November 27, 2007
The panel on the show acknowledged that the contributor was very noble in her intentions and based on the numbers, would save her family some money. €33000 invested now to pay for a funeral that would be expected to cost €12,000 in 30 years times.
But, is she really saving her family money? Assuming the same 30 years and same initial money up front, the €3,300 invested now at a fixed deposit rate of 6% annually, there would be a return of over €14,000 after the 30 years.
November 27, 2007
The original Value Ireland tips article can be read here.
November 27, 2007
November 26, 2007
Steve Staunton lost a couple of football games, and shock horror, didn’t qualify us for the European Championship next year. Yet, he had 40,000 people booing him at Croke Park during the last few Ireland games. He had newspaper journalists hounding him and his bosses about whether he’d be resigning, or whether he’d be fired. He had RTE staff having a go at him at every opportunity, with Eamonn Dunphy talking to anyone who listened about how Steve should get the boot.
But the hapless Steve Staunton didn’t oversee an organisation that puts peoples lives at risk.
Specifically Mary Harney has overseen the disaster that has been breast cancer diagnosis in the last couple of weeks at Portlaoise Hospital, but more consistently lives are endangered through badly managed and dirty hospitals.
Even worse are the smokescreens that Mary and her cronies are putting up left right and centre once we find out about their cock-ups. What does it matter who knew, or didn’t know, or when they found out - if you’re in charge, the buck stops with you. If she didn’t know, she should go. If she did know, even too late, she should still go. And all their grandstanding at the moment is merely aiming to distract the majority of the country from the true seriousness of their cock-ups.
And where are the press who cared so much about the future of Irish soccer not so long ago? Where are the Irish people booing Minister Harney for the shocking system she’s overseeing? Where’s the outcry in the media calling for her head? Where’s RTE star journalists hounding her out of her job? Why have Eamonn Dunphy harassing Steve Staunton at every turn to save Irish soccer, but not have Charlie Bird or Bryan Dobson going after Mary Harney to safeguard the lives of Irish women?
As someone who is consistently focused on customer service, I always believe that a true measure of how much a service provider cares about you and your custom is how they react when there’s something wrong and they receive a complaint. By her actions last week, Mary Harney is showing us all that she really doesn’t care.
And it is in this area that the most shocking behaviour of all was evident last week. She finally knew that there was a problem, but merely sought apportion blame elsewhere rather than actually take ownership of the complaints and the issue at hand and try to resolve things. At a time when Mary Harney knew of the problems, she still entrusted the management of the resolution to the problems to the same people who had screwed up in the first place.
For that alone, not learning from past mistakes, that Mary Harney should resign - we know she’ll never be fired by Bertie. In the immortal words of George W. Bush, “fool me once….”
November 25, 2007
November 25, 2007
November 21, 2007
Back in September, I wrote about how the National Consumer Agency and the Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement were taking to writing to PFO letters to this Irish consumers coming to them for help.
Some time ago, I found a further example of such a letter from the NCA sent to Ach go háirithe after a complaint about drinks pricing in a Dublin bar.
November 21, 2007
The treesdontgrowtothesky blog reports a further example of “smoke and daggers” as Bertie would call it when it comes to transparency in the property market.
According to the blog post here, Sherry Fitzgerald are starting to use images to illustrate prices now rather than text – in a move related to that done by myhome.ie back in September (referred to here).
This now leaves Daft and a few other estate agents who still make their prices easily available, but how long before they go the way of images for prices as well.
As an aside, I’m in the middle of some dealings with a particular estate agent at the moment and depending on the outcome in the next couple of weeks, I could have some very interesting revelations. Watch this space!
November 20, 2007
Earlier this month, I wrote about the excellent blog on That’s Ireland - Fianna Fail - Fifty Ways to Laugh at Voters.
The fantastic idea that seems to somewhat follow up on that is the new campaign - DigOutDay - on December 7th. According to the website:
Show Bertie + his mates exactly what you think of their massive payrise by taking the day off on Digoutday. They will not accept this payrise if enough of us show them what we think.
If only it were true that our own “lame duck taoiseach” would deign to heed the opinions of those that voted him in - and we must remember, “we, the people” did vote him back into power 6 months ago.
November 20, 2007
In the spirit of “Value” Ireland, I have to recommend that if you’re in Dublin you should check out Cafe Crepe at 15 South Leinster Street. It’s the street that’s a continuation of Nassau Street, and Cafe Crepe is just after the turn right for Kildare Street if your heading towards Ballsbridge.
We’ve been there a few mornings now and have been amazed each time. The service is fantastic - the staff are very friendly - even at 7.30am in the morning. The food is very tasty, and above all, it’s all great value for money as well.
This is a place definitely worth checking out!

