Money Guide Ireland

Ryanair to accept Laser card payments

Ryanair, announced on 22nd Dec 09 that they will begin accepting Laser card payments from January 31st 2010.
MasterCard Prepaid will remain Ryanair’s free form of payment while other payment methods, including Laser, are subject to €5 administration charges per person per one way flight.

See more details of where to get Mastercard Prepaid

The Minister for Finance has today announced the names of the nine members of the NAMA Board. A few more “jobs for the boys” it seems

The chairman of the board will be Frank Daly, who was head of the Revenue Commissioners up until March 2009. He was recently working  as public interest director at Anglo Irish Bank.  Frank Daly was also very recently  Chairman of the Commission on Taxation  a position that paid €1,000 a day.

The other NAMA board members are:

Michael Connolly -  a former member of Bank of Ireland senior management team and current member of Financial Services Ombudsman Council since October 2008. (A five year post)

Willie Soffe -  Chairman of the Dublin Transportation Office (Paid €23,00 a year for 11 meetings) and former County Manager of Fingal County Council (Retred 2004)  Mr Soffe was also recently one of the members of the Commission on Taxation.

Eilish Finan -   an independent Consultant and Director in various Financial Services Industry sectors, as well as the former CFO of AIG Global Investments. Previously, Ms. Finan worked as an accountant in private practice with KPMG. She holds an Electronic Engineering Degree from Trinity College, Dublin and is a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Peter Stewart -  Managing Director of O’Donovan Stewart & Company – a firm of chartered accountants and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Peter is a vastly experienced financial consultant. He says has “experience as a public auditor, and internal auditor, a financial director and a director of a broad range of companies including a bank and an investment intermediary company”.

Brian McEnery is e of the founding partners of Limerick firm of Accountants & Business Advisors – Horwath Bastow Charleton.  Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)  and a former president of ACCA. He is also the ” national adviser to Nursing Homes Ireland and regularly undertakes a variety of assignments on behalf of clients in the Healthcare sector”

Stephen Seelig -

· Mission chief for joint IMF-World Bank FSAP-Updates for Estonia and Georgia.

1 Article IV surveillance on Estonia, Germany, and Ireland.

2 Advisor in the Monetary and Capital Markets Dept. of the IMF Lead responsibility for financial sector restructuring in Uruguay during their banking crisis and Fund program.

3 Responsible for financial sector technical assistance to Indonesia and Georgia.

National Irish Bank has written to thousands of its customers to inform them  that NIB  branches will not handle over-the-counter cash transactions.

NIB  branches will no longer handle cash withdrawals and lodgements, night safe lodgements and foreign currency cash. Branches will continue to lodge cheques, drafts and postal orders and issue drafts.

NIB advises customers  to obtain cash from ATMs  or to get “cash-back” on their debit cards. Many shops though have a limit on the amount of cash you can get.

NIB have  confirmed that cashless banking was being introduced across the entire NIB branch network over the next 18 months, and had already been introduced successfully in a number of branches.

The minister for finance in his recent Budget speech – seemed to imply that by cutting the duty on booze – he could stop people going to Northern Ireland to do their shopping. He must think that everyone is piling over the border to stock up on cheap drink – well he musn’t have seen the recent CSO figures on cross-border shopping.
The CSO survey into Cross Border shopping was based on figures from April to June 2009.

The average  household  spend per trip was €286 . Of this – the highest amount was spent on groceries  (€114 ).

Breakdown of spending on other categories:

€77 on Clothing and durables

€53 on Other

€32 on Alcohol – only 11% of the total

€11 on Cosmetics

Other stats show that 44% of trips involved the purchase of Alcohol – while 79% bought groceries and 42% bought clothing etc. 26% bought cosmetics and 19% “Other”

The drop in alcohol prices here in Ireland will have very little effect on the thousands of people going to Northern Ireland to shop. If the government think it will – they are either misleading us or they are stupid.

Ref: Cso Report

The 2010 Budget announced that the  salaries of Ministers and Secretaries General of government departments will be reduced by 15% and the  Taoiseach’s salary will be reduced by 20%.

In the Budget speech – Brian Lenihan made it sound like it was a  bigger cut when he said ..

“those at the top would lead by example in the downward adjustment of pay. He said the largest percentage reduction would be taken by the Taoiseach, who will face a 20 per cent cut in salary. He said that this reduction in addition to the pension levy introduced earlier this year meant that the Taoiseach’s salary will be cut by close to 30 per cent in total”

Of course – that was misleading because he was including the pension levy in that 30% and also the voluntary 10% pay cut taken in  2008 . This 30% figure will probably be printed and published all over the world – and everyone will assume it is the truth.

The Taoiseach’s salary will actually fall from €257,024 to €228,466 – a cut of €28,558, or 11%.

Ministers’ salaries will fall from €202,676 to €191,417 – a cut of €11,259, or 5.5%.

All Cabinet members took a voluntary 10% cut after  the October 2008 Budget. This reduced the Taoiseach’s salary from €285,582 to €257,024 and a minister’s salary from €225,196 to €202,676. But because these were “voluntary” pay cuts,  their “official” salary levels were still recorded at €285,582 and €225,196 respectively – even though they were getting less.

TDs and senators will also see their pay reduced in line with that of the equivalent public service grades. A  TD on the basic salary of €100,190 will see their pay fall by €7,519 to €92,671.

Note: The UK  prime minister’s salary is £194,250  – which is about €214,000

Budget 2010 – December 2009

Jobseekers Allowance Cuts –

Jobseeker’s Allowance for new claimants without dependent children will be reduced to €100 for people aged 20 and 21 (From January 2010).

Jobseeker’s Allowance for new claimants aged 22 to 24 , without dependent children,  will be reduced to €150  (January 2010).

Jobseeker’s Allowance rate will be reduced to €196 for all people aged 25 and over (January 2010).

It will be reduced to €150 where job offers or “activation” measures have been refused.

The Increase for a Qualified Adult for new claimants aged 20 and 21 without dependent children will be reduced to €100 (January 2010).

The Increase for a Qualified Adult for new claimants aged between 22 and 24 without dependent children will be reduced to €130.10 (January 2010).

There will be no change to the maximum rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance for people aged 18 and 19 without dependent children and their qualified adult dependent . This is already set at €100 a week

The full rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance will be paid to claimants under 25 years of age if they participate in an approved education or training course

The Budget announced on December 9th  revealed that Carer’s Allowance will be reduced by €8.50 from Jan 2010 for claimants under 66 years of age.  The Half-rate Carer’s Allowance will be reduced by €4.25 for claimants under 66 years of age.

There will be no reduction in Carer’s Allowance for people aged 66 and over (January 2010).

Carer’s Benefit and Constant Attendance Allowance will be reduced by €8.20 per week from January 2010.

After the Budget – the following Welfare payments will be reduced by €8.30 per week from January 1st 2010

* Jobseeker’s Benefit

* Jobseeker’s Allowance

* Supplementary Welfare Allowance

* One-Parent Family Payment

* Prisoner’s Wife’s Allowance

* Pre-Retirement Allowance

* Farm Assist

* Health and Safety Benefit

* Widow’s and Widower’s (Contributory) Pension (under 66)

* Widow’s and Widower’s (Non-Contributory) Pension

* Guardian’s Payment (Contributory)

* Guardian’s Payment (Non-Contributory)

* Deserted Wife’s Allowance

* Deserted Wife’s Benefit (under 66)

Qualified adult rate for the following payments will be reduced by €5.50 per week:

* Jobseeker’s Benefit

* Jobseeker’s Allowance

* Supplementary Welfare Allowance

* Pre-Retirement Allowance

* Farm Assist

* Health and Safety Benefit

* Illness Benefit

* Disability Allowance

* Blind Pension

Injury Benefit

Note: The Qualified child rate for all social welfare payments will be increased by €3.80 per week . This is to balance the reduction in Child Benefit of €16 a month (3.69 a week). So  the child benefit cut will not affect people on welfare benefits.

These reductions come after another drop in the cost of living figures in Ireland. Also – recent CSO figures show that many families on Welfare Benefits had larger income increases than workers in recent years. See More about that Here