Apple to Expand Irish operation

Apple Inc has announced that it has signed a lease on a Cork City centre office with capacity to hold 350 people. The move is a result of plans to expand its EMEA Customer Support operations in Ireland.
Apple has had a presence in Cork since a manufacturing operation was founded in 1981 and despite scaling back the manufacturing capacity in the late 1990′s has continued to grow as a major centre of the IT Giant’s global presence.

“Apple is one of the many global technology companies with operations in Ireland,” said an IDA spokesperson, “Since it established in Cork 30 years ago, it has been a significant employer in the southwest region.”

Dublin Casino offers VIP Trip to Las Vegas

Our friends at The Sporting Emporium, the premier private members Casino in Dublin have teamed up with Sunway Holidays, Ireland’s largest Irish owned tour operator to offer a fabulous VIP trip of a lifetime to Las Vegas for two people with $2,000 spending money.

The prize includes return flights from Dublin with Virgin Atlantic, 4 nights in the 5*+ Wynn Las Vegas, a special VIP package that includes limo pick up and a night helicopter flight over the Vegas strip plus that all important $2,000 spending money.

The competition, playing roulette, is free to enter and is open to existing and new members of the Sporting Emporium. It has eight qualifying rounds with the winner of each round going through to the Grand Final in September where they play to win this terrific prize.

Further information about this competition can be found on thesportingemporium.com or at facebook.com/thesportingemporium

Get playing today and make sure your passport is up to date! The Sporting Emnporium is just off Grafton Street in the heart of Dublin and is one of Ireland’s most popular casinos.

McIlroy delights fans at Ballyliffin

US Open Champion, Rory McIlroy, delighted fans when he arrived at Ballyliffin Golf Club in his native Ulster for a promotional photoshoot on Thursday.

In what has been an extremely busy week for 22 year old McIlroy he took time to greet and take photos with club members.

The photoshoot which was part of his contract which is estimated to be worth US$6m (€4.2m) with US sunglasses giant Oakley – was meant to be a closely-guarded secret.

But word spread quickly throughout Inishowen, that Rory was due to visit Ballyliffin Golf Club for the corporate engagement.

Brian Lenihan Dies

The death has taken place today of former minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.

52 year old Mr Lenihan passed away today following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

RIP

Heineken Cup final for Aviva Stadium

Hotels near the Aviva stadium in Dublin got a welcome boost today with the announcement by the ERC that the European Rugby Cup Final (Currently known as the Heineken Cup) will take place at the Dublin venue in 2013.

It will be tenth anniversary of the first and only time that the Heineken Cup final was played at the old Lansdowne Road stadium, the site of the current Aviva Stadium.

In a statement announcing the decision, ERC chief executive Derek McGrath said “The Aviva Stadium is a world-class venue which has quickly established a close affinity with the Heineken Cup having staged three matches last season”…..”Ireland has provided four Heineken Cup champions in the past six seasons and Irish rugby is steeped in the history of the tournament since it began 16 years ago.”

Unfortunately the final in 2003 was very poorly attended due to the finalists both being from France. Wouldn’t it be a great if Munster and Leinster were to battle it out in 2013?

Ireland win Nations Cup at Aviva Stadium

The Republic of Ireland collected a piece of silverware last night when they won the Carling Nations Cup at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. On the way the Irishd  captain, Robbie Keane, drew drew level with Bobby Charlton on the goal-scoring charts to be come joint highest scoring UK or Irish player ever at international level with 49 goals.

Keane also became only the second Irish captain ever to receive an international trophy at senior level.

The Carling Nations Cup was very poorly attended with empty stands clearly visible on TV for most games. Not the bonanza that hotels near the Aviva Stadium were expecting when it was announced that the tournament would be based at the state of the art Dublin venue, one suspects.

Tesco price cuts not what they seem?

Tesco recently announced 1,000 price cuts in Ireland but what they didn’t say was that they had increased thousands of prices in the two months before the price reduction campaign was announced.
The price of almost 8,000 lines had actually gone up in January and February according to independent price analysis data, which tracks the online price of thousands of products sold by Tesco Ireland.

According to the Irish Times, for example, “Flahavan’s Progress Oatlets cost €1.95 at the end of last year. The price increased to €2.05 in the middle of January and then fell to €1.99 as part of the promotion.” This product now costs 2% more than it did the beginning of the year despite being included in the price cut campaign.
There are several other similar examples listed in today’s Irish Times.

Consumers Association of Ireland chief executive Dermott Jewell accused the large supermarkets of using “smoke and mirrors” to confuse consumers.

Tripadvisor security breach

I got this email this morning from Steve Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor. Did anyone else get it? I had noticed my junk folder jammed over the last few days so maybe there’s a link………

To our travel community:
This past weekend we discovered that an unauthorized third party had stolen part of TripAdvisor’s member email list. We’ve confirmed the source of the vulnerability and shut it down. We’re taking this incident very seriously and are actively pursuing the matter with law enforcement.
How will this affect you? In many cases, it won’t. Only a portion of all member email addresses were taken, and all member passwords remain secure. You may receive some unsolicited emails (spam) as a result of this incident.
The reason we are going directly to you with this news is that we think it’s the right thing to do. As a TripAdvisor member, I would want to know. Unfortunately, this sort of data theft is becoming more common across many industries, and we take it extremely seriously.
I’d also like to reassure you that TripAdvisor does not collect members’ credit card or financial information, and we never sell or rent our member list.
We will continue to take all appropriate measures to keep your personal information secure at TripAdvisor. I sincerely apologize for this incident and appreciate your membership in our travel community.

Steve Kaufer
Co-founder and CEO
More information

 

Petrol and Diesel prices to fall in Northern Ireland

The UK governement announced its 2011 budget today and included a reduction of 1p per litre in fuel duty meaning a 1p reduction at the pumps from 6pm this evening.

This will see a closing of the gap in petrol and diesel prices between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and may have an impact on the economic dynamic of border counties.

Currently petrol stations south of the border see a huge influx every day of motorists from Northern Ireland filling up with the cheaper fuel available in the Republic.

A closing of the gap by by 1p or 1.17c per litre will make the decision to journey across the border more marginal for many motorists and may see the resurrection of some petrol sales in border areas of Northern Ireland.

Current prices in Derry for example are as low as £1.339 (or approx €1.539 ) according to the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland while Petrol in Topaz in Muff, County Donegal is currently €1.539, the same price (according to pumps.ie)

The reduction in the UK price would see the potentail for NI to be cheaper than ROI, something that hasn’t been seen for over a decade.

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Mobile operator 3 to create 50 new jobs

Mobile operator 3 Ireland is to create 50 new positions as part of an expansion across finance, product development and retail sales with recruitment already under way according to a press release published this morning.

The company already employs 400+ people in Ireland and these new positions are to be filled at its head office in Dublin and at a number of retail stores around the country.

New Minister for Communications, Pat Rabitte, welcomed today’s announcement saying: “Three is playing a significant role in terms of the quality service and competition it offers to consumers in Ireland.”

Ireland’s debt is manageable according to ECB president

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean Claude Trichet, said yesterday that Ireland’s sovereign debt and banking crises are not impossible to deal with and he believes the country can overcome its problems .

“My working assumption is that Ireland can do it, Ireland will do it,” he told MEPs in the European Parliament. He stressed that Ireland had to regain its credit worthiness and that the international community had backed the rescue plan.

In a warning to would be bondholder burners he added that the ECB is working off a policy that no eurozone country will default on its debt.

In a separate question, Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell suggested that the ECB’s low interest rates during the property bubble fueled Ireland’s problems.

However, Mr. Trichet hit back, hinting that Ireland’s issues were somewhat self-inflicted and in an apparent attack on the economic management of the previous government added that “National policies have to take [interest rates] into account, and to exert appropriate influence to cope with possible difficulties”

“You might say that interest rates were too low for Ireland, (but) they were the interest rates that were appropriate to deliver price stability as a whole.”

Ireland have almost full squad for England Match

Scrum-half, Eoin Reddan is the only injury worry for Declan Kidney’s Ireland ahead of next Saturday’s clash with England at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Reddan played less than a minute of the 6 point defeat to Wales in Cardiff last Saturday after getting a blow to the face from the ball as he cblocked down a clearance kick from Lee Byrne of Wales.

Reddan suffered concussion as a result of the blow and was replaced immediately by Peter Stringer. Reddan is being monitoried by the Irish medical team his week and will see a neurologist as part of the injury management process.

The starting line-up for the final game of the Six Nations will be named by Declan Kidney tomorrow afternoon and Reddan is still officially in contention for a place.

The game takes on a special role as, although an Irish Triple Crown is now out of reach, Ireland have the motivation to deny England their first Grand Slam since they were victorious at the same venue (albeit the old stadium) 8 years ago.

Dublin hotels are almost sold out for weeks in advance of the game, however the historic nature of the occasion for England has seen a surge of enquiries to hotels near the aviva stadium in recent days, particularly from English fans.

While hotels nearby are almost certainly full, don’t rule out the option of staying in a hotel on the periphery, particularly a hotel near a tram stop like Moran’s Red Cow hotel.

Irish Election 2011 enters its final week

 

As election 2011 enters its final week two opinion polls published today have put the Fine Gael party in pole position for the final days.

We can expect to see a significant increase in the intensity of the exchanges between the three main parties with the focus on policy being put aside for more targeted attacks on the leadership of the parties.

Polling day is Friday February 25th with counting of votes starting on Saturday 26th. An indication of the result from Tallypersons will be available by lunchtime that day but the destination of the all important fian seats in some constituencies may not be known until Sunday night or Monday morning.

 

Airplane Crash At Cork Airport

There are unconfirmed reports of 8 people being killed on a flight from Belfast to Cork Airport this morning.

The Manx2 MN710 aircraft crashed on the airfield on approach to landing in dense fog  just before 10am.

The airport has been closed until further notice

Busy week at the Aviva Stadium

The Aviva Stadium, Dublin’s newest sporting venue is this week hosting three separate competitive international matches. Two of these are Soccer internationals with the Carling Nations Cup kicking off on Tuesday night with a game between Ireland and Wales followed by Northern Ireland versus Scotland on Wednesday night.

However, the big game of the week is in the Rugby Union Six nations Championship where Ireland take on France on Sunday.

It is rare enough that there would be two international games in Dublin on the same week but none of us here can recollect atime previously whe there were three. Consequently, we have seen a huge surge in enquiries for hotels near the aviva stadium over the last few days.

If Ireland are successful on Sunday, then we expect a similar level of interest for Ireland against England on Saturday march 19th!