Remember me
A Tale of Two Irelands: Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton’s reintroduction of examination fees for Junior and Leaving Cert students has come as a most unwelcome bolt from the blue, with families of students already registered for the exams now facing unexpected bills of €116 for Leaving Cert candidates and €109 for Juniors, to be paid by the end of this month.
Many families will have siblings embarking on both exams at the same time: incidentally, there’s no great mathematical improbability about that – both my own parents and, in time, I had two children in the same exam year on more than one occasion.
There was somewhat better news for their grandparents yesterday, with the announcement by Health Minister Jennifer Carroll McNeill that medical card holders can continue to receive their blister packs of medication without charge under a new deal with the Irish Pharmacy Union – ending a two–month long controversy over a mooted dispensary charge of €50 per person per month.
Everybody who has cared for an elderly parent knows that blister packs have been a game changer for elderly and vulnerable patients living at home: not alone do they offer peace of mind and ensure that medications are taken when required, but they help prevent dangerous overdoses.
That patients will not now face this bruising additional financial outlay for their medication is a relief: that people at that stage of life – many of whom are surviving on the State pension – were put through the wringer of uncertainty for so long is an absolute disgrace.
I could summon lots of other subplots in this first tale of Ireland. There’s the cost of living crisis that has been raging for so long now that it’s clearly impervious to all other economic shifts and tides.
Now, there’s the additional uncertainty about the cost and supply of fuel, which effectively means that none of us has any real guarantee that the lights will stay on.
The National Children’s Hospital is such old news now that it’s scarcely worth mentioning the latest delay, save to point out – again – that when I first started writing about this project, my eldest child had just started primary school.
She’ll be 30 on her next birthday. Obviously, there isn’t an unseasonable snowball’s chance of her owning her own home any time soon: she has literally graduated from one to another State failing in her short life.
But that’s enough from this never–ending tale of woe, because yesterday reminded us that this is, after all, a tale of two countries.
Launching his brand new shiny investment product at the Central Bank, Finance Minister Simon Harris explained that 'we want to make investing simpler, clearer, and more accessible for ordinary people, and help their hard–earned money work harder for them over time'.
The investment scheme will attract only a 'small flat rate of tax' and is designed to avoid capital gains tax completely.
So for all those parents reeling from the shock of having to find an additional €225 this month, for all the pensioners daring to exhale because they’ve just learnt they won’t have to hand over €50 every month, for all the 30–year–olds who never got their hospital and now can’t get their house, whoop de do. No capital gains tax on all that spare cash that you have lying around, just waiting to play the stock market.
Talk about tone deaf.
Minister Harris’s new investment scheme is based on a Scandinavian model, incidentally.
If only our Government paid half as much attention to how well the Scandinavians run the rest of their state services, then perhaps the optics of launching a savings initiative at a time when they seem so hell bent on draining every last penny from ordinary people’s pockets wouldn’t feel quite so off.
Museum goes cuckoo for Swifts... but not Parrott
Whatever about one swallow, it would appear that two swifts does a summer make, with the National Wax Museum unveiling its new Taylor Swift figure, to mark the singer’s iconic status both in Ireland and beyond.
As museum director Paddy Dunning pointed out, Tay Tay is the attraction’s second Swift, as the no less legendary Jonathan is already in situ in his hometown’s exhibit.
The national Wax Museum will now feature a waxwork of Taylor Swift
As to reports that the wax museum is currently melting down its Troy Parrott in order to remodel it as a Jessie Buckley figure, that would be another matter for the day that’s in it.
It may be lamb season but I’m very much enjoying the beef between Aldi and Tesco, playing out in ad breaks on the small screen. To be fair to Aldi, the German contender, their latest cracked eggs ad makes a fair and funny point, though its earlier Tv campaign, in which it claimed it wouldn’t hire expensive actors to flog its organic tomatoes – and then paid an actor to illustrate the point – should have given Tesco, the British entry, an open goal. In the absence of World Cup cheer, I’m taking a front row seat for this fascinating contest.
Big screen battle rolls on
Cillian Murphy and Yvonne McGuinness’s plans to develop the Phoenix cinema in Dingle have come up against objections from neighbours in the Kerry town, with parking – which to be fair, can be a nightmare there – among the concerns aired.
Cillian Murphy and his wife Yvonne McGuinness are reviving the Phoenix cinema in Dingle
It’s not yet clear if the Murphys will return to the drawing board before their passion project rises from the flames of controversy – though I’d imagine pinning a notice to the closed doors of the old building announcing that it’s proceeding regardless 'by order of the Peaky Blinders' just won’t wash in West Kerry.
I see that Aoife McGregor – the sister of He Who Cannot Be Named – is in hot water after her tanning salon sold a sunbed session to an underage girl. Presumably I have just become the millionth person to respond by shaking my head and exclaiming, 'the neck… the neck of you.'
As Dog’s Trust issues its annual warning about keeping chocolate Easter treats away from pets as they can be fatal to dogs, I’m reminded of an Instagram post that claimed 'the whole thing about dogs and chocolate is just some s*** that cats made up'. Obviously, don’t try this at home – though as I’m currently hosting both species in my battlefield of a house, I’d say that social media post sounds about right.
Peter Hegseth, that weird manchild that Donald Trump has appointed as Secretary for Defence (or 'secretary for war', as he prefers) boasts that he hasn’t washed his hands for 10 years because he doesn’t believe germs are ,a real thing'. I hope it stays fine for him – though I’d love to know how anyone can manage to shower without washing their hands in the process. On second thoughts, maybe I’m better off not knowing.
I’m not entirely sure why the University of Ulster chose to award an honorary degree to Arnold Schwarzenegger – did they send out invitations to everyone and the former bodybuilder turned actor was the only one to RSVP? – but there’s no doubt that the 79 year old put plenty of welly into his acceptance speech, comparing academic work to a gym work out.
'When it gets really hard and I can’t do another rep, that is what makes it grow, and that’s the way it is in life,' he told the student body. What the former muscle man failed to mention though is that body builders often have a support partner to 'spot them' for that troublesome final rep. Try that in a university exam hall and you’ll be out on your ear faster than it took you to download your AI essay.
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