Money Guide Ireland

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The CSO published a report this week – “Survey on Income and Living Conditions “  which several newspapers picked up on and wrote about.
Most of the reports in the press that I saw were headlines such  as  ” One in seven people at risk of poverty”  or   ” One fifth of all households report arrears “   or even  “Ireland’s  poverty rate above EU average ”

In amongst all the doom and gloom and bad news – were some interesting figures – especially with the 2010 Budget looming.
Maybe the headlines should have been ” You might be  better off not Working“  or ” Irish people are better off than they think”

The report tells us that in 2008 the average net disposable household income in Ireland increased by 2.2%  to €49,043 (from €47,988 in 2007 ).

In 2008 – Irish households in which the head of household was unemployed had an average disposable income of €35,208 – which is 58% of the average household income of households where the head of household was at work (€60,977).

Households headed by an unemployed person had an increase of  25.2% in their disposable income between 2007 and 2008. This compares with an increase in the average  disposable household income of just over 1% in the same period for households where the head of household was in work.

Disposable income is  net  of tax and PRSI.

Another interesting statistic was  that between 2007 and 2008 – Irish households where there was no person at work experienced a 13.1% increase in their net disposable household income .  This compares with an increase of 6.8% in households where one person was at work and  a decrease of 1.5% in households where two people were at work.

Comparison with UK :
UK figures for 2007/2008 show that the average household disposable income (net of tax . National Insurance and Council Tax)  was £27,769. Even if we ignore the Council Tax – (Av £1100 ) – that still leaves a national UK average of £28,869
Comparisons are complicated by exchange rates – but the Irish figure is about 70% more than the UK figure  (ignoring currencies). Maybe these figures will help explain some of the pricing differences between goods in UK and Irish shops?  If the average Irish disposable household income is 70% more than the UK  (ignoring exchange rates) – then we should not be surprised if something that costs £40 in the UK costs €60 Euro here in Ireland .(50% more)
Even when using an exchange rate of 1.50 – the converted UK figure comes to €43,300 – still  €6k below the Irish income figure.
We realise that averages can hide lots of other things and can be swayed by very high or very low figures – but it still is an interesting comparison which may make Irish people realise that maybe things are not that bad here after all? No Council Tax or Water Rates either….

References  :  CSO Survey ; UK National Statistics

Flooding in parts of Cork, Galway and Clare could result in large household  insurance  claims  – hopefully most , if not all,  people affected had home insurance.

Insurance firms have been dealing with as many as 1,000 claims a day since the flooding began and it is expected that claims could exceed  €100m.

Advice for people whose homes have been affected by flooding:

If your home has already been hit by flooding  you should contact your home insurer as soon as possible. Most of them will have 24-hour emergency helplines, and will have trained staff to deal with urgent enquiries.

Try to photograph the  damage to your building and  contents.
Don’t throw away any damaged items you wish to claim for -  they might need to be assessed.

If you need to move to alternative accommodation then check with your insurer whether the cost for this is covered under your policy.
Get and keep receipts for any flood related costs – such as any emergency repairs.

When the flood water has receded, floors and furniture should be disinfected. You should also dispose the food from your fridge and freezer .  Keep a list of the disposed items – and take photographs if possible – as you may be able to claim on them.

Get an expert to check  the electricity and gas services before you turn them back on. The damage caused by the flood may not be obvious and switching on a service could be very dangerous.

It may be a good idea to have  the damage professionally assessed by a surveyor or engineer. You might be able to claim back the cost of any fees off the insurance company – but check  beforehand.

The Sunday Tribune asked some people to give their ideas on what the December Budget should contain.
Michael O’Leary of Ryanair was always going to make controversial suggestions  – but are they really that crazy or are there  some sensible ideas in there?

Some of his Budget  2010 suggestions are:

Close all the government quangos which currently exist, making all of the useless bureaucrats who populate them redundant and saving €8bn per annum.

Make  all public-sector employees (including the Dáil and Seanad) to work a minimum 40 hour week, with a maximum of 20 days annual leave. Since this would improve productivity in the public sector by at least 20%, every fifth public servant would be made redundant and this would save €5bn.

Implement the McCarthy report in full and save €5bn a year.

Reduce all social-welfare benefits, including children’s allowance, by 20% saving €4bn a year.

See his full list of suggestions along with those from some others here

Sky Ireland have a special offer starting today – November 29th 2009. All  new customers can get a free Sky + Plus box when they subscribe to ANY Sky package. No need to sign up for Movies or Sports.
A Sky Plus box allows you to record TV programs to watch whne it suits you – and you can even pause live TV .
Visit Sky Ireland to find out more .

Books are usually a common choice for gifts at Christmas – but where is the cheapest place to buy books online for people living in Ireland?
Easons recently announced free delivery on orders over €25 after Amazon started offering free delivery to Ireland on orders over £25 GBP.
Prompted by these free delivery offers – we did a quick price comparison on 7 books  at Amazon , Easons and The Book Depository. The prices were checked in the first week of November 2009 – so may have changed since then. The books were randomly chosen  – although there were a couple of  Irish interest books thrown in to possibly give Easons a better chance – it still didn’t help them….
All prices are based on getting free delivery.
Amazon offer free delivery to Ireland on orders over £25.
Easons offer free delivery in Ireland on orders over €25 just until Christmas
The Book Depository offer free delivery to Ireland  on all orders.

The Total Amazon price includes the extra Irish VAT and a conversion rate of €1.12 to the Pound
Easons had a 3 for 2 offer – so Twilight was free

As you can see from the list above – Amazon came out as the cheapest online bookshop of the 3 we compared.
It was €26.16 cheaper than Easons (  over 25% cheaper) and €36.05 cheaper than The Book Depository.
If anything – the selection was  probably biased towards Easons – because we selected two books on purpose that Easons had on special offer -  but  they still came out more expensive than Amazon.
Obviously – a selection of 7  books  cannot be treated as a full and proper comparison – but it is a good guide to where you are likely to make big savings on books this Christmas.

(Figures amended on Nov 24th to take account of Easons 3 for 2 offer that was missed)

Get 30% off with this voucher for GAP. Valid in Ireland and the UK  from 18th – 29th November 2009.  It can be used at Gap, GapKids, babyGap and Gap Outlets. Irish residents  just enter xxxxxx for postcode.

Voucher Here

Discount is not valid for online shopping – but GAP don’t deliver to Ireland anyway.
Here are some online clothes shops that deliver to Ireland

A few more details of likely 2010 Budget changes have started to sneak out – but the full scale of the expected €4 billion worth of cuts in spending and increases in taxation will not be known until  December 9th 2009.

In the past week the following ideas have been mentioned :

The introduction of Prescription Charges of 0.50c for Medical Card holders.

Means testing of Child Benefit payments.

Lowering of taxation thresholds to bring more people into the Income Tax “net”.

Introduction of  a site valuation tax.

Budget day on December 9th will probably bring bad financial news for many people in Ireland.  After Thierry Henry’s handball – the mood of many  Irish people is bad enough and we don’t expect the Budget to help make it any better.