Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A FIANNA FÁIL TD has called for the €500 note to be done away with, because of its role in money laundering and criminal activity.
FF justice spokesman Dara Calleary told TheJournal.ie that he made the call after a UK report showed the €500 note is used by heavy criminals.
Banknote wholesalers in the UK have stopped supplying the €500 note after evidence from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) showed that more than 90 per cent of demand for the note came from criminals.
The note itself has not been criminalised but people will not be able to get it over the counter in the UK.
Said Deputy Calleary:
I’ve never seen €500 notes myself, and there is not a huge demand for them. Large denominations make it easier for criminals to carry large amounts of money. What we need to do in terms of carrying cash is make it harder for people to carry large denominations.
He said he didn’t see the removal of €500 notes as having much impact on people in everyday life.
Using larger denominations enables criminals to transport large amounts of money without incurring extra weight, making it easier to disguise or hide the cash.
Though he cautioned that it is not his “number one priority”, Deputy Calleary said he was behind “anything that makes life difficult for money launderers or criminals”.
He noted that for the move to come into play, it would have to be looked at on a Europe-wide basis.
“It is something that I intend to look into further in the course of the next six months,” he said. “It would have to be pioneered and championed by the Government.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Already a shambles at my kids school, kids being bribed by some teachers with rewards and lollipops for complying with the masks, iv heard there’s a big march in town Friday but sure if ya attend your an antiV conspiracy looney and you know who sprouts that… The MSM. We can’t win, they’ve turned everyone against each other just how they wanted. Kids mandatory Vac will be next.
@xDemo17: principles and teachers after been dropped in the brown stuff by the government here. Not to mention parents and students. How were vulnerable students ment to get a doctors note between last evening and this morning?
@xDemo17: That pesky MSM that you are subscribed to and can’t stop reading their articles.
@xDemo17: Using the phrase MSM and jumping from masks to ‘mandatory kids vaccinations next’ is what would label you as an ‘antiV conspiracy looney’ – you don’t seem to need a march for that.
@Lee King Buckett: blinded
@xDemo17: Shouldn’t be up to teachers to ask a child to wear their mask. Parents failing again at actually parenting
@xDemo17: given the tone and content you’re not too far off that “looney” tag yourself.
@Roy Dowling: but it is up to them and schools as a whole to enforce it. Has to be.
@xDemo17: it’s a mask. Calm down. It’s not just in schools either. Shops, restaurants, cinemas as well. Kids are perfectly capable of doing this it’s the parents who are causing the problem. Parents need to be more supportive of the initiative if they don’t want to increase any anxiety levels. I’m fast losing patience with the snowflakes that feel so “put upon” because of masks.
In all honesty what is wrong with kids wearing mask in school? My 7 wore a mask for over 3 hours yesterday in Dundrum shopping centre. He has 2 masks in his school bags that he can put on if he wants while in class. He’s yet to wear them yet but if in time the situation changes and he needs to he will. Kids are very adaptable and will copy what others do. So I really don’t see an issue. The adult would want to grow up.
@Roy Dowling: I don’t see the big problem either, but in fairness there is a fairly obvious issue and that’s communication. I’m pretty sure your 7 Yr old wasn’t been taught in Dundrum! Speak to any secondary teacher and they’ll tell you that teaching is a nightmare now since most communication is non verbal and facial and that’s even more important with young kids. Plus I hear that most teenagers aren’t wearing them properly. Not saying people shouldn’t comply but I completely understand why NPHET are reluctantly advising it now. I think it’s a shame that young kids have to wear masks, adults, and particularly anti vax ones, have let everyone down.
@Roy Dowling: issue is how this omnishambles is being rolled out.
@Richie56: they havnt let everyone down. everyone knows viruses emerge, new variants form and mutations occur. what they’re trying to do is stop the spread where you’re indoors for prolonged periods many days a week, eg schools. the vast majority of adults I see in an indoor setting wear masks, eg public transports, shops supermarkets etc. you’ll always have a few who don’t comply. you cant stop covid fully but as far as I can see they’re trying to give people a Christmas. if u do nothing and in 2/3 weeks cases are through the roof st an extraordinary rate and hospitals filling, we will face a xmas lockdown. nobody wants that!. you cant just leave things run and do nothing.
Send all the kids to Leinster House to see the funniest pantomime in Ireland at the moment. Some Government we have
@Maurice O Neill: aye send them all in without masks & you’ll see the likes of Norma Foley leaving skid marks getting out of the place!!
@Maurice O Neill: Your Pantomime with Trump is nearly a year old now. Enjoy the anniversary playback Maurice.
In Spain this has been in place for over a year. In all honesty if kids aren’t able to wear masks without parents pulling them from schools or fighting teachers and principals, what hope do they have in building any resilience. This softly softly protect our little darlings from reality of life at any cost approach is going to backfire in years to come when that generation will have zero ability to cope with anything remotely inconvenient. Life is tough and sometimes unfair. But the playstations etc are still all there when they get home.
Ah Jesus, slap the masks on them and get on with it . Everyone has made sacrifices in one way or another during this crisis . Things change rapidly , especially when there’s a new variant as is the case. Do what’s needed for the overall good of society at large and move on . Always something to complain about – the mind boggles.
Why is it that other countries have this in place in schools for months with NO issues? The parents are the ones with the issues not the resilient children.
“schools are not the safe places”, for teachers? Or for kids? Fair enough if you’re talking about teachers since many are older and obese and have underlying conditions but let’s be honest, covid has been in schools for the last year and the vast majority of kids have been asymptomatic or very mildly effected. In fact the vast majority of covid ICU hospitalisations have been in adults with obesity or underlying conditions. For kids in the 5-10 age cohort a total of 10 have ended up in ICU since the pandemic started, none have died. And from CDC data in the states we know that the majority of kids that end up in ICU with Covid have serious underlying disabilities. And kids have been by far the most exposed age cohort to covid. So for the vast majority of kids covid isn’t like Covid is for older adults , but children with serious underlying issues should obviously be extremely vigilant and avoid schools or any indoor environment. We need to keep things in perspective, the sky is not falling down on schools. And for the hysterical amongst us, please keep your kids at home if you’re freaked out by covid but let everyone else get on with their lives.
@Richie56: what part of “kids pass it on” do you not get ?
@Richie56: so at risk kids should stay at home instead of their peers wearing masks???
@Aidocasey: and masks are going to prevent that?
@Squarepeg01: yes
@Graham Manning: What are you on about ?Where did I say that? Go with the science, if that means masks then of course everyone should comply. What’s wrong with suggesting highly at risk groups should be shielded and stay at home? Surely that’s common sense?
@Aidocasey: who do they pass it on to ? Their healthy vaxxed parents? Or should we be making kids miss out on an education because of a very small group of anti vaxxers? Schools must remain open even if that means kids wearing masks. The science is very clear, for the vast majority of kids Covid is mild or asymptomatic. We need to work with the science. Keep your kids at home if you’re an anti vaxxer.
@Richie56: teachers “many are older and obese” , good god when was the last time you were near a school ?
The following American study from Brown university asserts that “masks worn in public settings and in school or day-care settings may impact a range of early developing skills, such as attachment, facial processing, and socioemotional processing.” – https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.10.21261846v1.full.pdf. The core of my frustration is that masking children is clearly not in line with the governments policy for adults (who can spend hours mask-less in pubs, clubs and stadiums), primary kids have been in school since this started without masks, what has changed since then? We opened nightclubs and the virus numbers absolutely went through the roof and kids suffer. My daughter cried when she was told she had to wear a mask, says she finds it hard to hear the teacher, and now the teacher will find it harder to hear her, disgraceful decision.
@Claire Horan: I hope you told your daughter that it’s her very small contribution to helping her community stay safe. I hope you supported her in saying that it’s all going to be fine and that adults been wearing them with pride. I hope you told her that it’s a cheap, tiny piece of cloth that is absolutely painless to wear. All things will help her and lessen any anxiety….. even if you have reservations there is no need to pass them on.
It’s only a mask – not a plastic bag they’re being asked to wear. French, Spanish and Italian primary school children have been wearing masks since 2020.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control list mask-wearing for children as one of the
6 important measures to prevent disease transmission in schools.
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/questions-answers/questions-answers-school-transmission
Noisy minority whinging on social media, meanwhile in the real world most kids and parents don’t have any issues with a temporary mask wearing measure.
Wearing masks in the US from pre-school up. For nearly a year. But sure some of them are siuptd or is it only the trump ones
@Splat: Who do our siuptd’s follow? God knows we have them.
I’m a school principal in Spain where pupils aged 6 and over have had to wear facemasks all throughout last year and also during this school year. It’s awful, you cannot see the children’s faces, you can’t hear them speak, they cannot see the teachers’ facial expressions, you have to keep reminding them to pull them up, you have to confront parents daily who don’t “believe’ in masks… Homeschooling is not legal in Spain. You must send your child to school if they are 6 or over. Last year in Spain however, schools were extremely safe places with relatively few closures throughout the country. Facemasks are definitely not something we like, but they keep schools open and staff and pupils are safe.
Xmas present idea for Norma Foley: driving lessons. Might reduce the number of car crash interviews she gives. Today another one, though in fairness to her she did try to drown Dobson out by rambling on and on and blocking out his questions.As the OP here says, the whole school issue is a complete and utter shambles.
journal busy deleting any comments that dont suit the narrative, disgraceful censorship across MSM and even in discussion forums
There is a huge issue with children wearing masks. It stops them from seeing their classmates and friends faces. This impacted my son today. He said it was really difficult to not see peoples faces. The government won’t put filters in the classrooms but they will make our kids wear masks. Children don’t have a voice in this, at all.
Kick the can.
@Mary Nugent: How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat!
Children have been wearing masks in primary school in Italy without a bother. Like every where else it’s the adults who cause the raucous about masks.
For goodness sake will someone please think of the children?!
have your say