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 Deputy Noel Coonan In 2011, the Department of Social Protection is to undertake a review of the current redundancy claims processing procedures as part of their development of a new computer system, which will be integrated into the Department’s service delivery modernisation programme.
Local North Tipperary Fine Gael Deputy Noel Coonan said this is a welcome move and if necessary, staff must also be re-allocated, to lessen waiting times.
Deputy Coonan speaking to Thurles Information today stated: “This Government is ‘punishing’ people who have lost their jobs by making them wait more than half a year for their redundancy payment. Redundancy claims dating from June 2010 are currently being processed. It is shameful that this Government has consistently failed to tackle the excessive backlog. I am calling on the Government to redeploy staff to the redundancy section to reduce the burden; for example the plethora of inspectors based in the Department of Agriculture would be better placed, speeding up the time it takes to issue redundancy payments. At the end of 2010, there was a shocking 25,167 claims waiting to be processed nationally. Claims dating from June 2010 are currently being processed and this backlog is hugely unacceptable at a time when people who have lost their jobs are struggling to get by on a weekly basis. People are suffering unduly because this inefficient Government, and those who support it in North Tipperary, continue to run our country into the ground. I am aware that in some instances the processing of claims can be delayed until necessary supporting documentation are provided, but these extensive waiting times have been an ongoing problem over the last year, if not longer, and this defunct Government has yet to resolve the issue despite promises to do so. This backlog is also unacceptable bearing in mind the Universal Social Charge which was introduced in last month’s Budget.”
The USC flat-rate tax replaced the old health and income levies and is designed to bring more lower income earners into the tax net. Most taxpayers pay 2pc USC on the first €10,036 of income, 4pc on the next €5,980 and 7pc on everything over that. This new universal charge is designed to hits people on the minimum wage, even if they are outside the tax net.
 Irish Fuel Prices The word boycott is not a new word to any patriotic Irishman. Indeed it entered the English language during the Irish “Land War” and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord, Lord Erne, who lived in Lough Mask House, in County Mayo, Ireland and who was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880.
Thurles.Info receive lots of suggestions each week from its ‘Netizens‘ with regards to matters in and around Tipperary which they feel we could or should be highlighting. One particular suggestion received to-day was regarding increasing vehicle fuel prices and suggests, with some merit, that we ‘boycott‘ major oil companies.
We are now almost hitting €1.45 a litre for unleaded petrol and €1.38 for Diesel. Soon, if we are to believe the “Informed Prophets of Doom,” we will be faced with paying € 1.50 plus per litre in the coming months. One of our many discerning readers (My thanks ML) has put forward, what I believe is a rather good idea.
This idea makes much more sense than the ‘Don’t buy petrol on a certain day campaign ‘ that got started in America and was going around last year. Oil companies just laughed, knowingly, because they knew we couldn’t continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol, and anyway it became more of an inconvenience to us the consumer, than it hurt the major Oil Companies.
However, whoever thought of this idea, has now come up with a plan that could really work.
Boycott And Give Unleaded Petrol Power To The people
Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us into believing that the cost of the present litre of fuel is cheap, (well compared to bottled water), we need to take aggressive action to teach oil companies that consumers and not wholesalers control the oil market. Then of course there is Facebook, Twitter etc, etc.,sure we could tell everyone in this green and pleasant land in an hour.
With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone very hard in the pocket, by not purchasing their petrol product. Yes, we can do that without hurting ourselves and here is how.
1. For the rest of this year DON”T purchase ANY petrol from one of the biggest oil companies presently operating. We know who they are, so pick one, but do make sure we all pick the same one. Ouch!
2. If they are not selling any petrol, they will be encouraged to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. See it as real laissez-faire economics at work, but to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Irish petrol consumers to organise.
So how do you reach these consumers you now ask? Well it’s really so simple in this modern communications era.
Now, don’t switch off on me at this point… keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach those millions of people!
Thurles.Info are sending this information out to between 700 and 1000 daily readers. If all of these readers ‘Email This Post‘, by ordinary mail or using the Tag shown at the end of this post, to at least ten more people (700 x 10 = 7,000)….and those 7,000 send it to at least ten other people (7000 x 10 = 70,000) … and so on… now do you get my drift? Then of course there is Facebook, Twitter etc etc etc, sure the world and his mother would know in less than an hour.
Don’t know what you think of this idea, but oil companies are blackmailing us and between them and government taxes, essentials like motor fuel and motor vehicles are slowly being turned into luxury items, and very soon they will be only available to the very rich or NAMA clients.
Maybe we need to gain the support, influence and muscle of The Irish Farmers Association( IFA ) together with the Irish Road Haulage Association they could lead us in such a campaign, they would know better who and when to hit and I am sure that the low paid worker with the 2003 car, who is forced to drives ten miles, for his daily bread every morning, would be more than happy to give their full support.
Organise Brothers, Organise!
 Chartist Demonstration Poster of 1848 We here in Ireland need to behave like the Charterist Movement of the early 1840’s, and we, unlike them, have one advantage, we have the right to vote.
With the present General Election looming, most of those who have been part of our outgoing government are fully aware that their only place in a new Dail Eireann, will be by taking over the seating arrangements, previously kept warm by the arses of our present opposition.
Fianna Fail under Micheál Martin, displaying an inherited FF arrogance, called today for a public debate, still dreaming that the party he represents are still going to have a major say in our immediate future.
Knowing they are going to remain in opposition, small political groupings like Sinn Fein, Independents and possibly the Green Party, can now spout whatever they feel their understandably angry voters want to hear. They can and will protest about everything, the Four Year Plan, Environmental policy,The IMF, Lower Paid Workers, the Universal Social Charge or reclaiming control of the Public Sector. But these protests must be seen by voters for what they are, attempts to gather votes by gombeen individuals who selfishly are seeking another term of unvouched expenses, inflated salaries, inflated pensions and most of all the sense of being powerful.
We now need a different breed of politician in Ireland and change must come quickly, because to survive as a state, with the present political system, we can no longer carry on. We have, as a nation, once again allowed ourselves to be invaded. There are two ways to conquer a country, send in an invading force of well armed troops, or the EU modern way, which is loan us vast sums of money at high interest rates which they know we cannot repay. Ireland, thanks to our gombeen politicians, has been invaded, we have been enslaved and sadly we only have ourselves, as voters, to blame.
In a democracy such as ours, change can only ever originate from the electorate. If we continue to elect our representatives, without looking beyond our own narrow views of personal self interests, we will continue to attract the gombeen politicians we truly deserve and as Irish men and women, remain the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, within Europe.
We as a nation are unable to even protest democratically in any unified way. When our elderly citizens demonstrated against losing their medical card, they did so very much alone. When our student sons and daughters marched, they did so detached, while agents of our State were allowed to discourage them, using rough justice. When our present Fianna Fail Government clung to power, long after the electorate had made it clear that they no longer had a mandate to govern, we as a nation remained deathly silent. Despite the fact that this outgoing government continued to embarrass us on the world stage, making us a laughing stock in front of our European partners, we as a nation take no action.
Ireland is a nation and our democratically elected representatives are, by accepting their elected role, charged with standing up for our citizens and our down trodden, behaving democratically, safeguarding our wealth and fairly distributing our scarce public funds responsibly.
This present Government in December last, told us that we must now pay increased taxes and endure reduced public services, because they were not minding the shop, while they themselves continued to misappropriate our funds and our loyalty in a cynical and contemptuous way for the purchase of future votes. They allowed minority Independent TD’s of minor importance, to pull their strings, to the detriment of our democracy and the well being of the people of this country as a whole. They have placed their brain washed followers in positions of importance on boards and in positions of influence to make decisions which will effect and assist ‘The Party‘.
Continue reading How To Cast Your Vote In A Dysfunctional Ireland
 US Economic Envoy Declan Kelly United States Economic Envoy Mr Declan Kelly will make a number of keynote speeches in Northern Ireland today.
His one-day visit will include a number of keynote speeches which are being hosted by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and the University of Ulster.
Mr Kelly, a native of Portroe, Nenagh, County Tipperary, was advisor to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her campaign for the presidency.
He is also a former vice-president of FTI, a global business consultancy.
 PJ Hough. Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Programme Management Next time you open your Microsoft Office, on your PC or Laptop, here in Co Tipperary or elsewhere, know that a Tipperary native is playing a significant role in the future shaping of the device you are about to use.
PJ Hough, a 47 year old Borrisokane Co.Tipperary native (Lived close to President Barack Obama’s ancestral home) is the Corporate Vice President of Programme Management for the Microsoft Office Group at the Seattle software giant’s HQ.
Following the Microsoft Office 2010 launch in June last year, Microsoft estimated there were about one billion copies, including pirated versions, of the companies state of the art software installed globally.
Microsoft’s profits have grown considerably, with an estimated €4 billion accounting for just the last financial quarter and with Hough at the helm since 1994.
Hough was attending the Borrisokane Vocational School in the 1980s, during a time when unemployment levels in Ireland were edging towards 15 per cent. Hough recalls: “There was an Apple 2 computer in the Vocational school in Borrisokane at the time, but none of the teachers had been trained how to use it and I remember saving pocket money to go to Eason’s in Limerick to buy a book on how to programme it.”
Now with an interest in computers, Hough signed up to a Bachelor degree, followed by a Masters in Computer Applications at, what is now known as, Dublin City University (DCU) and graduated in 1986. After college he joined the Digital Equipment Corporation in Galway, where he stayed for the next eight years, involved in a variety of engineering and consulting roles.
Close to 30 years old, Hough applied for a Donnelly Visa, to gain access to the United States and on being successful, he applied to join Microsoft, in Redmond in Washington State in 1994.
Hough focused primarily on Office programmability and Microsoft Access where, after seven years in program management, he went on to join the Microsoft Office product planning team, based here in Ireland.
In 2003, Hough returned to Redmond to lead the Windows SharePoint Services team, where he was the group program manager, three years later he joined the Office Shared team in 2006.
A regular visitor to Ireland, Mr Hough currently lives in North Bend, Washington, with his wife and daughter.
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