Best Places to Live in Ireland
The Irish Times ran a ‘competition’ to find the best place to live in Ireland, based on criteria such as price of property, presence of clubs and activities, welcome for outsiders and security. The longlist of 20 was announced in early September and the list was then reduced to five. In alphabetical order, they were Clonakilty Co Cork, Galway city, Glaslough Co Monaghan, Killarney Co Kerry and Waterford city. The winner was announced at the end of September: Waterford city.
Back to the Numbers
The latest opinion polls in Ireland show that one party has a 10-point lead on its nearest rival in terms of support among the electorate. The leader is Sinn Feín at 32%, a full 10 points ahead of Fine Gael with Fianna Fail a further two points back.
Revisiting Pandora
In the old Greek legend, Pandora was given a box as a wedding present, but told not to open it. When she did, it released death and evil into the world. Now the word has reappeared as the name for a trove of documents revealing large sums of money hidden by bad people in order to avoid tax. In Lower Fitzwilliam St in Dublin, there is an unoccupied office which is the address for some 800 things called limited partnerships, many of them for companies in Eastern Europe.
Corporate Tax
Since it was introduced by Charlie McCreevy in the late ’90s, Ireland has had a corporate tax rate of 12.5%. This annoyed other members of the EU, particularly France. It appears that they have now had their way and corporate tax will rise to at least 15% in line with the rest of the EU.
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