Ireland considers sugar tax in move to quell obesity

The man who wants the Irish to be taxed
for drinking sugar

Irish Health Minister Dr James O'Reilly has concocted a new austerity measure for Ireland: this time taxing consumers for purchasing sugar laden soft beverages (soda), in a bid to stem rising rates of obesity and diabetes in Ireland.

The proposals are similar to ones currently in effect in New York, which have apparently had a marked effect on reducing consumption of trans-fat containing fast-foods, as well as other unhealthy items.

The New York laws follow a raft of legislation introduced by Albany lawmakers intended to curb soaring levels of obesity and diseases directly linked to diet, according to the Irish Independent, though the Irish health minister O'Reilly may have a harder time convincing the Irish to adopt the measures given the dozens of other new taxes currently doing the rounds.

By all reports the plans are serious, though. The Minister and his team are reported to have made contact with Mayor Bloomberg's office to see how the New York lessons could be best transplanted to Ireland, and a spokesperson for the minister today confirmed that: "The introduction of a sugar tax on sugar-sweetened drinks was identified as a strategy for consideration and the feasibility of introducing such a measure is being examined."

The moves are actually part of a broader tackle the health ministry is making on unhealthy food items.

Labeling in particular is also being given a thorough investigation. Putting it rather bluntly, the Minister said of mis-labelers that they: “need to get their act together or we will be coming”.

The sugar move, in particular, though, has already drawn its critics.

Contributors on the ever-popular George Hook chat show this afternoon pointed out that such a tax would have a disproportionately negative effect on lower income earners - hardly the prescription Ireland was looking for given that many of that category are barely managing to survive from day to day. The rationale, apparently, being that lower socio-economic groups consume unhealthier, and more sugar-loaded, products. Whether this is actually true or not I have no idea.

My personal take on the whole thing: it strikes me not only as a largely punitive tax, but also as a totally unnecessary one.

Healthy living is preached as dogma in modern society, and there's a strong enough emphasis in Ireland on choosing healthy foods and drinking water rather than sugary beverages.

It's true that there are still plenty of Coca Cola chuggers to go around (this blogger is a reformed one), but perhaps the link between sugar consumption, diabetes and cancer is less clear cut than is being made out?

There are plenty of other reasons why modern Ireland is unhealthier, and getting, to put it crudely, fatter, than previous ones: sedentary lifestyles, greater use of cars, etc: sugar alone is probably not the major player in all of this, and to imagine that it is, as a disingenuous way of seemingly raising tax for the 'benefit' of the population, is trickery and mind-playing at best.

Vices that are commonly taxed to discourage over-consumption include tobacco and alcohol: surely it's going to far to say that fizzy sodas fall into that same bracket?

One contributor on the George Hook show put the argument against the tax best though with the following rhetorical : should we start taxing Playstations now?

Norris in trouble again as seven new clemency letters threaten to derail campaign

David Norris is back in the headlines again.

Just when the Trinity Senator seemed to be gaining traction in his bid to confirm the necessary number of endorsements to make the ballot paper, it has emerged that there are an incredible seven more clemency letters that he has yet to make public.

The new is likely to raise further questions about Norris' suitability for the office, and return to not-too-distant memories Norris' first clemency letter to an Israeli court -- which forced him into taking temporary leave of the presidential campaign trail.

Knowledge that there were a string of further clemency letters yet to come out has been known in Irish media and political circles almost since news of the first one broke, but Independent TD Mattie McGrath last night became the first independent to buck the trend of recent approbations that Norris has received, indicating that his newfound backers may still be concerned as to what this fresh batch of letters contains.

Norris' campaign team, or his new one (the last one gave up in disgust after the fist controversial communique was made public) has been resolute in its refusal to release the new batch of letters, but that's only likely to raise the curiosity of those eager to see what they contain -- and what Norris, in this collection, has asked for.

The clemency letter written to an Israeli court on behalf of his ex-lover Nawi provoked a storm of controversy when it was made public in June, and for those who read the letter reproduced in an Irish Sunday newspaper, it portrayed Norris in anything but a favourable light.

Written, fatally for Norris, on official government notepaper, the clemency plea was a lengthy, boring, and crushingly arrogant bid to 'get off' a convicted sex offender whom he used to be in a relationship with.

Norris informed the Israeli judiciary of how he was a 'position of some importance' in Ireland, before lecturing the no doubt disinterested judges on how, under Irish law, Nawi's conviction would be reduced.

Not only was the comparison to Irish law obviously irrelevant, the entire letter made little sense, and the only coherent reason that emerged for Nawi to get off was simply because Norris thought he should.

The letter undoubtedly ended up in a Jerusalem shredding machine, but the letter, and the subsequent reaction to it, caused an international reaction against Norris, with even the New York Times weighing in with its take on the story.

And while those who claim that Norris has been the victim of a relentless smear campaign have enjoyed some credence in the Irish media, Norris is also the only candidate who has consistently refused to give the Irish public full disclosure on his turbulent past.

Norris may have been a looming figure in the Irish political establishment for years -- he almost single-handedly overturned Irish legislation criminalizing consensual homosexual conduct -- but the letters remained unknown until this June.

A brief 'clemency' fiasco briefly threatened to dog Gay Mitchell around the same time, but was petty by comparison to Norris' please.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter also recently caused a small ruckus by opining that Martin McGuinness was 'unsuitable' for the job, based on his paramilitary past, but Norris alone has been hit by a series of scandals, which he and his PR team have repeatedly failed to quell by insisting on withholding the 'incriminating' evidence, and ignoring the existence of the letters until they were leaked to the Irish press.

If Norris is on the verge of securing the requisite number of backers to furnish his election papers to Dublin's Customs House in time, then he would probably be well advised to hold his hands in the air and come clean on what, about whom, and to whom, he wrote in the seven remaining unpublished letters.

Otherwise his brief interlude from the race, thus-far total lack of honesty, and increasing public curiosity as to what these letters contain -- and why his team are insisting on withholding them - may be enough to dissuade people from voting for him on the all important ballot day.

Arthur's Day provokes controversy on Irish chat radio

An interesting discussion on Irish talk radio network Newstalk this afternoon focused on whether Arthur's Day -- the recently instituted annual celebration of the pouring of the first pint of Guinness -- is a scam.

The 'commemoration' began with a celebration of the 250 year anniversary of the black stuff's introduction to the world, but the drinks British makers, the international conglomerate Diageo, have decided, disingenuously, to continue it every year since.

One of the contributors likened the beginning of Arthur's Day to a documented phenomenon in psychology whereby if enough people do something, others inevitably follow.

Whether there's any reason to drink a pint of Guinness 'to Arthur' today or not, if Diago's marketing people can create a strong enough sense that it's simply what people do on that day, then people inevitably will do precisely that, earning Diageo millions in the process.

The same contributor pointed out that we do not yet have an annual Smarties Day, Mountain Dew Day, etc.

While Arthur's Day is just really a great excuse to go enjoy a pint of Guinness - no matter where you are in the world - I found myself empathizing with the contributor who accused Diageo (an English company) of trying to capitalize on Irish faux-patriotism, and our inevitable tendency to jump on every opportunity that presents itself to have a drink.

Although Guinness one of the truly definitely Irish products, there's still no good need for the company's makers to declare a national day to celebrate it -- especially if it's going to cost the same as it does any other day.

That's really my beef with 'Arthur's Day'.

I think that accusing Diageo of trying to exploit naive nationalism is overly-cynical, but I do find it strange that the Guinness costs just as much on this day as it does any other day of the year.

While many bars in practice do offer Guinness on discount, I think one free pint, to be dispensed to each patron at the famous time (17:59) would be an all round better solution.

Rather than rewarding its customers for a year spent buying the product with an annual 'giving one back', Diageo instead try to concoct a fictitious celebration to try boost their profits -- or at least that's how it seems to me.

Asking Diageo to give away a few million pints of Guinness gratis is probably asking  a bit much, but at least that way 'Arthur's Day' would be a genuine 'celebration' of Guinness - rather than an elaborate marketing campaign to try line the pockets of the global conglomerate a little further.

That aside - happy Arthur's Day!

The Irish Presidential Race - David Norris won't leave the stage as Martin McGuinness brings drama

David Norris

The Evening Herald's Andrew Lynch said it best when he described David Norris as looking increasingly like a ham actor who won't leave the stage.

Norris' presidential campaign may have been 're-ignited' against all the odds, but it's been met with almost total disinterest on the part of the media -- and the public.

Today's news in the Sunday papers centers around Martin McGuinness' decision to throw his name into the hat.

Ever a controversial figure, the former street fighter / paramilitary leader has polarized opinion at an early stage as to whether he should become the next president.

His dovish statement that should he be elected he would welcome the Queen to Ireland was a definite step in the right direction, and a number of highly favourable articles in the national and international press have played up the more conciliatory elements of his role in the Northern Irish peace process.

McGuinness happily enters the stage as that interesting, and historical, personality, that's been missing from the drama so far.

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Read more:


David Norris to approach Fianna Fail for Presidential election support

Martin McGuinness forced to condemn IRA men who killed police officer Gerry McCabe

David Norris confirms he is back in the race to become President of Ireland

De Valera grandson threatens to form breakaway party from Fianna Fail
________________________


Latest opinion polls put Labour's Michael D Higgins on top, but both he and Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell have evoked a lack of enthusiasm from the Irish public that would make whatever lead they currently enjoy over other candidates extremely shaky.

McGuinness is anything but dull, and although his name inevitably draws with it a debate about the entire peace process, his candidature could likely prove exciting enough to topple whatever margin Michael D currently commands.

Where poor David Norris is left in all this is really anybody's guess, but perhaps nowhere is the best answer.

Norris' bid to re-start his presidential campaign was itself the stuff of logistical mayhem.

Two successive appearances on Ireland's ever popular The Late Late Show left Norris looking woefully desperate, and despite his indefatigable appetite for publicity, at this stage people have heard enough about David Norris and his scandals to be happy to move on.

The 'ham actor' plaints seems to enjoy greater currency than the sex abuse scandal (memories do indeed move on quickly), but whatever it is about David Norris, few people at this stage seem to care enough to be willing to afford him the endorsement necessary for him to make it onto the ballot paper.

Headlines about David Norris have remained stalled on 'Norris plans his comeback' / 'Norris canvasses for support' for over two weeks' now, and there seems to be little signs of progress.

Norris may well find himself faced with the additional embarrassment of not only having launched two failed bids for office, but also having failed to make it onto the ballot sheet on the second try.

With Norris floundering to convince his old Fianna Fail backers to show him some support, it seems very iffy whether he can reach the 20 Oireachtas nominations needed to make it onto the all important ballot sheet.

And one thing's for certain: if this try fails, there'll be no third time lucky.

110 a day -- latest CSO stats show extent of Ireland's shocking emigration problem

Over 110 Irish continue to flee Ireland every day, latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have revealed.

And it's recent graduates who are anecdotally, and statistically, taking the brunt of it: statistics show that the majority of those seeking out are aged between 25 and 44, while the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) this afternoon issued a strongly worded press release stating that recent college graduates were increasingly left with no choice but to seek to earn a living in sunnier shores.

USI President Gary Redmond this afternoon said that the issue seemed, remarkably, to be off the government's radar, and said that it was almost too late to rectify the situation.

"This continued inaction at tackling the soaring unemployment and emigration is hampering any hope of realising the Government’s ambitions of creating a Smart Economy in Ireland. Masses of highly skilled graduates are leaving for distant shores, taking with them the future prosperity of this island," the student leader said today.

According to Irish news aggregation website, TheJournal.ie, the alarming figure represents a significant increase on last year, when 27,700 Irish people moved abroad, and on 2009, when it is thought that 18,400 Irish citizens departed to live outside the State.

A poll on the website -- one  of Ireland's fastest growing news sources -- showed that 36% of respondents (at the time of writing) said that they 'probably would' emigrate, for lack of economic opportunity at home.

So many sectors of the Irish economy are beset by difficulty, that graduates report that many fear they'll be simply unable to eke out a living if things stay the way they are.

Unemployment, at over 14% remains high, and further austerity measures, to meet Ireland's bailout terms, are on the short-term horizon, so an improvement in the situation looks improbable at best.

In total, the rise charted by the latest CSO figures represents a 17% increase on previous years, although not all of that is accounted for by Irish nationals -- many of the emigrants were migrant Eastern European workers who immigrated to Ireland during the boom years, and have since decided to return home once the economic climate took on a less than rosy tint. Overall in fact, foreign emigrants returning home is down for the second year in a row, indicating that the majority of the increase is from Irish-born citizens.

The statistics will make troubling reading for the government, who seem to have done a reasonably good job at avoiding the issue altogether, as well as for students, who are concerned that things are worse than many are making out.

And sadly unless there's a dramatic turnaround, it seems as if these figures are only set to continue.

Ireland's still expensive, despite recession, latest statistics show.

If one thing the recession doesn't seem to have brought much of to Ireland, paradoxically, it's lower prices.

That unfortunate reality was re-iterated again by the latest figures from Ireland's statistics agency the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which show that Ireland remains the fifth most expensive country in Europe, despite being in the throes of an economic bailout crisis, unemployment, etc.

Irish prices remain a sturdy 18% above the European average, the statistics found. Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden are now the only countries in the Eurozone with a higher cost of living.

Despite the fact we're paying almost a fifth more than our European neighbors for our bread, butter, and Guinness, it's a slight improvement on last year's figures, when Ireland was bettered in the expense-rankings only by Denmark, but shows that Irish competitiveness still has miles to go before it can lay any claim to being a decent value European tourist destination.

Many Irish remark that the country's decision to adopt the Euro currency as its official legal tender in 1999 was a watershed moment in Irish people's realizations of just how expensive things were 'at home'.

While it was easy to become befuzzled with the mathematics of working out variable exchange rates between the Italian Lira, Portuguese Escudo, and Spanish Peso (now all, of course, superseded by the Euro), it's now plainly obvious from anyone making a swift transition between European countries that prices 'back home' remain, in many cases, woefully high above those in other European countries.

And although recent figures from the CSO show that tourism is finally being to make a slow recovery, Ireland has a long way to go before it can return to the heady days of a yearly influx of American, British, and European tourists, all driving jobs and spin-off jobs in the main tourist areas.

Without value, however, and given the constant factor of a near global recession, many will continue to have reason to think whether the extra cost of a holiday on the Emerald Isle is 'worth it', and that recovery is likely to continue to be a gradual one.

It would be nice to think that one consequence of the recession was that everything had become dirt cheap but unfortunately that' doesn't seem to be the case.

Fortunately, Irish Central was there to find the one exception to this rule: according to Hotels.com we have the sixth cheapest hotels in the world!

So even if everything outside of the lobby is going to cost you, at least the hotel itself will be reasonably cheap.

Free booze off the menu at Fianna Fail strategy meeting

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen enjoying a Guinness

Free booze is off the menu for those gathered for this year’s Fianna Fail strategy meeting, set to begin tomorrow.

The policy discussion takes place just twelve months after last year’s fiasco at which ousted Taoiseach Brian Cowen appeared hungover on national radio seemingly hours after a night’s reveling. The so-called ‘garglegate’ fiasco spelled the beginning of the end for the deeply unpopular party, and was scrutinized in a recent TV3 investigation into the seemingly dysfunctional leadership at the political party.

It’s not just drink that’s going to cost the attendees, however. In a showing insight into the now dire state of the party’s finances it seems as if even the night’s stay is going to have to be funded by each delegate, rather than paid for by the party.

Fianna Fail, under the leadership of Michael Martin, has suffered the fallout in popularity both financially and politically.

One estimate put the party’s outstanding debt at over €5m, although the exact figure is not known.

The surprise warmth with which Fine Gael’s henchman Enda Kenny has been received has shunted Fianna Fail into a never more distant place within the Irish political sphere.

Although talk of a ‘honeymoon’ period still looms large, it’s fair to say at this stage that the government seems set to enjoy a good deal more popularity -- no doubt inevitably -- than its predecessor.
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READ MORE:
Embarrassed Fianna Fail rank and file ready to cast Bertie Ahern aside

Fianna Fail fails to find a nominee for the Irish presidential election

House buyers offered ‘two for one’ deal by Donegal Real Estate agent
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Although austerity measures drive a continuing feeling of exasperation from the populace, such moves are largely seen as unfortunate necessities of the previous government’s financial iniquities, while Kenny and his Cabinet’s continued defiant stand against the Vatican continues to draw plaudits from friends and foe alike.

Fianna Fail’s dramatic fall from grace has never been laid so bare as it is now, however.

A recent TV3 investigation charted a seemingly endless litany of gaffes and incompetence, while a string of highly uncomplimentary articles have followed in its wake.

Ireland’s widest circulating Sunday paper The Sunday Independent let an inside story charting “The Demise of Fianna Fail, the Inside Story,” just one of several such pieces penned by Irish journalists in recent weeks.

The party’s pecuniary woes are now glaringly obvious as well, however.

An anonymous party source, noting the Ryanair-like ‘no frills’ style of the coming policy meeting admitted that the lack of indulgences was simply because “we don’t have the money”.

Politically, the party’s axed resources have also taken their toll.

It’s thought that one of the predominant reasons why the party isn’t nominating a candidate for the upcoming presidential election is the cost: embarrassingly the €500,000 price-tag this would entail would put too much of a strain on resources.

Party leader Martin’s prevaricating on his decision of whether or not to back another candidate after Gay Byrne’s sudden exit was probably swayed more by a glance at the party's diminishing bank balance than anything else. What resources are still left will reportedly by focused on local and European elections in 2014.

Fianna Fail’s financial ruination is perhaps some measure of vindication for a population left struggling to survive in an economic climate the creation of which it presided over. The devastating blow it was dealt in the last election has hurt more than its political standing. At the very least, however, it’s a welcome sign that the party itself is also being forced to confront the tough economic times many consider it created.

Attorneys upping fees despite recession

Ireland's legal eagles are continuing to charge exorbitant client fees despite the economic recession and ongoing austerity measures, an independent report has found.

As a headline from Dublin's The Herald put it: "as everyone else drops prices, solicitors raise them".

Amazingly, as the column notes, this is despite the fact that the sector is almost as beset with economic woes as the rest of the economy, and many solicitors and barristers (Ireland maintains separate branches of the legal profession; in the US both are 'attorneys-at-law'), are out of work.

Don Tornhill of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said that while competitiveness was gradually on the mend, the legal profession continues to buck the trend by charging high fees.

It is well known that Ireland has effectively priced itself out of much foreign tourism, with many European travel destinations offering far better prices for visitors, but the fact that legal services remain as pocket-pinching as ever will come as a surprise to practically nobody.

The paradox was perhaps best summed up by Tornhill himself who noted, with a hint of amazement: "The worrying thing about legal costs going up comes [is that] quite a lot of solicitors and lawyers are feeling the impact of the recession [themselves]." Yet clearly a very different message is being heard by consumers who continue to fork out massive prices for an assortment of legal services.

What's improving, according to the NCC, is exports -- a traditional mainstay of the Irish economy. But perhaps that's merely a product of necessity: where the Irish seem content to pay for ridiculously expensive services despite a devastating recession foreigners simply are not, but it's a grim indictment of the legal services industry that they almost alone seem stubborn about maintaining a facade of being able to charge high prices for their services when the population as a whole is simply not able to pay.

Questions need to be asked of the Law Society (regulating solicitors) and the Bar Council (regulating barristers) as to why they are prepared to oversee a profession where this continues to be the case.

Although the Law Society seems reasonably proficient at freezing wayward solicitors' assets, perhaps to protect the repute of the profession as a whole, they seem less adept at sending a clear message to conforming ones that charging pre-bailout prices in the current economic climate is simply unfair and extortionate.

Legal advice is often a necessity: one faced with a court summons or impending lawsuit has often no choice but to seek recourse to professional legal advice. In many situation the prospect of self-representation is an insurmountably difficult one, and wholly un-viable. As statistics continue to demonstrate, those who choose to state their own case before professional courts do so at their own peril, and often with very limited success.

If the legal eagles seem set on holding onto the belief that they can charge the man on the street the same prices as they did before the bailout, however, where possible, the consumer should tell them that this isn't the case.

Attorneys fleecing the man on the street is nothing new, but at a time when unemployment tops 14% it shouldn't be tolerated.

Vatican: Taoiseach, Tanaiste criticisms 'unfounded'

In its long-awaited response to Prime Minister Enda Kenny's firebrand speech in parliament this summer, the Vatican has called 'unfounded' the government's accusations that it attempted to frustrate enquiries into rampant sexual abuse in Ireland, while making a tepid acknowledgement that it 'shares' in and understands the widespread public anger ignited by the damning Cloyne Report.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has quickly jumped on the PR bandwagon, calling on the Taoiseach to substantiate the allegations of frustrating the criminal process which he accused the powers-in-Rome of earlier this summer, but both Kenny and the government have refused to budge from their original positions.

It's not exactly the stuff of high diplomatic drama, but the weak response from the Vatican - the product of 'consultations' between recalled papal nuncio Giuseppe Leanza and the Holy See - will do little to improve the Vatican's badly damaged image in Ireland, and continues the lengthening cooling off between the two sovereign powers.

Archbishop Martin's call on the Taoiseach to explain the reasoning behind his accusation that the Vatican tried, effectively, to frustrate sovereign criminal investigations, also seems pathetic: the Archbishop surely had access to the Report at the same time the rest of the country did, but only seems to have been able to muster the courage to point out the 'flaw' in the government's response to the document once given the green-light by the puppet-masters in Rome.

A nice analysis of the main soundbites from the Papal response was put together on the Irish Times website, here; the full text of the comminique issued jointly to Gilmore and Kenny was posted on the Vatican's rather amateurish-looking PR website, appears here.

What's unsurprisingly is the near total lack of sympathy with the victims of child abuse documented in the grim report (full text, here).

The Report documented a shocking level of fact-bludgeoning by the Church authorities, and a widespread policy to ignore cases of child abuse when it suited the Church.

Two thirds of abuse allegations between 1996 and 2009 were not passed on to Irish police, while disgraced Bishop John Magee was found to have engaged in widespread misleading of both the government and the HSE, refusing, along with his second-in-command Monsignor Dennis O'Callaghan, to co-operate with a formal Garda investigation in 2006.

The 400 page Report, authored by Justice Yvonne Murphy, also found, as fact that Church authorities were "highly unhelpful" in assisting any bishop seeking assistance in implementing procedures relating to sex abuse cases, while finding that there was effectively no proper system for dealing with complaints in place when there clearly should have.

Unfortunately the Vatican's response, in both its summary and full-text forms, appears as a cold and legalistic refutation of the main concerns raised in the document, citing archaic provisions of Canon law to point out that Church leaders are obliged, by the Church's law, to report all cases of sexual abuse to the national authorities, though missing the main point that in two out of three instances this didn't in fact happen.

The Vatican seems more concerned about picking a bone with a two minute speech in parliament than with assessing how it failed sex abuse victims.

The brief interjections that the Holy See "once again [wishes to state that] it shares the deep concern and anxiety expressed by the Irish authorities" ring fairly hollow in the overall tenor of the document.

Perhaps unsurprising, but disappointing nonetheless.