The  Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes – more commonly referred to as An Bord Snip Nua – will publish it’s report today.

The group  was tasked with identifying 3.5billion euros of cuts in spending – and the government has waited until the long summer Dail recess before agreeing to it’s publication. It is likely to provoke a furious reaction from all sectors. (It will be a surprise if TD pay cuts are proposed by the Bord Snip report . A  100k€ for 103 days in the Dail works out at €1000 per day plus expenses – not bad?)

The report is expected to recommend  re-organisation of many public bodies, such as the merger of some local authorities, enterprise boards and ombusdmans’ offices, along with the abolition of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Something drastic has to be done – with the rising jobless tally, predicted to hit 15% or higher;  further shrinkage in gross national product and  credit ratings being downgraded, making borrowing even more expensive.

The two budgets in less than 12 months saw the imposition of levies on wages, levies on pensions for public sector workers and cuts in public spending . But these measures don’t seem to have closed the  gap between what is paid in to government funds  and what is paid out  – the defecit is around 20 billion euros . That means approximately 5 million euros a day is borrowed to make up the difference.

Some really sensitive  areas are the potential cuts in social welfare payments, cuts in allowances to State workers, such as Gardai, and the possible axing of 20,000 public service jobs.

The full details will be released at 2pm today.

As mentioned previously – the recent Bus Eireann school bus fare increases have been the subject of plenty of media coverage and general moaning. For many pupils – the bus fares of €1.80 a day are probably quite reasonable – especially when the distances involved can be anywhere from 3 miles to 15 miles.

You can pay for your Bus Eireann school bus pass here. It’s a pity they don’t give a discount for people who pay the full amount now. (It’s 300 per pupil or 2 payments of 150)
To pay online you need to have your Bus Eireann family ID and PIN; both numbers are on the invoice you received from Bus Éireann.You can  pay by  VISA, MasterCard or LASER

You may still  pay for bus tickets by cheque, credit card or cash at your local Bus Éireann School Transport office or over the telephone by phoning a  Bus Eireann local office at one of the phone numbers below.

Contact numbers for local Bus Éireann School Transport Offices

Westmeath, Longford, Offaly Roscommon, Laois  09064 73277

Mayo    096 20225

Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow ,Meath  01 7034907

Louth, Monaghan, Cavan  042 9355062

Cork  021 4557127

Clare, Tipperary (North), Limerick  061 217445

Galway  091 537685

Sligo, Leitrim  071 9174379

Donegal  074 31008

Waterford, Tipperary (South),  Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford  051 317803

Kerry  066 7123515

A new scheme is going to be introduced in Autumn of 2009 to help with the payment of nursing home fees in Ireland.  The new Nursing Homes Support Scheme is being called a “Fair Deal” by the  Department of Health and Children. The new regulations became law from July 1st 2009  – but have not actually been put into effect yet. People already in Public nursing homes and getting help with fees under the old scheme will not be affected.
Existing residents of private homes can apply for help under the new scheme – even if they were previously getting subvention.

In summary – the new rules will replace the old “subvention” scheme and  will  assist in the payment of charges for both Private and HSE (Public) Nursing Homes.

Nursing homes will have to register to be part of this Fair Deal scheme – and they will have to agree prices with the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
A resident paying nursing home fees will have to  contribute annually – 80% of their “assessable”  income and 5% of the value of any assets in excess of €36000 . (72000 for a couple)
If the assets include land and property, the 5% contribution based on those assets can be deferred until after death – and may be collected from the person’s estate.

A principal residence (your home) will only be included as assets for the first 3 years of the time in the care home. So in effect -  the maximum deferred payment based on the main home will be 15% of it’s value. (No matter how long a person remains in care).
For a couple where only one is in a care home -, this means that the deferred contribution based on the principal residence will be capped at 7.5%
If there is a partner still  living in the home, the deferred charge may be further deferred for their lifetime too.

Example of Calculation

A married couple living in a house which they jointly own.
The wife needs full-time nursing home care. They have a combined income of €500 per week. Their house is valued at €400,000. Under the new scheme, the wife will only have to pay €200 a week towards her cost of care. This is because half of the couple’s income is €250 and 80% of this is €200. The HSE will pay the balance of the nursing home costs.
A deferred contribution of €157.70 per week, for a maximum of three years, is also payable from the estate after the death of both of the couple. This is calculated as follows:
Value of house: €400,000
Less the Asset disregard for couple: € 72,000
Remaining Value: €328,000
50% of remaining value : €164,000
5% of 164,000 per annum: € 8,200
Divide by 52 to get weekly amount: € 157.70

If  the wife  is still in a nursing home after three years, the principal residence would no longer be used in the financial assessment. (Total deferred payment capped at €8200 in this example).

The three year cap will also extend to farms and business in certain circumstances.

(i) Where the person has suffered a sudden illness or disability which causes them to require long-term residential care, and
(ii) where the person or their partner was actively engaged in the daily management of the farm or relevant business, as the case may be, up until the time of the sudden illness or disability, and
(iii) here a family successor certifies that he or she will continue the management of the farm or relevant business as the case may be.
This measure is intended to ensure the financial sustainability of family farms and businesses in cases where a person suffered a sudden illness and did not have an opportunity to put appropriate succession arrangements in place.
In the case of couples, the measure should apply where the applicant suffered a sudden and unforeseen illness and either or both members of the couple have been engaged in the running of the family farm or business.

The HSE have an infoline on 1850 24 1850.
More Info Here
The old scheme had a maximum payment of €300 a week and anyone with total assets of over €36000 were not eligible for any help at all.

Comment:
At first glance this scheme seems to be a good idea . It probably now means that more wealthy people will be getting assistance. It probably also means that more taxpayers money will be going into the pockets of private nursing home owners in the future.

It  will be interesting to see what kind of pricing agreements are made with the nursing homes. Will homes put prices up – or will some kind of cap on prices be introduced?
If there is no limit on what homes can charge there will be waiting lists for the best, more expensive homes. Potential residents and their relatives will be shopping around for the best care home that the Support Scheme can afford.

Hopefully the inspection regime of nursing homes will be better than it has been in the past – and hopefully homes that are not up to scratch will not be allowed to participate in this scheme.

It looked like something was going on at Halifax Ireland when they recently raised mortgage rates for Irish customers whilst ECB rate were falling .

It was widely reported last week that  Antoinette Dunne – the head of retail banking for Halifax Ireland had resigned. Now there have been reports in the Sunday Tribune that Bank of Scotland Ireland (BOSI) is going to shut down Halifax altogether in Ireland from September 2009.
BOSI is now part of the Lloyds TSB  group – which is now 43% owned by the UK State. It looks like they may have had  instructions from the UK treasury to cease lending in Ireland .
Apparently the bank is planning to formally announce the plans at the end of August .

Halifax Ireland first  opened in January 2006 after BOSI acquired the  old ESB shop network.   Halifax did well in Ireland by introducing  tracker mortgages, interest paying current accounts and 0% interest on credit cards. They also offered evening and Saturday openings – still unheard of in most Irish  banks.
It is unclear what will happen to  current borrowers or account holders with Halifax in Ireland. As soon as there is more information – it will be posted here.

Tesco Ireland introduced lower pricing in some of it’s border stores earlier this year  – under the ChangeforGood initiative.  You can see more details at Changeforgood.ie
It was introduced to try and combat the loss of shoppers going over to Northern Ireland .  Tesco  say that more than 12,000 prices have been  reduced by an average of 22% . These lower prices and new products (many UK produced) are being rolled out in all Tesco’s Irish shops – and the new pricing should be in all shops by the end of August 2009. Some Irish producers are not happy that some products have been given less shelf space – but as they have shown by shopping over the border – many Irish consumers are more interested in lower prices than  patriotism.
Of course – online shoppers all over Ireland can take advantage of these Tesco price cuts now by shopping online at Tesco Ireland.

Tesco will deliver to all addresses in County Dublin, County Wicklow, County Kildare , County Meath and County Louth.
Home delivery is also also possible if you live within 20 miles of Limerick, Ennis, Galway, Cork  Carlow, Castlebar, Tralee , Waterford , Killarney. About 79% of the population is covered by Tesco online shopping.

Most parents whose children use buses to get to school – will have recieved Bus Eireann bills recently for next year’s bus fares. There has been some  publicity and uproar about the increases – but are the charges that excessive ?

Budget 2011 – update – More Bus Fare Increases
The 2009 – 2010  bus fares in Ireland for second level students are now €300 per pupil per  year.  With a maximum of €650 per family) Previously the bills were sent each term – (3 times a year)  so the new single bill does cause a bit of a shock initially .

Up until  Easter 2007 , the charge for Junior Certificate pupils was €99 a year. This charge rose to €138 and then again to €168 in Sept 2008. From Sept 2009 the charge will be €300 annually.

The fares for Leaving Cert pupils were  €153 a year in 2007 and rose to €213 in mid 2008 . The new fee is €300 a year.
Prior to 2007 – school transport charges had not been increased since 1998. This is probably the main reason why these increases appear to be so big.  One question is – why did the bus charges not rise each year with inflation?

The new transport charges can be split into 2 payments of €150 – one by the end of July 2009 and the next payment by 4th December 2009. Medical card holders will pay nothing.

Secondary schools in Ireland are only open for just 167 days a year (One of the lowest in the world – but that’s another issue) – so the bus fare works out at  €1.80 a day.  Some bus journeys are longer than others – so some pupils could be driven 3 miles whilst others could have journeys of over 10 miles.  Everyone pays the same fare.

Some parents may  now be tempted to drive their children to school because of these bus fare increases – but apart from the extra traffic congestion, pollution and hassle – will there be much of a saving if people use their cars? Probably not.

Using a journey of 5 miles as an example – that would mean a total distance of 20 miles a day for a parent (in and out twice). According to the AA in the UK – the cost per mile of running a car was 58p a mile in 2008 – about €0.67c . (That takes into account petrol, wear & tear, insurance, repairs, depreciation). So using that figure  as a rough guide – the 20 mile trip would “cost” a car user €13.40 Euro compared to the bus fare of  €1.80.
For a family with 3 pupils – the €650 max fare works out at  €3.89 a day .

Some people will probably just use the actual petrol costs as the price of using a car for the school run.
Typical  petrol consumption is about 1 litre for 10 miles . So a 20 mile journey would use  2 litres of petrol costing about €2.32 at today’s prices . Even using petrol cost alone – the bus still works out cheaper by 50c a day or €85 over the school year for a 5 mile distance.

To be eligible for school transport – pupils must live at least 3 miles from the school. Even for a pupil with the minimum 3 mile journey – it would mean parents driving 12 miles a day and using about 1.2 litres of petrol costing approx €1.40 . This petrol costs- only calculation is slightly lower than the daily bus fare by 40 cents – or €66 over the school year. But when you consider other factors such as wear and tear and  the time taken  – it probably isn’t worth bothering for one child.

There may be some slight savings to be made if 3 or 4 parents got together to arrange sharing the driving during the year – but many children probably prefer the daily bus journey insead of sitting in a cramped car with  mum or dad and adult neighbours .  Organising car pooling for school could also prove to be difficult and could end up causing more arguments and hassle than it’s worth.

Ryanair may be thinking of introducing standing on short flights of under an hour. There is an online poll on the Ryanair website that is asking if people would be willing to stand for up to 1 hour if the tickets were free. It will be interesting to see if this “takes off” – will Ryanair cutomers stand for it ? Poll Here

NIB have stopped the offer of 6 months 0% interest on balance transfers for new customers.
There are still several other credit card providers offering interest free periods on transfers and purchases in Ireland

See our list of best credit card offers here.