Sheehan Medical on front page of today’s Evening Echo

Sheehan Medical’s new private hospital made the front page of today’s Evening Echo.

Revenue increasing VRT on the sly

For a while I have been monitoring the price of VRT needed to pay on a car that I want to import into Ireland. This weekend I went back to check again because since the beginning of the July C02 emissions are now taken into account. I was shocked to find out that the Revenue had increased the ‘open market selling price’ of the car in question by 20% since I last checked in November despite the fact that the details I included had an extra 10,000 miles on the clock .

This is nonsensical and smacks of the Revenue abusing their power to manipulate VRT receipts.  Anyone with the slightest bit knowledge of the Irish second hand car market knows that the bottom has fallen out of the value of Irish second hands cars, which are now generally worth a lot less than they were in November.

It appears that the Revenue are trying to manipulate their position by virtue of the fact that they can decide on whim what the supposed ‘open market selling price’ of car is so that they can increase the VRT take without anyone noticing.

VRT is a completely inequitable tax, which is illegal under EU law. Within the EU there should be a free movement of goods, this means that any Irish resident has the right to go to any other EU country, buy a car and bring it back to Ireland without being penalised by the Irish Government and having to pay an import tax, which is what VRT is.

VRT is currently being challenged in the EU Court. It unfairly protects the Irish car industry that rips off Irish consumers by charging them way more than or EU counterparts. Ironically the car dealers blame VRT for keeping the prices high. In their defence the car dealers are forced to add VRT into the price. This is one of the reasons why Irish cars always have such low specifications to our UK neighbours because dealers here take cars with no extras in order to keep the price lower.

The Revenue Commissioners don’t divulge how they calculate the open market vehicles of vehicles, which leaves the system open to manipulation. But, in blatant cronyism they also add VAT onto the second hand open market value, in order to support the dealers. This means that if you bring a car into Ireland from the UK, the Revenue calculates the 28% VRT by deciding what the open market price of your car plus an additional 21.5% VAT.

Thankfully some common sense on the issue is emerging. With car sales drastically reduced the governments overall VRT take is reduced greatly because it comes mostly from new cars that dealers import so they are looking for a more stable way of taxing cars. No doubt the Irish dealers have also been lobbying the government to remove VRT in order to boost their sales. The article below appeared in today’s Sunday Tribune and relates to advice by the Commission on Taxation, which has advised the Government to tax driving rather than the cars themselves.

The Commission suggests a congestion charge for Dublin city centre, similar to that imposed in London and also higher fuel duty. These options would also garner favour from environmentalists they are likely to reduce the overall level of journeys taken.

If brought in this system would be more akin to the European model and would be a big improvement to Dublin city centre.  It should also be rolled out to regional cities. It certainly makes more sense than the current system.

Sunday Tribune (August, 2009.)

Congestion charges or petrol tax to replace VRT

Radical moves proposed by Commission on Taxation include levy on cars in Dublin city

Emmet Oliver, Business Editor

Vehicle registration tax (VRT) should be abolished on all cars sold in Ireland and replaced with a UK-style congestion charge or an increased tax on petrol, according to proposals submitted to government by the Commission on Taxation.

The radical measures are aimed at “taxing driving, rather than taxing cars” according to the report of the commission, which goes to the Department of Finance this week. If the government implements the measures it would represent a major change in taxation and transport policy.

The recommendations, which could provide an unprecedented boost to the faltering Irish motor trade, would involve charging drivers a fee when they enter designated and often congested urban areas. For example, in Dublin the charge would most likely kick in if a car travelled within either of the two main canals.

The report comes to the conclusion that VRT is a “lumpy tax” that is dependent on one large purchase being made by a consumer. A tax on driving and use of the road network would throw the net much wider and mean the government would receive large revenues even if car sales slumped as they tend to in recessions.

“It will provide the exchequer with more stable sources of revenue and is part of the general drive to broaden the tax base,” a commission member told the Sunday Tribune.

The London congestion charge levies drivers who enter certain defined zones from the hours of 7am to 6pm with a charge of £8. Residents who live within the congestion-charge areas and those driving green vehicles are either exempt from the levy or can avail of a discounted rate.

A set of cameras have been placed around central London to take images of drivers’ registration plates, and a number of payment methods, online, by phone or in a shop, are available.

The motor industry desperately wants a car-scrappage scheme introduced in the December budget, a measure it says could help to salvage large parts of the sector, but the idea of abolishing VRT could provide an even bigger lift, although petrol taxes or congestion charges are not popular with the motor industry. VRT is the main reason why cars are more expensive in Ireland than in other EU countries. The prices of new cars here increase by up to 30% when VRT is applied.

Commission members who spoke to the Sunday Tribune said the measure was also designed to have a ‘green’ impact.

“The idea is to lower people’s use of their car and get them to switch to public-transport alternatives.

“Just taxing the car itself doesn’t do that, because once somebody has paid the tax they can drive it as much as they like.”

A congestion charge, which the report refers to, would be more popular than a general increase in petrol costs, which are already high based on recent hikes in oil prices. While the government’s tax receipts for 2009 remain under pressure, the importance of VRT has hugely dropped over the last six months.

Net VRT receipts in the first half of the year amounted to €269m, compared to €866m for the same period last year, according to Department of Finance figures.

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Jobs at Sheehan Medical’s new private hospital the Cork Medical Centre

Following on from my recent post http://www.republicpr.ie/?p=233  in relation the high number of enquiries we have had relating to jobs at Sheehan Medical’s new private hospital in Mahon Cork, the Cork Medical Centre, all prospective employees should now send their covering letters and CVs to the following email: hr@sheehanmedical.com

The management are currenty in the process of being appointed so all details are being collated for when the recruitment process starts; everyone will be responded to.

More information on Sheehan Medical can be found at www.sheehanmedical.com and specific information on the new hospital can be found at www.corkmedicalcentre.com

The €90 million Cork Medical Centre in Mahon is the only private hospital proposal in Cork City that has full planning permission and full funding; the building is fully complete and is currently being fitted out in time for opening on 19th April 2010.

Extending to the 135,000 sq ft the facility is being operated by Sheehan Medical, which was founded by James Sheehan (Managing Director) and Joe Sheehan (Chairman) who is co-founder of Blackrock Clinic in Dublin and Galway Clinic in Galway.

This state of the art facility will use the latest technology and surgical techniques, combined with best practice from their successful facilities in Dublin, Galway and Chicago. It has the capacity to offer over 39,000 patient treatments per year.

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Repossession process ‘to be cut to 10 weeks’

With a lot of people who have lost their jobs recently relying on mortgage protection insurance we may still have not witnessed the bottom of the property slump in Ireland, the UK or for that matter the world.

 Mortgage protection typically lasts for year so even now we will only be seeing the beginning of problems stemming from people who were made redundant at the start of the credit crunch.

It is estimated that there are 14,000 people in Ireland with mortgage arrears and there must be many more currently surviving mortgage protection insurance. But what will happen when this protection runs out? The article below from the Sunday Times highlights that under new government rules banks will be able to reposses properties in as little as ten weeks. This is a terrifying development for anyone who has is struggling with mortgage payments or faces the ending of their mortgage protection insurance.

In other countries, such as the UK and the US there are moves to protect homeowners from repossessions, after all these are seen as the people who were caught by the banks and developers’ spin during the boom, sold over priced property and given mortgages by banks that were clearly too risky for them. Typically in Ireland the government looks to be doing just the opposite and is seeking to protect banks even further.

From The Sunday Times

August 16, 2009

Repossession process ‘to be cut to 10 weeks’

Homeowners who fall into arrears on their mortgage could lose their property within 10 weeks of a bank applying for a repossession order, under new rules approved by Dermot Ahern, the justice minister.

Ahern recently changed the law so repossession orders are heard in the Circuit Court, rather than the High Court, where legal costs are higher. But lawyers say the move could speed up repossessions and add to borrowers’ upfront legal costs.

A legal source said: “Under the old system, over 95% of cases could be sorted out without evictions and typically cases went on for a year or more and were composed of several stages, offering scope for settlement. Under the new process, the final date is set in stone from the start of the action and the whole process could take just 10 weeks.”

The Irish Banking Federation estimates there are 14,000 people with mortgages in arrears. Some 207 repossession cases were taken in the High Court in the first three months of the year.

Under the new process, a bank’s lawyer has to file a Form 2R Civil Bill at the Circuit Court, get a “return date” from a county registrar and file supporting affidavits within 21 days of that date.

A defaulting borrower must enter a court appearance within 10 days of receiving the Civil Bill and file their defending affidavits within four days of the “return date”. If a borrower fails to respond, the registrar can make an immediate order for repossession of the property.

Noeline Blackwell, the director general of the Free Legal Aid Centres, said a county registrar can grant a repossession order without a judge ever hearing a case. “The minister’s intentions are benign but way the process has been set up could do more harm than good.”.

The Department of Justice said: “The initial Form 2R must be accompanied by a grounding affidavit, setting out the entire case, which is far more onerous on the lender than the current system, where a bank needs only to provide brief details of the arrears.”

The department also insists both borrower and lender can request a time extension “at any stage”.

Facebook and texting ‘boost friendships’

A friend was recently in uproar when she walked into the living room to find her eleven year old daughter sat on the couch with a friend she had over texting each other. This is clearly a ridiculous situation, but if we get past the concerns by this worried mother that her daughter was going to grow up with huge thumbs that will replace her ability to speak, then besides wasting money nobody knows what affect this type of communication will have on the next generations interpersonal and communication skills. But, generally the criticism of electronic communication and social media by religious figures and family spokespeople has been way over the top and have clearly been coming from people who neither use nor understand the technology.

Users of Facebook and other social media sites will tell you it is a great way of increasing your circle of friends, personally I have got in touch with a number of people from school and college who I had lost touch with and find Facebook and Twitter a great way to keep in contact with friends especially when they are abroad.

The key is making sure you build on these virtual friendships with a real life one-to-one friendships and don’t think that just because you are keeping up to date with people on social media that this is a ‘real’ friendship.

It is all too tempting to go into someone’s Facebook profile to see what they’ve been up without actually calling them or seeing them in person. Personally I have Facebook open in front of me when I call someone to catch up so that we can go through their latest holiday snaps or videos of their new baby together, in this way social media is a huge boost.

In relation to texting I don’t think that I have one person where our relationship is based solely on texting, but if it has recently then I apologise. We have all been in that situation where we are too tired to call someone so we text them. It allows us to have a quick micro-chat in the meantime, but doesn’t replace speaking to them, it’s just a stop gap. It’s great when people are family gatherings and can’t talk or it’s handing for business when I just text a client to confirm an action has been done.

Friendships need to be worked at more and more as we get older and no amount of social media or texting is going to change that and nor can replace real life contact. That’s why this article from the Sunday Times was so welcome as it reinforces to non-social media users what we already knew that Facebook and texting can actually boost friendships.

From The Sunday Times

August 16, 2009

Facebook and texting ‘boost friendships‘

Jan Battles

OMG!! Far from signalling the end of real-life friendships among teenagers, electronic communication such as texting and social networking sites promotes face-to-face interaction, research shows.

As recently as this month Vincent Nichols, Catholic archbishop of England and Wales, said mobiles and internet sites such as Facebook were “dehumanising” community life and that relationships had been weakened by the decline in face-to-face meetings.

However, a study of adolescents in 31 European and north American countries, including Ireland, has found that new technology is facilitating real-life friendships rather than replacing them. The more young people communicate electronically, the more friends they tend to have and the more time they spend with them face-to-face, it found.

Researchers surveyed more than 275,000 adolescents about their use of mobile phone, text and the internet and found a remarkably consistent trend in every country. They asked them how often they talked to their friends on the phone, sent them text messages or contacted them through the internet.

They were also asked how many close friends they have, how many days a week they usually spent time with friends right after school and how many evenings per week they usually spent out with friends.

No matter how technologically advanced the country, greater use of electronic media was associated with greater face-to-face friend contact.

“The more they use electronic media communication the more friends they have and the more time they spend with friends in afternoons and evenings,” said Emmanuel Kuntsche, lead researcher on the project whose initial hypothesis was that these communication channels were detrimental to offline relationships.

His original view tallied with that expressed by Archbishop Nichols who said: “There’s a worry that an excessive use or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we’re losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that’s necessary for living together and building a community.”

Kuntsche said: “I had the impression that this is dangerous to use because they are neglecting social interactions as they have all these possibilities to interact with electronic media. My initial hypothesis was that it is bad for youth to use this excessively, however the results show the opposite.”

Johanna Clancy, 18, from Fairview in Dublin, believes social networking sites help foster friendships. Although she texts “non-stop” and goes online at least once a day she is still out meeting people “all the time”, she said.

“People who would be less outgoing socially find it easier to communicate online so it is a way to make more friends. I’ve never made a friend online that I wouldn’t have known already but I know people who have and they are friendships that are equally as solid as if you met someone face-to-face.” Alan Costello, 17, from Leixlip, Co Kildare, said: “People say you’re stuck on a computer using Twitter or MSN or Bebo but that’s not the truth. We do use it to talk to each other but it’s usually after 11pm when it’s too late to go out. Given the choice we would much sooner go and see each other in person.

Kuntsche, a senior researcher at the Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems, said that while new media facilitate the acquisition of friends it also works the other way. “When you have a lot of friends then these friends push you to use your mobile phone more frequently, for example to arrange to meet them. When I look at my school days the only way to arrange to meet in the afternoon was to fix appointments at school.

“Being able to communicate electronically in various ways — owning a mobile, having frequent access to the internet — is a factor for being more popular and being included in these social relationships. Not having a mobile might be a risk for social exclusion because you do not have the possibility to fix appointments so people may tend to forget you when they go somewhere.”

The research, published in International Journal of Public Health, used data collected for the World Health Organisation’s Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. In Ireland, 44% of 11-year-olds, 59% of 13-year-olds and 65% of 15-year-olds use electronic media communication five days or more a week.

Saoirse Nic Gabhainn of NUI Galway, who is involved in the Irish part of the HBSC project, said children have the same potential to get involved in risk behaviours such as drinking and smoking through electronic communication as meeting up with friends in real life.

“There is no protective effect in relation to risk behaviour of engaging in electronic communication as opposed to face-to-face communication. Children who use electronic communication are just as likely to be engaged in risk behaviour.”

Pirate music lovers voice political aims

I can’t claim to be a huge download pirate, partly due to my slow wi-fi connection because I live in the country, but mostly due to the fact that I still buy 12″ records. I know that this makes me old fashioned but I like to actually own the records and more importantly  the sound of the original ‘hard copy’ is far superior than that of a condensed digital file.  However, I do often rip music off YouTube or from torrents so I can listen to it whilst I am waiting for record I’ve bought to come through the post or because I want to listen tracks that haven’t been released or are so rare that it will be virtually impossible to get hold of any other way. But I’m a different generation and this must sound like madness to a teenager who has been brought up in the digital age of  iTunes and Pirate Bay.

Following the well publicised court case and gaoling of the owners of Pirate Bay the supporters of the website set up a policital arm and succeeded  in securing 7% of Sweden’s votes during the recent European elections. This looks like having widespread political ramifications with other national pirate parties spreading around Europe. This week we have heard about the Irish branch that has been set up, the Pirate Party Ireland, which is planning to run a candidate in the Donegal south-west by-election. This was covered in yesterday’s Sunday Times, the article of which I have pasted in below.

The music and film industry have been grappling with the problem of piracy for decades (remember the ‘Home Taping is Killing Music’ logo of the 1980s when the music industry feared cassette tapes were going to bring the industry to its knees) but, in recent years, as this battle has moved on-line, they have resorted to legal means and put pressure on ISPs in order to try and stem what is becomg and tidal wave of popularity.

It is the inability of the entertainment industry to deal with the issue of piracy, and accept that it is inevitability, that is fuelling movements like this. With the launch of Spotiy it seems that technology is moving towards paid for streaming type of service, which could just as easily be applied to films. This is one answer but we have yet to see a solution for the film industry other than going back to tried and tested formats, such as 3D, which people won’t be able to watch home – well until the soon approacing 3D TVs become widespread.

With the policital arm of the pirate movement aiming to gain policitical as a balance to the music industry’s strong arm tactics it will not be long before the mainstream political parties have to take notice and get up to speed with the technological developments that are driving this movement.

Pirate Party Ireland needs 300 people to sign up before it can be confirmed as an official political party. They can be contacted through  http://piratepartyireland.com/cms/contact and are also on Twitter as @piratepartie. Join now and make a difference.

By Mark Tighe

A group of politicised music lovers is planning to run a candidate in the Donegal south-west by-election under the banner of the Pirate Party Ireland.

The tech-savy youngsters want to emulate the success of the Swedish Pirate Party, which had one of its members elected to the European Parliament last June, securing 7% of the national vote in Sweden’s European election. Pirate parties have since sprung up around the world to legalise the not-for-profit sharing of music. The Pirate Party UK was confirmed as an official political party last week.

So far the Irish group has fewer than 100 members. It needs to sign up 300 people before it can be given official national status alongside the 19 parties registered for general or local elections with the clerk of the Dáil.

Some of the more obscure parties on the register for local elections include the Letterkenny Residents Party and the Workers and Unemployed Action Group (South Tipperary).

“There is a lot of interest in the party and its stance so we’re confidant we’ll get 300 members,” said Thomas Burke, one of the group’s founders. Burke, a 23-year-old IT student from Longford, said the Pirate Party would field a candidate in the Donegal by-election if it were able to register as a party before the writ is moved.

“We want to put candidates up for a general election but first we have to nail down a basic constitution,” said Burke.

“Our support comes from a younger crowd. They are tech-savy people with a love of music so anyone can relate to what we stand for.”

Despite record industry claims that illegal downloads cost it millions each year, Dick Doyle, the director general of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), wished the party well, but added: “I don’t think there will be a worldwide momentum to change the protections for all artists from books to TV and music.”

The battle for Cork – Two Out of the Three Private Hospital Plans In Disarray

There has been a lot of talk recently about the competition between private hospitals in Cork and the three way battle to be the first open there for decades with proposals from the Beacon Medical Group and Sheehan Medical that were initiated during the boom and the newcomer to the market O’Callaghan Properties.

The problematic co-location proposals by the Beacon Group at CUH have been well documented in Ireland. In June they emerged from An Bord Pleanala with an approval only to find that during the year the project was delayed, the investment market has changed drastically and what they are now facing is very a different situation than before, with funding now much harder to raise.

The Beacon Group stated publicly on the front page of the Cork Echo on 18^thJune that, whereas before they could have got funding from three banks, now they are having to approach eight. Not a nice situation to be in especially during a recession, but it is symptomatic of how much the business sector can change whilst they are stuck in protracted delays caused at An Bord Pleanalla.

Another very high profile project that has run into problems this week are the proposals by O’Callaghan Properties  for a private hospital on Western Road, Cork City, which is now the subject of multiple appeals to An Bord Pleanalla. This project has been very highly publicised despite not have planning permission, with Owen Callaghan himself appearing on Newstalk’s ‘Down To Business’.  In my eyes this is always a dangerous strategy in which clients are setting themselves up for a fall until their projects have passed the appeals process, which is why I advised my clients Sheehan Medical not to announce their proposals until they had a project with full planning and were sure that it was definitely going ahead.

The O’Callaghan’s proposals want to redevelop a residential site where they already have planning permission for apartments although this was not without its problems and itself went to An Bord Pleanalla where the size was drastically reduced in order to protect St Finbarre’s Cathedral. The hospital proposals went way past this protected view and were only marginally reduced when the City Council granted permission.  This now means that another private hospital is bogged down for year at An Bord Pleanala and possibly faces refusal as it contrary to the residential zoning of the site and the surrounding area, and it severely harms the views and setting of the Cathedral.

As a former planning consultant, abeit not for the past ten years, I am only too aware of the ups and downs of property development. In Ireland the system is particularly problematic because any third party can appeal a planning approval. This means anyone anywhere in the country can appeal against any planning application as long as they objected to it during the application consultation period. This system is open to widespread abuse with serial objectors looking to hold developers to ransom in return for withdrawing their objections or appeal.

Sometimes though the system allows those with genuine concerns to make their feelings known and helps keep an eye on powerful developers who find it all too easy to get their developments approved by the local councils. This all leads to a very uncertain planning process. What makes the problem worse is that An Bord Pleanalla currently takes ten to twelve months to come to a decision on appeals, this is especially problematic in the current market when developers are looking for investment because things change rapidly and to have to suffer uncertainty for a year whilst in appeal means developers have to go back to the drawing board when fundraising as Beacon now are now finding out.

I have seen this first hand since acting on behalf of Sheehan Medical (the Chairman was the founder of the Blackrock Clinic and Galway Clinic). When I was brought on board to handle their PR they had already been embroiled in a development site in Bishopstown Cork that was at appeal. The appeal delayed the project by two years and added millions of euros to their costs. I advised them to re-structure their approach to obtaining a site and only go for sites that had planning permission, thus taking away a planning risk. This led us to finding the City Gate business park in Mahon, which was fully built with full planning permission for a private hospital. Bingo! The deal was announced in June http://www.republicpr.ie/?p=45 and gained wide national publicity in broadcast media and press. The simplicity of project i.e. fully built with full planning permission meant that all was needed the fit out of the building allowing us to announce the opening of the hospital on 19th April next year only ten months after the deal was announced.

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Jobs at Sheehan Medical’s new Cork Medical Centre

Application for Cork’s newest private hospital the Cork Medical Centre

Since the launch in June of Sheehan Medical’s new private hospital in Cork, the Cork Medical Centre, I have been inundated with CVs and requests for information on jobs, so I have decided to post further details on what to do here (please see the last paragraph for details on how to apply).

What I find particularly interesting is the fact that people are contacting me (the company’s PR) and not Sheehan Medical direct, which is because my press release and blog posting on the hospital http://www.republicpr.ie/?p=45 are coming up in Google searches higher than Sheehan Medical’s own website for the hospital, which incidentally is www.corkmedicalcentre.com

The reason my press release comes up highest on Google is because I put it on www.irishpressreleases.ie, which is a brilliant site for on line marketing because it is very highly ranked in Google. My blog post also features highly because it is written in a very specific way so as to be picked up by search engines, they are therefore, both a great way of coming up for specific key word searches, which in this instance are ‘cork medical centre jobs’ or ‘Sheehan Medical cork jobs’.

For anyone who would like to apply for a jobs at the Cork Medical Centre the management team are currently being appointed, however, please email me you CV and outline in the email what position you are applying for and I will pass them onto the management. Please send them to Siobhan Kennedy via hr@corkmedicalcentre.com