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POPE FRANCIS IS to meet with Irish survivors of clerical abuse next weekend.
It will be the first time since his election that the Pontiff has met with those who have been abused to hear of their experiences.
It will also be the first time that Irish survivors of abuse have met with a Pope.
The Irish Catholic reports that a number of Irish survivors will travel to the Vatican for the meeting which is expected to take place at the Vatican guesthouse – where the Pope lives.
They will be accompanied by survivors of clerical abuse from other parts of the world including Britain, the United States and Poland.
The Vatican says the Pope’s meeting with survivors is “a key opportunity to hear their experiences first-hand and to assure them that the Church is determined to continue to act decisively on the issue”.
Francis has promised to continue a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to abuse.
The meeting will be held in private but survivors will then be able to decide whether or not they want to speak to the media about it.
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Worked my arse off and we denied ourselves luxuries like fancy holidays and car upgrades, concert tickets, expensive meals out, flash clothes, all the razzmatazz of the Celtic Tiger era. Instead we paid that sucker off and now I can give the finger to the bank. It’s a happy place to live in. Plus I can pad my pension in the years to come so I don’t have to live like a pauper in retirement.
But some people want it all and want it now, so they will leave their kids with debts instead of an inheritance.
@Clancy: people don’t understand the meaning of personal responsibility anymore. It’s far easier to moan and look for a council house than it is to do it your way. Well done
@Michael Geraghty: Get off my lawn!!!
@Clancy: Same as that, been paying a mortgage since I came out of college. Missed the fancy clothes, cars, winter sun and ski holidays that my mates enjoyed. But hey, 36 now, mortgage will be gone before 40!
@Lord Clanricarde: you saved 2 or 3 years off your mortgage?
@Clancy: Same as and well done you.
never needed to buy things I didn’t need with money I didn’t have.
Never looked for hand outs, just educated myself and worked very very hard to loose the monkey of my back.
@Michael Geraghty: Oh aren’t you and Clancy such a smug pair-you should get together, perhaps at a FG Ard Fheis; I too am part of the lucky generation who were able to get and pay a mortgage, hard as it was, but I don’t look down at younger people who have been screwed by the system, no matter how personally responsible they are. And these things are all about THE SYSTEM, not CHARACTER- the Irish establishment has distorted the economy so it benefits some and exploits a vastly greater number, no matter what they try to do ‘their way’-get a little humility and empathy, and thank your lucky stars, no actually, get up off your big fat ego and put the system back to one that benefits younger folk as much as it helped Clancy, you and me!
@Michael Bride: I’m 33? I haven’t benefited from the system at all or of the mortgage generation as you call it. I have debt and will continue to have but I work hard and provide for my family. I will never be ashamed of that.
@Clancy:
What ever you do don’t put money into a pension scheme.
Invest in property, art, gold, silver, blue chip companies, retail giants etc.
Handing over money to these vulture vampires in Irish Life etc will make you loose money long term.
Where do you think all these flash executives get the money for their mansions in the country?
The big cars.
The big salaries.
The club membership.
The foreign “Business” trips, wink wink.
The fat cat pensions which are not invested in the same “products” that are sold to you.
I could go on.
These pension companies are pyramid ponzi schemes who can only pay out because there are more people paying in.
With commercial interest rates at zero and negative in some countries, these ponzi schemes cannot expand their capital reserves and so depend on new members to pay out to the old members.
So just don’t do it.
Of course another philosophy is to live well and live hard while you’re young instead of struggling through the best years of your life to be more comfortable in the less vibrant and healthy time of your life (which you mightn’t anyway reach).
@Cram Wood:
What you have written is incorrect.
That is all.
@Cram Wood: you have very little understanding of markets and economics. Stop listening to Alex jones
Property ownership is a scam
@Cram Wood: Possibly the worst advice I have ever seen. If Carlsberg did bad advice, your name would be Carl Carlson McCarlsberg.
@Dave O Keeffe: ok David if you say so with your baseless comment
@Cram Wood: we have very will regulated life companies thank you very much.
They don’t need new members to pay off old ones. While if that was the case I would share concern you can no rest easy knowing that insurance companies are required by law to have enough money to pay all policyholders plus a little extra for a rainy day.
@Michael Geraghty: You were most likely born in a Public hospital, You received free Primary, Secondary and Third level education. you got free healthcare for the most part as a child and dentistry. and your Ma go cash in hand every month for 18-20 years to put clothes on your back. I’d say you certainly have benefited from the system. Like all of us have.
@Michael Bride: well said, smugness and self righteousness is in large supply on here, sickening!
@Clancy: applying for a mortgage in the new year and we’re told they will not mortgage passed the age of 65. Is this correct? If so people will have no choice but to have mortgage paid by retirement.
@Clancy: wouldn’t be so smug in this country anything is possible,look at those lost their pensions,this shower find ways to elevate you of your smugness,Kenny stole from private pensions.
@Chief: done and dusted in 12 years!
@Michael Bride: My first house had no kitchen, no wardrobes, no central heating. My wife and I furnished it with crap, did plumbing ourselves (can’t believe how brave we were) electrics, wall paper stripping, plaster repairs, painting, flooring, tiling etc etc. People today expect to walk into a house that looks like a showroom. That’s not a system, that’s a choice.
We had to save 20% deposit. Hear people scream because they are back to that. It is only sensible.
Also we had Mortgage @ 12% interest as NORMAL. In recession in 1993 they went to 21%.
Would you like a chip for your other shoulder?
@Cram Wood: In simple terms you are wrong.
Irish Tax System favours pension investments. If the pension fund does not make a single penny you recoup 16% over contribution AFTER you withdraw.
Pension funds already do invest in Blue Chip companies – Retail giants (they are the same thing buddy) and if you want to invest in commodities or properties they give you options on those too, but tax efficiently.
@Michael Geraghty: baseless? I couod pay the same amount over my lifetime in rent and never be restricted in where I can live, never have the financial pressure, never pay for renovations etc
@Dave O Keeffe: seemly so ,seen that is your house but you can’t do anything with it without an *ssh*le giving you permission.
Also this people who think everyone who can’t pay their mortgage is because they live of luxuries and holidays are not realistic. People can’t pay their bills because the price of every dam thing goes up by over 100% and because this crooked government of the rich for the rich by the rich keep inventing more things that basically are non existing services and empty taxes and levies so that they can get more money to fuel this recovery lies . Also the big big bubble scam is growing again . So no one can afford the basics only the salaried rich ones .
@Clancy: Why should you leave your kids an inheritance, let them work for their luxuries like you and haven’t you given them enough already. Kill yourself, your whole life to own something and then die. Why not rent, live a little and you can’t take it with you. If we sorted the rental stock in this country and had quality with quantity? We’d be far happier renting, holidaying and enjoying life!
@Dave O Keeffe:
Great strategy if you don’t have kids/family (or if you have kids/family but aren’t planning on leaving them anything when you die).
@Michael Geraghty: Council house? What bloody country do you live in? In Ireland there are 90,000 people on the housing list. The government will sell half of the social housing stock this year and build somewhere in the region of 50 houses. Bloody council house bechrist!
@Stephen murphy: Another person who doesn’t seem to live in Ireland. Do you understand that renting costs twice as much as buying?
@Stephen murphy: The “Inheritance” is a rainy day fund in case I or my Wife end up in expensive nursing care. If we are lucky enough not to burn through the value of our home on a “Fair Deal” arrangement there will be something left for the kids.
Nah I just plan to work some other five years after I’m dead .
@WilhelminaMCallaghan: Don’t tell it laud cause Government may listen !!
@cortisola: I know right is unreal
No I’ll just retire to Spain, far cheaper cost of living
@Jonny: Fantastic idea unless there will be next war there…
@Jonny: If your financial growth yield exceeds the mortgage interest rate, take your time paying off the lower interest mortgage payment streaming your excess funds to your investments. Then the opposite is true too when your personal financial growth yield is less than your mortgage interest rate – pay off the mortgage before retiring.
- John from http://www.insurancepanda.com
The idea is to create a creditocracy and are a rentier economy so that people are compelled to work until 75 if they live that long.
People are now pat8ng on average more than three times for mortgages and rent as a percentage of real income on residential accommodation as they did in the early 1950s.
Housing accommodation is what evaporates wealth from those who work to those who use housing in order to extract that wealth.
The biggest leverage you have in extracting economic advantage out of a working human is to have leverage over their home whether as a bank or as a landlord.
Housing is now the source of the greatest and most extreme exploitation of the working sectors in Irish society. It is likwise in the UK.
@Fiona deFreyne: you’re conveniently forgetting the early ‘80’s when mortgage interest rates fluctuated between 16% and 18%, and as you reference the ‘50’s you haven’t mentioned that rates on the family home back then were typically 1-1.5 times the cost of the mortgage repayments.
@BerthaLovejoy: Yeah! You’re right.
@Fiona deFreyne: lol. I guess if you are inclined to live your life according to pseudo norms of the conspiracy theorist, perhaps. But the statistics on mortgages v properties in Ireland, plus household money on deposit i’m afraid blow your argument to shreds.
@iohanx: You would like to think so.
I’m one of the people who when @rsehole BIFFO said ‘we all partied’ was left wondering when the party was; my invitation must have been lost int eh post (jk)! I’ll never be able to afford a mortgage unless I get younger, get promoted to a much higher pay grade in my semi-state job, the USC is scrapped, my tax band is increased and I win the lottery! Totally doable, right?!?
@Smidgen Dublin: what about an inheritance? ????any rich relatives that particularly like you…….could be a good leg-up
@Smidgen Dublin: I know the feeling
I do if I retire at 70.
@TellingItAsItIs: There is no way the vast majority could afford to retire with a morgage
@ktsiwot: Well, as someone said already “Housing accommodation is what evaporates wealth from those who work to those who use housing in order to extract that wealth. “
Is there a “I effing hope so” option?
@Spongebobdub: I’m missing the option “…pay off mortgage before you die” since this is more realistic.
A lot of people who were claiming they were waiting for the crash got stung by this. As prices rose and they got older the discovered they were too old to get a mortgage and lending was more restrictive. They laughed at people in negative equity. Now they are paying rent twice that of mortgages and can never buy.
Just something to note while people wait and want another crash. You have until 45 to get a mortgage at the latest for a 25 year mortgage after that you will rent for ever in most cases.
Yes I do, but I also expect to win the Euromillions tonight, so I’m not sure how realistic my expectations are. Daft question.
Nah, wouldn’t bother. There’s going to be an alien invasion in 3 years time (April 22nd to be exact), which will render all this mortgage malarkey obsolete. In the meantime I’m going to stockpile food.
@O Swetenham: 22nd? Are you sure..?? I have the 23rd marked in my diary.
@Alan Leahy: looks like you’re right actually. When I was doing my calculations I forgot to carry the 1. Sure either way we’re all doomed.
@O Swetenham: I thought the rapture was the 27th of this month so they won’t find much when they land, or maybe that’s what they planned all along..
I expect both my Dublin home and
Holiday home paid off by the time I’m 55 because I don’t have kids. Ahhhh! Oh and I go on 5 holidays a year.
@Noj Nikrub:
I don’t have a holiday home, I will be still paying my mortgage past 55 and I don’t go on 5 holidays a year. However, I have 4 wonderful healthy and happy children which cost me an absolute fortune but they are worth every cent. The joy they bring to life could not be replaced with any amount of money or holidays
@Noj Nikrub: Going on holiday 5x a year, presumably with Ryanair, good luck you brave but certainly not to be envied person..
@Noj Nikrub: I’ll have both paid off before I’m 50, save for annual holidays, and I managed to have kids as well – it’s not one or the other; not being sentimental, but what is the point of owning anything if you don’t get to share it and pass on it’s worth? I’d rather live with kids in a rusty caravan in the hills of Donegal than buy empty barren houses for selfish pleasure.
Thing is there is alot to be said for not paying your mortgage back for years, yes the interest will hurt, but the devaluation of money means that 250k today is worth alot more than 250k in 30 years time. Your mortgage is the cheapest money you will ever borrow. it makes more sense to service that and use your extra cash for living rather than paying lumps off your capital early.
@Bilbo Baggins: Agree, especially if you are on a tracker, no loan is cheaper.
@psychiatrist: but wouldn’t it be cheaper to not have to borrow at all (and have an increasing asset like a house paid off)?
@Bilbo Baggins:
Depends if your spare cash can earn more in interest / dividends than the interest rate on your mortgage. If so it makes no sense to pay off early, but if not (eg. deposit interest rates now close to 0%) it makes sense to clear the mortgage with it.
@Bilbo Baggins: this is ridiculous nonsense. You won’t own the home at the end of the mortgage term and will have to pay off the entire principal outstanding when you have a greatly reduced income stream. It makes no sense. It would be a better idea to rent a house for 25 years and probably a cheaper option. Some landlords did buy interest only and sold the house when property values rose and made money. Others though were at the mercy of falling house prices for much of the last decade. You do know that house prices and inflation can go down as well as up?
Couldn’t find an option for “A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha dear God no
Almost should be paid by 40, although building your house and living in it at the same time whilst working on it all night every night has been an experience to say the least.
Got a mortgage at 32.
30 year term.
Started paying 10% extra per month.
Term reduced to 26 years.
Hope to have it paid off by time I’m 58, maybe even sooner.
They would only give me a mortgage that ended when I was 65. Made me feel old
Workin on tryna clear it by 50
@Is Mise jay:
I took out a 30 year mortgage at 25. So it will be clear by the time I’m 55.
Only another 18 years to go.
@Lily: Then you get +10 years to save on your retirement ;-)
already paid, worked my ass off, so did it in 12 years
@Barry morcom: Best 12 years of your life?
@Barry morcom:
Lucky you. Maybe sell up in about 3 or 4 years at the top of the market and then buy it back a few years later for half the price
@Barry morcom: Careful now or you’ll have the “We want everything for free” brigade on your case for showing them up
@Cathal: Hopefully Barry will have a long healthy life and not have wasted 12 years of his life ‘working his ass off’.
@Cathal:
Yes Cathal, good point. He works hard and clears his mortgage and no doubt there will be people looking for him to pay an extra tax to support them
@TellingItAsItIs:
Yes, such a waste of time to work hard and pay off your mortgage…
@Avina Laaf: Imho, It is if you’re only on this Earth for a short while and he bould Jesus decides he wants you earlier than expected :-). Happens.
@TellingItAsItIs: Some hard work, occasionally is fine I think. Just don’t make it a habit.
@psychiatrist: Agreed. I remember reading an article written by a Palliative care nurse. She said that having spoken to so many people on their death beds about their lives and what they may have regretted most. It was “not having lived enough to enjoy it” being their number one regret.
@TellingItAsItIs: The only people who think it’s a waste to work hard are wasters.
@Cindy Crawford:
TBH I think you have to have a happy medium, work hard and play hard!
@Cindy Crawford: There’s a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.
@TellingItAsItIs: totally worth it
@Cathal: haha probably will, but can be done, i was homeless for a year, still worked, lived in shared houses,rented then bought 15 year’s back and I’m in my mid 40′s now so youngish enough to enjoy it…
@Barry morcom: well done
@Dave O Keeffe: thank you
Increased our payments and finally paid off the mortgage in January this year. Best feeling ever, and still saving the same amount each month
So far at least 513 people think they’re going to retire. And here’s me thinking public servants are underrepresented in the comments section.
Think I’ll go on the social, seems to be the trend these days – dole, housing list, smokes, jeremy kyle – easier than going to work & paying my taxes to pay for them to exist without effort
@Emer Caffrey: Have you even costed what you are saying? Seriously do the math and come back, see if your stupid opinion holds water.
Oh and I do not claim welfare, but I have a basic understanding of the “benefits” it gives
Where’s the tick box that asks what’s retirement?
@Lydia McLoughlin: It’s when you die – unless you’re work in public sector.
Can’t even get one, let alone pay it off
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: probably should of studied harder pal
@Michael Geraghty: Why’s that?
@Michael Geraghty:
Should *have*
@Michael Geraghty: Look at this plonker with a picture of a Rolls Royce in his profile? We all believe that the guy who can’t spell is super smart and rich. Get back in the basement fool.
All the yes votes here are probably trackers, how unfair is that?,
Someone who has a 300k mortgage repaying the same as someone on a 150k
@Mr Mystery:
The trackers were paying high interest rates in 2005. One reason we decided against a tracker rate. That was the whole point, if the tracker rate dropped you were sorted. It was a gamble. It worked out for them.
@Lily: The reality is it was never really a gamble from the consumers point of view. While you could get a fixed rate it would only be for a short time and you paid a lot for it and then return to the a variable rate which still had a high bank rate added. Trackers were always the best long term choice.
@Mr Mystery: Why is it unfair? Banks made it possible for them to take a risk, it could have gone either way. Currently they reap in the benefits of their decision and I congratulate them for that.
Does anyone love those ads that go
Today is the last day of Mary and Marks mortgage…..?? They probably celebrate by replacing the 30 year old duvet covers
@Tony Hannon: or going under the covers and going at it more like…
@Tony Hannon: Who looks at that ad and thinks, yes I’m going to get a mortgage? I can’t even begin to imagine who it might be aimed at.
Its depressing, I sometimes imagine that Mick went out to the shed and hanged himself right after they shot the ad.
Like a lot of commentators I’m coming to the end of my mortgage-nearly 33 years and hard,hard, hard going, especially during the first decade. What I can’t understand is the smugness and animosity that’s prevailing-what’s with all this ‘people moaning for council houses’ ‘think I’ll go on the social, dole, Jeremy Kyle, housing list and smokes’ crap? Yes, we lucky people struggled for what we have but it doesn’t make us better than the generation who came after, to find the neolibs had thrashed the system for the benefit of greedy developers, bankers, vulture funds and landlords-those people have no luck, and it doesn’t matter how hard they struggle and strive, they’re screwed by the system, and it is about the system, NOT individual character. Clancy, Emer, Michael Geraghty-are your egos so starved you have to wallow in the misery around you? It’s a real insight into the minds of the typical FG/FF voter (any of you deny that fact) and it’s not a pretty sight!
My plan is to wait until right before the next recession comes around, flog my house for a fortune, rent for a couple of years and then buy a palace with the profits. Bam! Retirement sorted.
@Stephen Foster: Go for it can’t see any problems taking such a gamble. Not like people did this and ended up losing money
Sure the world is going to end tomorrow according to some crazy christian in the US. They never lie.
Paid of at 49 .
March 2018 can’t wait. Bought apartment during the ‘recession 2012 120k!! Worth 330k during the Celtic tiger era which is extortionate price!!. I got lucky!! Had a good Paying job since I was 21 earning 39k. 33.now. Saving hard all the time!!. Renting out room to tenant. Rent a room. Scheme. I reckon before the decade is over there’ll be another crash. Unfortunately there not many hoses compared to the last recession. but I predict prices will fall. Buy precious metals during recessions and sell any shares you have!!. Made money by doing this the last time. Silver tripled in price. Shares fell dramatically all round!!. The only chance anyone starting off is if there a a recession. The only time prices will fall.
@Justin Gabriel: The problem is due to the crash lots of people thing a crash is an inevitability. It isn’t. There are lots of components at play to make it happen but oversupply is key and if you think in the next 3 years there will be an oversupply you haven’t being paying attention.
We don’t have enough housing for current demands or predicted demands and supply lead time to meet that is 10 years if there is funding and zoned land.
Capping rents is a disincentive to build so nobody is planning on building enough. Prices can easily keep going up for another 5 years but coming down in the next 10 is highly unlikely.
Welcome to Slavery 21st Century style…
The poll is a bit of an odd question since retirement age is fixed in most people’s minds as 65 but is currently 66 I believe with plans to move it up to 70. This is because public sector workers and guards have the kitty drained.
Still earning a meagre wage working for meself after 20 years out of college. Was hoping for better. Not much hope of a mortgage I’m afraid.
Who the hell can afford a mortgage?
Sure I won’t be able to retire until I’m about 75 at this rate so I hope so!
have your say