discounts.”

He said the residential property tax also damaged consumer sentiment and dampened Christmas spending, along with the weather.

Last week Allied Irish Bank (AIB) customers were unable to withdraw money from some ATMs because they were mistakenly registered as being over their daily limit.

“What this means is that retailers are carrying significant stock levels into the sales period,which can only mean one thing — exceptional value for the Irish consumer,” he added.

“It is likely that the sales period will be one of the best on record.

“Retailers have not sold through on significant lines of stock and this will be priced to sell over the period of the sales.”

Mr Fitzsimons said the Irish customer has never had it this good.

“Retailers are preparing to reduce prices by upwards of 70% in a bid to convert stock to cash,” he added.

What’s in store for Cyber-Security in New Year of 2014

  

As the year draws to a close, there is a lot of discussion about what 2014 holds in store for information security. Will the good guys start winning against the bad guys? Have we learned the lessons of 2013? Will we see happier and brighter security days ahead?

It’s fun to look into the crystal ball and make guesses on what may be coming in the year ahead. We do it for fun, like Gravity edging out 12 Years a Slave for the Best Picture Oscar, and the Broncos winning the Super Bowl. In the world of information security, predictions provide insights into what people are worried about and areas businesses are going to invest in. If done right, predictions can be thought-proving and help make decisions about how best to improve our security.

Vague predictions aren’t useful, especially the ones that are just recycled from year to year. Examples include claims that the volume of mobile malware will increase, that there will be more attacks against critical infrastructure, and the number of state-sponsored attacks and cyber-espionage will grow. Some are unhelpful, such as the ones claiming a trend will continue. Yes, attackers will keep using social engineering to target victims, and we will see a lot of rain in the Northeast in April.

Security Watch received hundreds of predictions from security experts addressing a wide array of topics, from data centers to consumer electronics, advanced persistent threats (APTs) to distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), cloud computing to mobile payments, and software to social engineering, just to name a few. We sifted out the generic, the ho-hum, and the “things will stay the same, just worse” predictions and identified a few gems in the following areas: attack targets, Internet and regulation, mobile security, online payments, and Internet of Things. Check back over the next few days and see what we think are important for 2014.

New Methods, Targets
New technologies will pose new security risks. For example, the popularity for 3D printing means it will become easier to create physical objects to use in attacks, said TK Keanini, CTO of Lancope. Consider the kind of damage a smooth-talking scammer with an access badge can do. Social engineering and 3D printing can be a dangerous combination in 2014.

This isn’t really a prediction, but rather a certainty: Attackers will step up attacks against unsupported software, such as Java 6 and Windows XP. Security experts warn that cyber-criminals are crafting attacks targeting vulnerabilities in Windows XP and will unleash them after April 8, when Microsoft officially ends support for the 12-year old operating system. Tim Rains, director of Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft doesn’t pull any punches. “More Windows XP-based systems will be compromised,” he said.

Perhaps people will abandon XP in the first few months of 2014? Don’t hold your breath. A little under 7 percent of enterprise users and 22 percent of individuals and small business users will still be running Windows XP come April, according to estimates provided by Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys.

Data Breaches
Trend Micro anticipates “one major data breach will occur every month next year.” That doesn’t seem like a stretch since “major data breach” is subject to interpretation. It can mean thefts of intellectual property such as source code or sensitive documents, ala Adobe or Edward Snowden. Perhaps we mean a large number of customer records compromised. Or a large service provider will be breached. A high-profile site, such as the Healthcare Exchange, may be compromised. I wonder if Trend Micro is underestimating this number.

Offensive Security Will Gain Acceptance
Even as ethical and legal debates continue, acceptance for “offensive security” and “active defense” will grow, said Michael Callahan, vice-president of security product marketing at Juniper Networks. Organizations will adopt active defense methods such as intrusion deception, where security teams act disrupt and foil cyber-attacks as they are happening. Attribution—identifying who the cyber-perpetrator is—will be important but there will be mistakes where the wrong person is accused of launching attacks.  

American Astronauts make rare Christmas Eve spacewalk

  

Astronauts Make Rare Christmas Eve Spacewalk

Two US space station astronauts ventured out on a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk, hoping to wrap up urgent repairs to a cooling system.

Astronaut Mike Hopkins on the robotic arm moving a spare pump during a spacewalk outside the International Space

Two space station astronauts ventured out on a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk Tuesday, hoping to wrap up urgent repairs to a cooling system.

It was the second spacewalk in four days for U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, and only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk in NASA history.

NASA ordered up the spacewalks to revive a critical cooling loop at the International Space Station. All nonessential equipment had to be turned off when the line conked out Dec. 11, and many science experiments halted.

Messrs. Mastracchio and Hopkins removed a faulty ammonia pump during Saturday’s outing. On Tuesday, they worked to install a new pump 260 miles above the planet.

“It’s like Christmas morning opening up a little present here,” Mr. Mastracchio said as he checked his toolkit. Later, as he worked to remove the spare pump from its storage shelf, he commented: “Now it really feels like I’m unwrapping a present.”

Standing on the end of the station’s main robotic arm, Mr. Hopkins clutched the 780-pound, refrigerator-size pump with both hands as he headed toward its installation spot, and then slid it in. An astronaut working inside, Japan’s Koichi Wakata, gingerly steered the arm and its precious load.

“Mike Hopkins taking a special sleigh ride on this Christmas Eve,” Mission Control commentator Rob Navias said as the space station soared over the Pacific.

Mission Control in Houston was in a festive mood, despite the gravity of the situation. Tabletop Christmas trees, Santa dolls and red Santa caps decorated the desks.

NASA’s only previous Christmas Eve spacewalk occurred in 1999 during a Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.

But NASA’s most memorable Christmas Eve was back on Dec. 24, 1968. Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis, the first book of the Bible, as they orbited the moon on mankind’s first lunar flight.

Space station managers considered waiting until January for the repair spacewalks, so an unmanned rocket could blast off with supplies from Virginia. But flight controllers were unable to patch the cooling line by remote control, and the orbiting outpost was considered in too vulnerable a state to put off the spacewalking repairs. The delivery mission was bumped, instead, to January.

A bad valve in the ammonia pump caused the breakdown.

Another team of spacewalking astronauts installed that pump just three years ago, and engineers are perplexed as to why it didn’t last longer. NASA hopes to salvage it in the years ahead.

The 2010 replacement required three spacewalks because of the difficulty in removing pressurized ammonia fluid lines. This time, NASA reduced the pressure and the task was simplified, allowing the astronauts to get ahead Saturday. Although three spacewalks were scheduled this time around, Messrs. Mastracchio and Hopkins’ advance work allowed NASA to squeeze everything into two, barring any problems Tuesday.

The second spacewalk was supposed to take place Monday, but was delayed a day to give Mr. Mastracchio time to switch to another suit. He inadvertently hit a water switch in the air lock at the end of Saturday’s excursion, and a bit of water entered his suit, making it unusable this week.

During the rest of the spacewalk, however, the suits remained dry. Last July, an astronaut almost drowned when water from his suit’s cooling system flooded his helmet. Makeshift snorkels and absorbent pads were added to the suits as a precaution. Midway through Tuesday’s spacewalk, no water leakage had been reported.

A Moscow-led spacewalk, meanwhile, is set for Friday. Two Russian crew members will install new cameras and fresh experiments outside.