14 minute read
Marianne Heron
Still a way to travel on electric car question
AS I SEE IT
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MARIANNE HERON
“YES, well no …maybe,” is not exactly an answer in the a rmative but it’s one that is used by South Africans when they haven’t worked out their answer. It covers all the options and it’s a turn of phrase I found myself using the other day when asked: “Have you thought about getting an electric or hybrid car?” Yes, I certainly have thought about an electronic vehicle (EV), or plug in hybrid (PHEV) it’s the responsible thing to do given the need to reduce carbon emissions to protect against climate change. ere is no arguing with the point that transport accounts for the biggest share carbon emissions in Ireland: 40% in 2018. Well, no I haven’t given serious consideration buying an electric car YET not least due a recent experience. You might think that visiting a couple of open gardens would be stress free, but not it turns out, if the friend who was driving has an EV which has only a limited amount of charge left in her car. It should have been enough for the trip but we got lost and found to our horror that we were nearly out of juice. ere were no charging points at the couple of garages we passed. ere’s a lack of joined up thinking about the necessity for charging points if people are to be encouraged to switch to EVs and their roll out by the ESB and private operators is still too slow. ere simply aren’t nearly enough chargers. A charge for a small EV will give you about 400km or less if you are going fast, have the windscreen wipers, radio or headlights on. Say you have to make a trip 260km or so Dublin Cork or vice versa, you will l need to recharge before you get home, which will take up to 40 minutes or twice that time if someone arrived at the available charger before you. ere is a concern that EVs aren’t actually all that green or ethical given that the way manufacture of their batteries requires cobalt and lithium. Cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo where child labour as young as seven years may be used and workers lack protective equipment against toxins which can cause lung disease. Lithium is mined in South America and may be extracted by pumping water underground to ush out lithium causing environmental problems like subsidence and toxic waste. We need to know that mining companies are greening up their act. ere’s also the question about what happens to discarded EV batteries which need to be replaced every six years or so. Maybe, like others on a modest income, I will make the switch when electric cars or hybrids are more a ordable. EVs are still comparatively expensive despite an incentive of up to €5,000 o the Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) on a new EV from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland ( SEAI.) e cheapest models available cost around €30,000 and aren’t many second hand EVs available as yet. I have never bought a new car, the devaluation is like burning several thousand euro notes the minute you drive away from the car dealer’s garage. My current beloved wheels are only eight years old which is young in my car terms and there is something counter intuitive about scrapping a perfectly good vehicle when I am trying to be to be responsible and consume less. If I do change that’s not the end of the story, there’s the expense of a installing a home charger, the SEAI grant of €600 might go halfway towards that in a standard situation but it seems in my case the grant might only cover a quarter or less .
IRISH businesses across the country have reported a continued decline in revenue, with process ine ciencies and access to talent posing the biggest challenges to their post-Covid recovery. e concerns were revealed in the inaugural Grant ornton Irish Business Voice Programme survey of local business, carried out in partnership with local Chambers of Commerce across Ireland.
Some 51% of businesses surveyed revealed they expect their revenue will decrease this year, with 40% of those expecting revenue to decrease by 20% or more. e fall-o in revenue comes in spite of an extension to Government supports such as the Wage Subsidy Scheme and a betterthan-expected rebound forecasted in the wider economy in the second half of the year.
In addition to the expected drop-o in revenue, a number of areas of key concern were identi ed in the analysis of the survey responses gathered across June and July this year. Business process inef ciencies, access to a skilled workforce, and the implementation of sustainable development goals were all cited as signi cant issues.
Technology & Digital Transformation
More than three-quarters (76%) of survey respondents indicated business process ine ciencies were a concern. ese range from Brexit regulatory changes; challenges of business automation; and streamlining new technologies required to support remote working. e responses to the Irish Business Voice Programme echo similar gures gathered in research carried out on mid-size Irish businesses for Grant ornton Ireland’s International Business Report (IBR) in the rst half of 2021. e IBR data found 48% of mid-size Irish businesses planned to invest in technology over the coming 12 months, while 38% also said they would invest in automation and digital ways to do business as a priority.
Speaking on the ndings of the Grant ornton Irish Business Voice Programme, Aengus Burns, Partner in Financial Services Advisory at Grant ornton Ireland, said: “It is becoming more and more clear that the impact of Covid-19 will be felt long into the future. Di erent business sectors have experienced varied pressures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Technology and digital transformation are rightly being identi ed as central to the sustained growth of businesses across Ireland.
“Talent attraction features as a signi cant hurdle to growth in the Grant ornton Ireland Business Voice Programme. With new technology, and the now widespread hybrid working model, new opportunities to attract skilled workers can also be realised.”
Access to Skilled Workforce
Almost three-quarters (74%) of businesses had some level of concern about accessing a skilled workforce, while of those 25% indicated a serious concern on the issue. With the continued drop in unemployment month-on-month in the third quarter of this year, analysis shows businesses will need to be exible on how they recruit talent, and strategically manage their internal employee communications and future of work practices.
Furthermore, implementing and managing sustainable development goals was cited as a challenge by 70% of respondents, recognising the drive for sustainability being felt across all industries.
On a more positive note, more than half of businesses said they had no concerns about tax compliance and regulatory requirements in the Business Voice Programme survey; 50% also said they had no concerns about supply chain complexity despite widespread delays in supply chains over the past 12 months.
Following on from the Irish Business Voice Programme, Grant ornton Ireland will host a number of events for small businesses in partnership with Chambers of Commerce across the country in the coming months.
For more information and to access the full Grant ornton Irish Business Voice Programme report, please visit www.grantthornton. ie/irish-business-voice-programme
SPECIAL REPORT Small businesses fear revenue falls and digi challenge, despite Covid-19 recovery
Tobacco retailers fear spiralling black market
RETAILERS Against Smuggling (RAS) has expressed its apprehension over how yet another excise increase on tobacco is set to further fuel a rapidly growing black market. e group was reacting to the Budget 2022 increase of 50c on tobacco, bringing the cost of an average packet of 20 cigarettes to €15.00.
Commenting on the direct impact to legitimate registered retailers, National Spokesperson for Retailers Against Smuggling Benny Gilsenan said: “It’s very disappointing to see an excise increase in the Budget which will inevitably make it even harder for retailers like myself to compete against the rapidly growing black market in Ireland.
“Ireland continues to be a key target for tobacco smugglers as a result of having one of the highest rates of duty on tobacco products in the EU, resulting in unfair competition for retailers.
“We fully expect that this latest excise increase will drive more Irish smokers to the black market with criminal gangs exploiting the demand for illicit tobacco products. is will inevitably lead to a growth in largescale smuggling activity and ant smuggling, “ he said.
“Ultimately this means retailers will continue to su er not only through the loss of the legal purchase of cigarettes but also any additional purchases that person might make when they are in the store. It is regrettable that the Minister Donohoe has ignored the warning made by both retailers and the Department of Finance Tax Strategy Group that an excise increase could encourage more smokers to source products outside of the State.”
To date this year, Revenue has announced 49 major tobacco seizures, including the seizure of over 40 million cigarettes, with an estimated retail value of under €49m representing a potential loss to the exchequer of over €39m.
Mr Gilsenan concluded: “ e detection and seizure of illegal tobacco products must remain a priority for Irish authorities, with increased awareness of the elaborate means criminal gangs are utilising to transport these huge volumes.”
Kilkenny home to 240 haunted sites!
AHEAD of
Halloween,
Aldi has looked at what makes the Irish public shake with fear, and some ahh-mazing facts about Kilkenny have been unearthed. e creepy county is home to 240 haunted sites, which is one of the highest rates in the country. Perhaps this is why ghost sightings are more common in Leinster than in any other region, with 14% of respondents claiming to have seen a ghost before!
Kilkenny may be ghoulish, but Dublin takes the title of Ireland’s over all spookiest town.
Additional analysis has revealed that Dublin is the spookiest county in Ireland. e data was retrieved by careful analysis of the number of haunted sites, abandoned towns, abandoned building and ruins, graveyards, and sunshine hours in each county which resulted in a league table of the spookiest counties in Ireland.
Coming in at the bottom as the least scary were Leitrim, and Longford. (Full league table in appendix below).
Speaking about the said: “We wanted to create some fun, family-friendly conversations around fears this Halloween and the ndings from our research certainly threw up a few conversation starters. We’d love for kids to challenge their parents to Face their Fears, in a fun and safe way this Halloween – maybe it’s to decorate the house with spiders or come face to face with a creepy clown – either way, our exciting Halloween range can cater for all.” So, this Halloween take a
Halloween, trip down the middle aisle
Aldi has and see how many fears you looked at can face. Aldi has 148 stores what makes nationwide and stocks evthe Irish erything from cool costumes public from as little as €4.99 to shake with creepy decorations to adults’ fear, and some costumes from €18.99. ahh-mazing facts Choose from Black Widow, about Kilkenny Spider-Man, Batgirl or Bathave been un man.
A FORMER Tory Party bigwig su ered a “major heart attack” after being stripped of his Kilkenny mansion and is now “homeless” and in “desperate” nancial straits, a Dublin court has heard, writes Paul Ca rey.
Lord George Magan (75), a one-time Conservative Party treasurer whose father was head of MI5, now has nothing but a State pension and nds himself “surrounded by jackals”, the Dublin Court of Appeal was told.
His devoted son Edward Magan — who served with Prince William in the wellrespected Irish Guards — is ghting in the Irish courts to get the prized mansion back for his father.
It was alleged at court that “rogue” trustees of opulent Castletown Cox “horse-traded” a €40m art collection and sold the highly valuable paintings for just £7m (€8.2m). is was part of a covert “ resale” to “sell assets at low prices… this is extraordinary,” the peer’s son, former soldier Edward Magan, told the court.
“ e family has been destroyed… We have a defendant [Lord Magan] who is surrounded by jackals and they’re just going for him on every level,” he told the court.
Lord Magan himself once appeared to have it all: a £6m house in upmarket Kensington, prestigious art collection and a prized Irish estate that is often described as the nest house in Ireland.
But in May 2018, eviction agents took possession of the Castletown, Kilkenny, property after a row with the Castletown Foundation Trust — that Lord Magan had set up himself — over unpaid rent. e peer set up the trust for the bene t of two of his children, Edward and Henrietta. He then sold the stunning 36,000 square-foot mansion — with 513 acres of farmland — to that trust in 2005. Under the agreement, Lord Magan had rights of residence — as long as he paid €100,000 a year in rent. e trust later claimed the peer had fallen behind on rent payments and sued him in the Irish High Court twice over: for possession of the property and for €571,000 in rent arrears. e peer argues that he spent large amounts on restoring the property and therefore never expected to be pursued for rent so doggedly. e baron lost in the High Court on both counts and appealed both verdicts. en last December, the Court of Appeal ruled he had no legal right to occupy the mansion.
But last week, the second appeal — over the €571,000 High Court judgment of November 2018 — got under way.
During a dramatic hearing, the full extent of Lord Magan’s fall from grace was laid bare in the Court of Appeal by his son.
Edward Magan revealed his plan to report to gardaí the allegedly “criminal” repossession of the Irish property.
Representing himself, the 46-year-old Trinity College Dublin graduate launched a last-ditch appeal to regain ownership of the picturesque property for his father.
In a tell-all speech, he revealed to three senior judges: “He [Lord Magan] had a major heart attack in April.
“He has no home. He doesn’t have anything apart from a state pension.
“Lives are at stake and I’m here putting my case before the court because it’s a desperate situation.
“I’m going to the guards. As a former soldier and with my own kin [police] we can go out and nd the wrongdoing.
“I’m never going to stop… I’m sure the court has a sense of the raging injustice… the family got thrown under the bus.” He claimed that the landlord never “came asking for the rent”, adding: “ e understanding went much deeper.
“ ey intuitively knew the tenant [Lord Magan] had spent 25 million doing this house up. He hadn’t been too concerned because his heart was in the house.
“He’d restored the nest house in Ireland, poured his lifelong earnings and energies into creating something truly magni cent. He’d pay it if he could.
“He trusted his accountants, trustees, he thought he had a reliable relationship with his landlord. Yet when the trustees came knocking, they rounded on him.”
Rossa Fanning SC, for Castletown Foundation Trust, acknowledged the family’s “signi cant emotional attachment” to the house.
But he added: “Lord Magan had no continuing rights to remain in the property…We’d changed the locks. We never wanted to do that in a vindictive way.”
Mr Magan Jr retorted: “Six hundred years of documented history of my family in this country; our family following Irish history through the years.
“Our chattels, our heritage gone, our named trounced. at’s why I’m here.”
Former attorney general Séamus Woulfe, presiding, with judges Úna Ní Raifeartaigh and Brian Murray, reserved the court’s decision to a later date.
Court battle: opulent Castletown Cox... and the library, just one of the many rom inside the mansion which Lord Magan is contesting his right to ownership
To the Kilkenny manor born
But now former owner of Castletown Cox lives on social welfare handouts
Mr Magan Jr retorted: “Six
