Prominent TD for Dublin South, George Lee, has resigned from politics. In a surprise move, the former RTE finance correspondant announced this afternoon that the role was not personally fulfilling and had taken the decision to resign.
Lee was elected in a landslide victory in Dublin South last June and was seen by many as a potential leader of the party. The move will be seen by some as the final nail in the coffin of Enda Kenny’s leadership.
Dublin retailer, Arnotts, has reported a 100% increase in sales through its e-commerce site run by the the Buy4Now Technology Group.
The retailer said that there was an “estimated 1 million unique visitors during 2009″ to the site.
The site is fully integrated with the Arnotts merchandise system, offering more than 10,000 products, ranging from giftware and fashion to furniture and electrical, while providing access to the latest in-store promotions.
“We are delighted with our new website developed by Buy4Now Technology Group,” said Gerard Ryan, home buying director, Arnotts. “Arnotts Department Store is going through significant changes at the moment, including the opening of our new cosmetics hall and The Conran Shop in recent months.”
Cork Airport is expected to be the beneficiary of a major announcement on new routes from budget airline Ryanair today. The announcement is expected to centre around a series of routes from Cork to a number of sun destinations according to this morning’s Irish Examiner. The enwspaper speculates that Ryanair will undercut Aer Lingus prices and could offer deals to the popular sun locations for €60 return.
Ryanair Chief executive Michael O’Leary flies into Cork this morning to make the announcement before he jets off to New York to address an airline conference.
The airline is also expected to base a new aircraft at Cork Airport. Mr O’Leary said yesterday that Ryanair plans to “swamp” the sun destination market over the summer months with a raft of low fares. “We have 11 aircraft to allocate for the summer and there’s a number of airports bidding for them,” he said.
Aer Lingus operate flights from Cork to Alicante, Faro, Lanzarote, Malaga and Tenerife but Ryanair is expected to offer prices for significantly less than what Aer Lingus are offering. Mr O’Leary said Ryanair will “explode” Aer Lingus’s market. He said fares to sun destinations will be higher than average but lower than others charge in those markets.
Ok, another day has come where I feel the need to list our observations:
1. Green Graveyard set to open in County Wexford
2. myguideIreland gets a mention in the papers
3. Our founder and former CEO was ararded Cork Person of the Year for 2009
4. Irish Polished Porcelain Tiles supplier, woof.ie, sets up Cheap tiles direct in the UK
5. Government announces new chairperson of Dublin Port Company
Irish retailer, Dunnes Stores, has jumped five places in the rankings of global retailers, according to checkout magazine. Consultants, Deloitte, have estimated the retailer’s 2008 turnover to be €2.41 billion.
The Deloitte Top 250 Global Retailers 2010 report, which was published yesterday, places Dunnes at No. 231 in the global rankings, up from No. 236 in the previous year.
According to the report, Dunnes’ estimated turnover grew by 9% (2008 vs 2007), with a compound annual growth rate of 3% for the 2003-2008 period.
Dunnes Stores are notoriously secretive about their figures, but given that the Dunnes operation also includes a sizeable homewares and clothing division, the Deloitte figures would seem to represent a relatively conservative estimate.
For example, Musgrave’s SuperValu chain (take-home grocery market share circa 20-21%) posted full-year retail sales of €2.3 billion for the 2008 financial year, while Tesco PLC (take-home grocery market share circa 25-26%) reported sales of just over €3 billion for their 2008/9 financial period. Neither Tesco nor SuperValu, while perhaps stronger in other areas than Dunnes, would have anything near the non-grocery penetration that Dunnes has, which would suggest that the real Dunnes figure (grocery and homewares combined) is much closer to the €3 billion mark. Dunnes has a grocery market share of around 24%. Aside from Dunnes, the 2010 report also saw one other significant shift from an Irish grocery perspective. Tesco, which has held the position as the world’s third largest grocer for a number of years, slipped back to No. 4, with the giant German retail/wholesale operation Metro AG leapfrogging it.
Wal-Mart, which operates in Northern Ireland as ASDA, remains far and away the biggest global player, with retail sales of $400 billion – some three times bigger than the No. 2 retailer, Carrefour.
Here’s just a few of the pages I’ve bookmarked while browsing this morning:
Unemployment rises
Brian Lenihan is gone to hospital
10 ways to save on your home heating oil
Damien Mulley’s Daily Links of course
Pity Stephen Ireland wouldn’t help apply his obvious knowledge to the international field
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myguideIreland – create Ireland Vacations where you pick your destination & are your own tour guide
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30 year old Steve Rayner saw off the challenge of Stephen Higgin to be crowned the winner of TV3’s Apprentice 2009. Steve overcame the considerable challenge from Stephen in a marketing oriented task to organise the launch of the new Ford Fiesta.
Steve came to Ireland in 2005 to look after his ailing grandparents in Cork. Having left the music industry in the UK, he found himself in sales; an area he’d never worked in before. He quickly found his feet and soon began to outpace his colleagues and prove himself to be an exceptional salesman. Within four months of joining Eircom he was promoted to Regional Sales Manager, and eventually moved up to being a consultant.
In 2008 Steve left the comfort of Eircom to join fledging telecoms company Imagine, as their senior business development manager. He felt that he never had any real business mentor. Both his parents are school teachers so he doesn’t come from a business background.
Former Galway TD, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has been named as the Irish Government’s nominee for appointment to the next European Commission.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said ‘Ms. Geoghegan-Quinn “has been an exemplary Member of the European Court of Auditors for the past nine years and, prior to that, held a number of key Ministerial positions in the Irish Government.”
The announcement ends months of speculation on how Mr Cowen would avoid weakening his Dáil majority while still appointing a high calibre candidate to the EU post.
Firstly to avoid any wild accusations, I’m not a fan of John & Edward and I may regret this. But let it not be that they go out of the competition just because people think they can’t get votes from Ireland.
While it pops up during the show that viewers from ROI can’t vote, there is a way!!
The way is VOIP! Voice over internet protocol routes the call over the internet to the destination country. If you want to vote for or against John&Edward, then it’s easy.
sign up to a UK VOIP provider like voiptalk.org
The call is carried by VOIP to the UK and ‘enters’ the conventional phone system from the UK so is registered as a UK originating call. I have tested this and it works!
Try it! See the rates here: http://www.voiptalk.org/products/view-tariff.php#standard
It probably also works with ‘Skype Out’ if you register a UK number but I haven’t tested it
A very interesting and comprehensive study of hotels in Ireland with focus on over capacity was launched yesterday. The study was undertaken by Peter bacon on behalf of the Irish Hotel foundation. The following is the headline that the IHF put on their press release:
Major and chaotic shakeout predicted – 25% of Hotel Rooms need to be closed down – The Sector taken in its entirety is Insolvent”
Tourism is a major industry in Ireland generating considerable value in terms of exports, employment and tax revenues. Read the rest of this entry »
The Crosshaven Lifeboat was the busiest RNLI Inshore lifeboat in the Republic of Ireland this summer with 15 calls for help.
Statistics released for the summer period of June, July and August showed Crosshaven Lifeboat as the busiest RNLI in the Republic of Ireland.
In the island of Ireland, Bangor was the busiest station with 31 call-outs. The large population of leisure boats in and around Crosshaven kept the statistics high with mechanical failure being one of the main causes of lifeboat launches. In total, launches were up 12% on last year (424 times in summer period). The RNLI operates over 230 lifeboat stations with 43 in Ireland. It is independent of the Coast Guard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 137,000 lives. The RNLI is a charity registered in England, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
More info on The Southern Star: http://www.southernstar.ie/article.php?id=1624
Ryanair PLC said today that falling fuel prices had boosted profits over the past 6 months but added that cut-price fares would result in losses for the remainder of their financial year.
The budget airline said pre-tax profits were €419.4m in the six months to September 30, from €105.2m last year, but said the results were “heavily distorted” by a 42% drop in fuel costs. Ryanair said this masked a 17% decline in average fares and warned that prices would fall 20% over the rest of the year, resulting in losses for the last two quarters. Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said the group would be “substantially profitable at a time when many of our competitors are losing money, consolidating or going bust”. He said traffic growth is strong “but at the expense of declining average fares”, while the weakness of sterling and tourist taxes in the UK and Ireland had also hit takings.
Read more about this on breakingnews.ie: http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/ryanair-reports-80-surge-in-profits-432577.html
The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) Director General and former PD Junior Minister, Tom Parlon, has stated that house prices in Ireland will not fall beyond current levels. While this statement has got headline status on today’s radio news bulletins it should also be remembered that Mr Parlon was part of a government that predicted a “soft landing” for Ireland’s property bubble. It would be great for the economy if he as right this time but I suspect that economics will play a larger role than parlonomics
According to a CIF & Irish House Builders Assoc (IHBA) report, house prices across the country have fallen by an average of more than 40% from their 2006/7 peak.
A new report from the Construction Industry Federation and the Irish Home Builders Association also claims the level of unsold housing stock is being exaggerated. The report says the number of unsold dwellings in the Dublin area represents less than eight months supply in normal market conditions – and an average of one year’s supply elsewhere.
For more on this story see: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/house-prices-down-40-432640.html
The Lonely Planet has included Cork in its list of the ‘Best in Travel 2010′.
The listing of Cork inthe influential guide will come as a massive boost for tourism in the region.
El Salvador, Germany and Greece are among the best countries in the world to features, but there is no place for Ireland on the list.
The Irish representation comes in the category of top cities – where Cork is listed alongside Abu Dhabi, Istanbul and Singapore.
The guide says visitors should be able to find inspiration in each city.
Cork Airport is the perfect access point to include Cork in your Ireland vacation.
Some things you are unlikely to have seen prominently in the conventional media this week
Xtravision in Clonakilty are looking for an assistant Store manager
The Church Restaurant got a new website
Damien Mulley has taken a break
Get a great deal from The Heritage Portlaoise through Pigsback
Denis Barrett has lots of apartments to let in Cork
And one story that will get more and more prominent:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/home/chaos-looms-as-unions-ballot-for-day-of-strikes-104430.html
