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EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING,TheJournal.ie brings you the five stories you need to know about before you head out the door.
1. #CROKE PARK 2: The trade union UNITE, which represents 6,500 public sector workers, has recommended its members vote to reject the ‘Croke Park 2′ pay deal. The union said the cuts being proposed “cannot be sustained by the workers we represent nor can they be anything other than disastrous for jobs across the broad economy”.
2. #TAX DEFAULTERS: The Revenue Commissioners published details today of the €27.7 million paid in taxes, interest and penalties by 135 tax defaulters. The highest payment was made by Michael Healy, a plant hire contractor in Aughrim, Co Wicklow, whose settlement amounted to €2.026 million – based on an original tax bill of €694,317.
3. #SURROGACY: In a landmark case, the genetic parents of twins born to a surrogate have won their High Court case to have the biological mother – who provided the embyros – recognised as the children’s legal mother, RTÉ reports. The genetic mother’s name will now be added to the birth certificates.
4. #BUDGET 2014: Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has confirmed that the next Budget will be brought forward to October this year, subject to EU finance ministers endorsing the co-called two-pack in Brussels today. The new measures would see all member states required to submit budgets to the European Commission for approval during that month.
5. #HORSEMEAT: Food company Birdseye said today that products which were found to contain horse DNA originated from a meat processing plant in Ireland. Birds Eye says it has now tested all products “multiple times through multiple samples” over a period of four weeks and says all products have been given the all clear.
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I find they are a convenient sheltered location for cooking up heroin in central Dublin!
Or having a slash on the way home from the pub ?
What? There’s a phone in these toilets
They should do what they are doing in New York and change them into Free Wifi spots with facility to contact the emergency services and facility for phone charging
Isn’t the point that a lot of the people using phone boxes can’t afford smartphones/don’t have access to one?
Time to move into the digital age grandma…I’ll mind your horse and cart
How many of these phone boxes are in working order? If the phone is working what condition is the box in?
In Dublin they’re used by junkies to call their dealers, that and toilets
Eh…I resemble that remark !
How will I change into Superman if they’re gone ???
Easy, revolving doors.
For the first time in years , my phone died and needed to make a call , I actually had to find a public pay phone
I don’t think I’d remember anyone’s phone number if it was me
Make them into those phone on a pole things that just have a little rain shelter overhead & no walls. Problem solved.
On a recent trip to Japan I remarked that the public phone boxes now accept payment by SMS….
Elderly people are not able to open the doors on those telephone boxes. Never have been.
Lots of elderly have no mobiles and if they did they would probably be to afraid to take them out.
Comreg isn’t the energy regulator?
Communication regulator
Goddam it Lee try pay attention
Phone boxes? Oh yes, I remember them. They used to have them in the country where I am now, but I haven’t seen one for years. They were phased out because the cost of maintaining them and repairing them after they had been vandalised was completely out of proportion to their usefulness.
In Ireland, it would probably work out a lot cheaper than maintaining phone boxes if Social Protection just gave free phones to the old people who needed them and couldn’t afford them. They could even come with settings that facilitated only calls to free or lo-call numbers.
So you are totally unaware of the victims of domestic violence and children then.
Padraig, you might try reading what people actually write rather than drawing stiúpid conclusions from what you think is there. It would not be very difficult for Social Protection to supply phones also to the vulnerable groups you mention. Besides, if domestic violence victims and terrified children are able to escape the home, surely anyone with a mobile phone (and that’s most everyone nowadays) will call the Gardaí or other authorities?
@David, Unfortunately David, the victims of the abuses named by Padraig often do not call the Gardai for years and don’t call them because of a number of reasons.
That is unfortunately true, and very sad. But society must tackle this problem in other ways, because I suspect these victims’ reluctance to call the Gardaí has little to do with the availability of phone boxes.
Micheal/Fiona/Fintan/Dave o keefe You are the saddest individual I’ve ever encountered online. How many accounts do you have exactly you pos troll? Smh
Why don’t YOU tell us if you have any proof to back up such an insane allegation? Those who accuse other posters of using multiple handles are usually major trolls themselves, or else rather disturbed paranoid conspiracy theorists. Are you sure your tinfoil hat is on properly? ROFL
You’re disgusting micheal/Fiona/Fintan/david o Keefe. Get a life you vile troll.
Does your mammy know you’re at the computer again? LOL
Was really stuck about a year back and went to use one in Donegal town. 2 Euro to call a mobile. Went to my local and used theirs instead out of principal
There will be a massive queue to use the Freephone numbers.
Supermans screwed so
They are mostly used by drug dealers and drunks to urinate in.
It’s a sad indication that people in need are dependent on these. They don’t have friends, family or a neighbor to turn to, to make a call?
Cant remember the last time I saw someone use a phonebox, let alone a vulnerable elderly person. If that is their function, take them off the streets and put them in post offices or shops.
As some places still have no signal…
chaos ya right
have your say