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THE RETAIL SECTOR’S representatives have called on the government to take decisive action to help businesses in Budget 2017, after figures show consumers’ cautiousness in the wake of the Britain’s EU referendum.
A report released by Retail Ireland, a representative group for shops across Ireland, has released a report that outlines possible Brexit-related threats to the Irish retail sector.
The report, entitled ‘Brexit Threatens Retail’s Recovery’, gives its view of how Brexit has already begun to scare customers, and says that the government must react swiftly to counteract this development, and to ensure Ireland’s positive economic outlook.
The director of Retail Ireland, Thomas Burke, elaborated on this:
Ireland is uniquely exposed to Brexit’s chill winds. Consumer confidence has fallen back, after months of strong growth, and retailers say positive momentum has slowed in recent weeks. While domestic retailers are moving quickly to adapt to their new environment, the government must also take decisive steps in Budget 2017.
It is not known the exact impact Brexit will have on Ireland, as there are positives and negatives to Britain leaving the European Union.
However, recent indicators – including sterling being downgraded to its lowest value in UK history – have shown that the outlook for the near future is not positive.
Burke highlighted one difficulty in particular for Ireland if the British sterling was devalued:
This raises the spectre of a potential return to cross-border shopping, which while not evident now, is a possibility in the future.
The worrying figures
The report measured the performance of retail by dividing the sector into 12 categories, including supermarkets and convenience stores, food and drink, pharmacies, and fuel.
The amount being spent in these categories, plus the quantities that were bought was also noted (e.g. €5 spent in-store versus 10 individual items bought).
It also compared this year’s figures to last year’s, this quarter to last year’s quarter, June 2015 to June 2016, and finally, June 2016 compared to May 2016.
When figures across all sectors are compared to those recorded last year, the numbers seem overwhelmingly positive. However, an emerging pattern appears when comparing figures from the month of June – the month when Brexit occurred – to the month of May, which reflects consumers’ fears of Brexit, according to Retail Ireland.
The above decline of 16.2% in homeware store sales, compared to an increase of 7.6% per quarter, suggests that consumers are being cautious about the amount of ‘unnecessary’ spending they are doing, and Retail Ireland are worried that this means they are cutting back.
Higher minimum wage ‘not justifiable’
Burke also weighed in on the rate of the national minimum wage, saying that Ireland’s minimum wage was already 6% higher than the UK’s, with that gap likely to widen if the sterling’s value were to fall further.
He added:
We can only conclude that this will put border retailers at a considerable disadvantage when compared to their counterparts in Northern Ireland.
The rate of minimum wage has been debated fiercely recently after a report from the Low Pay Commission recommended that the national minimum wage be increased by 10 cent.
This announcement sparked opposing reactions, with some saying that the minimum wage, currently at €9.15 an hour, should be increased to reflect the current cost of living while others argued that this would put an added burden on small business owners, who employ the majority of Irish workers.
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Massive massive credit to all concerned for sticking their head above the parapet to lampoon . They deserve all right minded peoples support irrespective of religion for leading the way in dismantling taboo subject. Some muslims will be offended but they more than anyone need to marginalise the vile extremists that are isis.And mocking the british women who marry jihadists is another string to the bow. Kudos
That’s f*cking funny.
Won’t have gone down well in Bradford or Birmingham.
@The_Techno_Mage: Only marginally funny, very predictable humour no great originality in the sketch and not very convincing. 3 out of 10. Give me Brendan Grace any day.
The fact that it is done at all is the issue…. Islam not noted for its sense of humour…… There is no Iman Ted showing in Pakistan
I think this is very clever. Online satire is an effective way to embarrass and shame idiots who believe in radical islam
Comedy (weak as it is in the sketch) does not discriminate nor should it. Keep it up…maybe do ‘Jordan Shore’ next…
“Marginally funny” “predictable”. That IS Brendan Grace.
Let’s just hope the Far-Right in Ireland don’t try to have it banned like they did with Father Ted. Fair play to the Liberal and progressive writers and producers of this sketch.
Far left open borders crowd spent all day yesterday trying to ban an article from the Irish Times because they disagreed with the authors opinion.
Far left open borders anarchists led by rejected political loser Aodohan O’Riordan recently attempted to have RTE permanently ban from air, speakers who shared a different opinion to their own far left dogmatic outlook.
@OpenBorders:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New account Liam, Tariq, Petr etc etc? hahaha
Coz you have to laugh at embarrassing rubbish like Grace, Tierney and all the other homegrown drek coz they’re, yknow, our own
Like Citizen Khan. Omg such sh@t. Like Give my head Peace. BBC doesnt always get it right
Let me guess. It is liberals who are complaining that Islamic extremists are being mocked?
@Superfiends: Or that ISIS represents the fundamentals of Islam.
@Superfiends:
Surprised Amnesty haven’t lodged a complaint with the UN.
@Alex Falcone: i hear colm o’gorman is on newstalk today have a whine about it
@Alex Falcone: Let’s be clear, the only people who have objected to this are those who believe it is offensive to people oppressed by ISIS. They have a point, but I think this kind of satire which mocks the ridiculousness of their so called cause is important, and it follows in the stead of the excellent “Four Lions” by Chris Morris.
I saw some criticism that this was “Islamophobic”, which was weird cos I thought ISIS had nothing to do with Islam?
@Emeralds: I had that argument with someone not long back “ISIS have nothing to do with Islam”.
Me: “So what does the first I stand for ?”
Them: “That proves nothing”.
Some people will play the Neville Chamberlain card under we’re all blown to smithereens.
Islam has nothing to do with ISIS unless it’s satirised, apparently.
@Fitzy:
Anything that gets Colm O’Gormans knickers in a twist is a bonus.
@Clever Jake:
Maybe to you it’s obscure, maybe to the Shia, Sufi and Ahammadi sects of Islam, but to the Sunni Wahabbi/Salafists in particular its is the purest form of Islam.
Ask yourself, where does ISIS, Nusra and Boko Haram, to name but a few, get their evil ideas from??
Isis is to Islam what Nazism was to German nationalism.
I don’t think you know what a liberal is. I am one and I think this is hilarious. I also think the people jumping up and down about Pell’s article in the Times are hilarious and pathetic. But Pell is a disgusting apologist for a disgusting ideology.
@Clever Jake:
Can’t fault you regarding the Saudis.
http://www.theworldweekly.com/reader/view/magazine/2015-01-22/the-battle-for-islam/3090
It’s really funny though ,I got a great laugh out of it. Well done.
Saw this. Quite funny.
Hopefully the actresses involved have good security protection.
If it was made here it would probably be banned under the Catholic Blasphemy Law.
@OpenBorders:
Christians have a great sense of humour. Honed in the Colosseum I believe.
No Tariq it would not
@OpenBorders: People have short memory’s and think Catholics are ok with satire, but history shows us they hate being mocked in anyway.
People forget that “Life Of Brian” was banned in Ireland until 1987, when it was unbanned the rated it as a 18′s movie which is frankly insane. It was banned for 8 years in Ireland.
Equally Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life was banned until 1990!
Very true Barry,and the off-spring of those fundamentalist radicals can be seen here daily pointing the finger of blame at everyone but themselves,they’d have us living in caves if they could,the Alt-Right are a cruel and regressive group.
Agreed, actually I’m pretty sure the Monty Python lads had to get round the clock armed protection for many years after.
It’s not specifically a Catholic blasphemy law. Sure if it was it wouldn’t matter a damn – nobody would take or succeed in a prosecution. The problem is that it is a general blasphemy law and any nut job religion could seek a prosecution.
And let’s not get too sanctimonious about it – town councils in England and Wales can ban films and it was only in 2008 that the ban was lifted in Aberystwyth after 30 years (not a RC stronghold), it was banned in Norway, in Germany and in several places in the US.
@Alex Falcone:
Alex, would you find it as funny if they were lampooning the fairy tales that you believe in rather than the ones that someone else believes?
@Pseud O’Nym:
Not at all.
Actually one of my hobbies is satirising atheists.
How can you blaspheme against something that doesnt exist lol
Brilliant sketch. Hilariously funny. Rightly having a go at the animals within ISIS. In no way “racist” or any other silly word certain people would like to call it. Sure wasn’t father Ted a great show!
Trust the liberals to come to the defence of ISIS.
I’d describe myself as quite liberal and I think it’s absolutely hilarious. Is that allowed?
Same here
Eamonn can only think in black and white. Don’t go confusing the poor rightest …Ehm..Oh yeah…snowflake.
I’m a Liberal and thought it was very funny,poor old Eamon,it’s awful confusing for bigots when they can’t pigeonhole people into neat little categories,hurts their brains.
@The Bloody Nine: You’ll have to refer to Liberal High Command. They might throw you out for not adhering to the group think though,
It’s not the Catholic Church though.
Snap. I lol’d damn hard when I watched it. Although I was thinking, someone somewhere is going to lose their shit over this.
Very funny – the people complaining are self-fulfiling prophecies of idiocy. The irony is that the day that satire is filtered is a sorry day and the end of liberal democracy… take note Liberals.
Much like the mild hysteria at the Irish times article yesterday informing people about the alt-right. We’re a generation away from eating our young.
They should use the correct RTE and BBC term….The real housewives of so called Islamic state
You cant spell fundamentalist without fun!
More to the point is that you can’t spell it without “mental”
Very well done..hilarious!
Anyone who says this is mocking Islam is essentially saying all Muslims are terrorists. Stupid SJW liberals. I think it’s brilliant.
Max Johnson Powers,it is Far Right,conservative religious groups who will be offended by this,just like fundamentalist Catholics were upset by Father Ted. Liberals create comedic satire,those on the Far Right loathe it.
I didn’t mean liberals in general. I said SJW liberals. They are a different breed altogether.
luckily satire is protected by the European courts….unfortunately, this involves a country that convicted a guy for joking about blowing up an airport if it remained closed for a week due to snow, and he had to go all the way to the supreme court to have his conviction overturned.
@Clever Jake: We’re not far off it – we’re criminalising EVERYTHING. Won’t be able to fart in public soon without running the risk of 12 months for causing offence and a further 6 for the air pollution.
Well whatever about the 12 months you deserve the six months
It’s hilarious satire, bit like the RHO Dublin
Didn’t realise it was the BBC.
Very good satire.
Well done.
There should be muslim father Ted, as funny as it was it did bring up some if issue with the church,
As they say on till you can laugh at your self you can’t change.
@JustMade Ireland:
Mullah Abdullah perhaps?
Looks class in fairness.
Can’t wait to see this
You already have. It is a sketch, not a forthcoming series lol
I disagree with people saying liberals are complaining about this. I’m one of those liberal types and while I thought it was funny, I think it was mild and didn’t go far enough. Satire is about using humour to make a political or social statement. The only people who are complaining about this are people who don’t understand satire. Reminds me of a few months ago when WWN wrote a story about sucide rates in Cork. People were out raged, completely missing the point of the story.
Brilliant!
Liberals gong mad again. Why don’t they just join ISIS
Actually it’s conservatives who are going mad,liberals created the sketch,facepalm.
@Clever Jake: Oh the liberals. Where would we be with out ye? A very uncivilized people, I would imagine.
You clearly do not understand liberalism muckymoo. It’s just a lazy label for you. Next you are going to start saying snowflake.
One of the best ways to attack that ideology is to lampoon it. And this is bloody hilarious!
some of the crackpots on here would have you believe this will happen in ballaghadreen.
@the truth: It will. And I doubt you’ll see it coming.
@ceannairblue I will just keep looking for your paronoid over the top posts on here to see it.
As satire goes I though the whole show laid it on a bit too thick. I like my satire dry and subtle
But maybe that just reflects society. Society may just be a bit too thick, not dry or subtle.
Although apparently next week’s show includes their fake Tory MP thanking Jeremy Corbyn for giving the Tories electoral success for the next 10 years.
If they are Islam should they be saying oh my God????
Christ on a bike Collette. Cmon.
@Niall Lonergan – “Christ” indeed. ….I see what you did there…. :)
al-Lah means the God. It’s a bot like saying shouldn’t Jew’s say oh my Yahweh
Damned auto correct. *Bit *Jews
#OMG #Facepalm #Oldie
It’s dynamite
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