Paul Hopkins

The Fact OfThe Matter

PAUL HOPKINS PAUL HOPKINS How the new normal is costing us dearly

Welcome to the New Normal. at is the year of the rising prices. Electricity, gas, heating oil, petrol, diesel, secondhand cars, rents, ights, alcohol, childcare fees, health insurance, food and property prices are the big risers. is year will be one of the most expensive in a long time as we struggle with these escalating prices. e Government’s attempts — the one-o €200 fuel payback, the temporary 20% drop in public transport tickets, school buses, a one-o increase in the welfare fuel allowance, the drug refund threshold and other bits and bobs — fall well short and are a mere ‘sticking-plaster’, as the Opposition has called the €500m. package. Mind, you, the Opposition has suggested nowt better.

In ation, which has been upward since the last Budget, will hit the average household for at least €2,000 this year. Energy costs are rising by 29%, with home-heating oil up 52%; petrol and diesel prices up by a third in a year. e Government spent some €35bn to nurse the health system and economy through two years of the pandemic: an additional €500m cost-ofliving package seems paltry by comparison. But, as the fella says, the money has to come from somewhere. e European Commission says the hikes are to keep coming. Prices here are to rise by up to 5% this year, well above the EU average, and will stay high before falling back to 2.5% next year.

Statistically, middle-income families are being hardest hit. ese are the ones paying some of the dearest mortgages in Europe, or rents that have doubled in the past decade. And they are being brought to their knees by some of the most expensive, and rising, creche costs in the West.

According to a new poll on behalf of Vincent de Paul (SVP), the number of people struggling nancially has doubled since before the pandemic, from 9% to 18% — one in six of us.

House-keeping costs are 78% above the European average, according to Eurostat.

Rural dwellers are feeling the nancial pinch more than most as they heavily depend on their cars. at 2.5% in ation gure for next year is a little too optimistic for we cannot predict where the Ukraine crisis will lead and the continued ow of Russian oil and, also, the course of the pandemic and the future of work, travel and the fate for commercial property demand and prices. Add into that murky mix Government charges, such as stamp duty, carbon tax and VAT, and it all adds hundreds of euro more to the cost of living. It’s no wonder middle-income families feel the pressure, not to mention our educated young looking for a future here when escalating rents only serve to derail our promising graduates.

It’s hard to know the exact number of us now facing a tough time. e poor are easy to assess, the hard-hit not so. e Central Statistics O ce (CSO) suggests the any one with a weekly income of €275.73 or less is living in poverty and say that 15.9% or roughly one in six of all workers is poor and one in 10 retirees likewise.

As of Christmas Day last there were 250,956 children on record as poor.

And another thing: politicians talking about our minimum hourly wage being among the highest in Europe is utter nonsense unless addressed comparatively. ere is, however, some light further down the tunnel. e Central Bank sees Covid spending falling to €6.8bn this year, with a small de cit by year end of just €3.8bn, or 1.5% of GDP, helped somewhat by a carry-over from last year’s unexpected strong tax performance. By 2023, the Central Bank sees a €3.5bn surplus instead.

As I said above, the €500m. cost of living package has had to come from somewhere. Dare I suggest, our politicians, perhaps, have been looking at this ‘unspent money’ of 2023 and what they can do with it now. at said, €500m spent out of €3.5bn still leaves a great lot of cold currency that could aid this pandemic of the new poor much more than mere sticking-plaster.

Surely, our politicians’ — indeed our collective — imagination could do better to grapple with poverty and those in real need. Indeed, what happened to our Constitution cherishing every man, woman and child?

Maybe the economists know better. Maybe I am missing something here…

‘The money has to come from somewhere... ”

€272,638 awarded in local development funding

KILKENNY’S Local Community Development Committee has received an allocation of €272,638, with 30% of the funding ring-fenced for small grants of €1,000 or less and 70% for medium grants to a maximum of €5,000 and large grants to a maximum of €20,000.

The funding breakdown is: • A total of 14 small grants averaging €1,000 per grant • 31 medium grants averag-

ing €5,000, • 17 large grants were allocated to projects across the county totalling €272,638

The Communities Activities Fund is supported through Department of Rural and Community Development’s Community Enhancement Programme. The Community Activities Fund (CAF) provides grants to community groups to help with non-pay running costs such as utility bills, also necessary repairs and improvements to facilities, purchase equipment etc.

Some examples of the 62 projects supported in Kilkenny include: • Contribution towards utility bills, insurance costs etc • Purchase training equipment • Additional lighting for outdoor recreational areas • Construction of an outdoor enclosed space at

Bishop Birch Place • Redesign of refuge garden and playground at Amber

Women’s Refuge Centre • Repair works at Windgap grotto • Upgrade works at SPA

Development Community

Hall Project.

e full list of projects supported is available on www. kilkennycoco.ie.

Following the allocation of the Grants, Declan Gibbons, LCDC Chairperson, said: “ e CEP grant, both small and medium, has made signi cant impact for communities in providing crucial services, facilities, programmes and supports that they would otherwise not be able to provide.”

Last call for our schools to build a future for everyone

SENIOR cycle students and schools have less than two weeks to one month to enter the CIF Build the Future – Schools Challenge,’ which can be entered via www.cif.ie/ cifchallenge. e deadline for entries is March 1. e Construction Industry Federation (CIF) in association with Sherry FitzGerald has opened this competition, its second year, which is aimed at Transition Year students. e competition is a team-based project where students work together to design a residential housing development help address sustainability, climate change, solve the housing crisis and showcase innovation in construction. e submitted designs will need to be eco-friendly, and affordable. is competition is designed to address the growing skill shortage identi ed by CIF, from the Expert Group from the National Skills Council. eir recent report shows that there is an alarming shortage of skills within the construction sector. For example, to achieve an annual average of 33,000 over the decade, housing completions would need to ramp up from the current annual output of approximately 20,000 in 2020, to 33,000 by 2025, before peaking at around 40,000 at the end of the decade. is will require an additional 27,500 additional workers across all levels from architects, plumbers, electricians to carpenters and joiners. e winning team will present their designs at the Ireland Skills Live Event in the RDS. In addition, they will receive a day’s “Construction Experience” provided by Technical University Dublin and a TOPCON Complete construction package to include most up to date laser equipment and a half day instruction, as well as a prize for each of the team members. e second team selected will also present their design at Ireland Skills Live Event in RDS in March 2022 and a TOPCON Construction package to include the latest equipment plus a half day’s instruction with individual prizes for each team member. e third team selected will also present their design at Ireland Skills Live Event in RDS in March 2022 and receive TOPCON measuring equipment, along with a prize for each team member.

All entries and team members will receive a certi cate of merit in recognition of their work. is programme was developed by the CIF in collaboration with TUI, the Techno Teachers Association Ireland, the Engineering Technology Teachers Association and the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. is programme is designed to complement current teaching and career guidance principles.

When we are driven to scrap that old banger of ours...

A Red C poll conducted for Elves, the compliance scheme for End-of-Life Vehicles in Ireland (www.elves.ie) has revealed that the factor most important to a majority of motorists, when scrapping a car, is making sure they have legally ended their responsibility for their old car, with 56% of motorists choosing this over taking the highest price o ered.

Up to 30% of people have scrapped a car, 19% within the last 10 years, with 56% male and 44% female.

Remote hub the new buzzword as major investment announced

THERE are now plans to open a further 200 remote working hubs across the country to compliment the now 200 remote stations across the country.

Speaking at a remote working hub in Drogheda, Co Louth Social Protection Heather Humphreys said the average cost of using the hubs was between €15-20 a day.

Workers can now book an o ce or desk space in their local hub through an app called ‘Connected Hubs’. e Minister said the Government was looking at plans at subsidising hubs, adding that this would be announced shortly.

She announced €5m. in funding which she said would be used to build capacity and improve existing remote facilities.

Ms Humphreys said that old and derelict buildings had been repurposed into hubs, including former banks, cinemas, Garda stations, convents and train stations.

She also said she was con dent the target of 400 hubs would be met before 2025.

However, concerns had been raised about the cost of using remote hubs.

John Barry, who is a Member of ISME’s National Council, said some businesses would not be able to a ord to pay between €20 and €30 a day.

He said: “Small employers will not be keen to take on that cost but the pressure will come on small employers I think that is a concern small companies will have if they are going to do hub working.”

CR Robotics, which designed a robot to help people living with dementia keep their independence, is one of many companies using the Mill Enterprise Hub in Drogheda Co Louth.

Candace La eur, Managing Director CR Robotics explained why her company uses the facility.

“We had a huge o ce in Dundalk at rst and that’s where we did all our development work and then once everyone had to work from home we did that quite happily.

“But honestly we all got tired of having so many robots running around our house so we needed somewhere that we could meet and we all kind of missed working together,” said Candace La eur.

Big journey on the road to electric cars

A KEY environmental policy to have almost a million electric vehicles (EVs) on the road by 2030 will be a huge challenge unless the Government incentivises and supports dealing with the oldest polluting cars, while exponentially increasing the charging infrastructure nationwide. at’s according to a new report a by Arup and economist Jim Power on reducing light eet carbon emissions to achieve Government targets. e independent report which was commissioned for e Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) said that, in order to deal with this older legacy eet, help would be required for those with the least economic capacity to make the biggest change. is requireed more investment, not just at the top end of the market, to remain fair and equitable if Ireland is to provide all commuters with viable transport options.

According to the report, of equal importance was the urgent need to create a secondhand electric vehicle eet. e age pro le of the national eet has led to the continued use of older polluting vehicles.

Analysis within the report shows that removal of all these cars and replacing them with EVs would reduce carbon emissions by 875,000 tonnes which is the equivalent of planting over 1.1 billion trees which would almost cover the entirety of Co Kilkenny.

While the Government was leading the way by currently requiring all their eets to be replaced with electric vehicles, this could be expedited by requiring a turn over every two or three years. Ireland, which is a right-hand drive market, has a slower and smaller supply chain than most other European markets, with around 120,000 new car sales a year (pre-Covid-19) and an average car eet age of nine years (2021).

With the majority of motorists being used vehicle buyers there is currently three times as many used vehicles being sold as new vehicles, with an insigni cant secondhand electric vehicle market. e creation of this secondary market can only happen via a vibrant overall new car market. e ambition to sell nearly a million electric vehicles by 2030 is extremely challenging. Supply disruptions wrought by Covid-19, Brexit and the global chip supply shortage, combined with potential rare mineral shortages keeping battery prices high, has further delayed the availability of electric vehicles.