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AS ANOTHER FRIDAY night rolls around, a bit of light banter might help to break up the monotony.
With the darker evenings, there’s no better night to sit on the couch and enjoy some quality chat shows, so here’s all you need to know about your options tonight.
Back to regular scheduling programming this week, but for Toy Show fans you’ll be glad to hear that breakout stars DJ Calum and his hype-man Jackson are back with Ryan tonight.
The brothers have been inundated with offers since last Friday when they stole the show during their two appearances.
If you missed last week’s Toy Show you can catch up on the best moments here.
The Republic of Ireland’s women’s football team made history on Tuesday night with an 11-0 win over Georgia at Tallaght Stadium, putting their World Cup qualification bid back on track
Ciara Grant, Saoirse Noonan, Denise O’Sullivan and Savannah McCarthy will join Ryan in the studio later to reflect on their record-breaking win.
Westlife will also be live in-studio to perform their latest single Starlight of their new album Wild Dreams. Shane, Mark, Nicky and Kian will be chatting about next year’s stadium tour and looking back on their 22-year long career.
English singer-songwriter Tom Grennan, whose family hails from Ballycumber Co Offaly, will also provide some musical relief this evening. He’ll be performing his hit song Little Bit of Love.
And on the anniversary of her double lung transplant, writer and activist Orla Tinsley will be chatting to Ryan about having received the gift of life from an American donor.
Orla will also be highlighting the realities of life for people living on the donor transplant list and why it’s so important for the organ transplant programme to run successfully in Ireland.
Over on the BBC, stars of the highly anticipated Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland and Zendaya, will be joining Graham ahead of the film’s release on 15 December.
Also on the red chairs tonight: Henry Cavill, on the returning to his Netflix series The Witcher; and actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw, talking about the new BBC series The Girl Before.
Music tonight is from Little Mix, who perform their single Between Us.
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Let’s wait and see if Mick Wallace receives the same treatment from the Revenue….
Why isn’t Wallace being prosecuted for VAT fraud?
John,
This has nothing to do with Mick Wallace. It amazes me how some people can’t properly read, lol.
Instead of helping keep jobs ur helping closing it,and the cheek of you to tell people that are unemployed that there is work out there,,,
There’s something fishy about this. You don’t just shut a massive company because of getting hassle from the revenue.
And revenue don’t just suddenly take enforcement action.
Reg,
How naive are you? Revenue are corrupt to the core – they do NOT care about people or their jobs. They have to justify their existence like other government workers. They get bloated salaries, long holidays, golden handshakes and pensions. Someone pays for this.
The best thing is to starve Revenue of money. Then they will cut the fat.
Freezing their accounts nodoubt pit them out of business, but I agree there is something else here we haven’t heard yet. It can’t be as simple as owing 80k and the revenue shutting u down, or at least I bloody well hope not..
Bilbo Baggins,
How naive are you?
Tim,
They are not naive at all. Revenue are like a bank. When your bank account has been seized by Revenue, it’s comparable to when your house has been seized by the bank. Revenue did not wake up last Thursday morning and decide they wanted to close down Target.
The fact is that we can only hear about Targets side, Revenue are not allowed comment on specific cases, but if they were, you may be guaranteed they would have a very different story to tell.
Michael,
I’m glad to see you are shilling Revenue’s stuff. You must be employed by the government. The truth is that Revenue have no right to freeze any businesses bank accounts. I hope businesses under-declare their earnings to sting the parasites in Revenue.
Tim,
If that’s what you think and hope, I hope to never meet you in business.
Revenue is what the nurses, doctors, teachers, SW get paid with. You need to realign your views, because they are plain wrong.
Tim, you are blurting typical uninformed rubbish. A mixture of confusion and the longing to be heard is a exhausting sight.
You’ve just made a few nothing statements but sprinkled them with hyperbolae to add some bulk to them.
Put away the floppy shoes and red nose and read a book.
Tim people like you are scarier than Hitler with an atom bomb. The revenue is you, me, your parents, your family….would you ever cop onto yourself. Staggering levels if ignorance on the subject displayed.
I wouldn’t consider myself naive at all Tim. but would anyone.
So let me get your view straight, you support Mick Wallace, but you rant about corruption lies and fat pay checks. You want to support people and their jobs , your idea to do this is to ‘starve’ the revenue of money? The states only source of income. thus stopping all public payments whether it be to public servants or welfare recipients..
And I’m naive ….
It stinks to high heaven. How much would you bet it’s all been caused by some pedantic stubborn little power hungry twit in revenue after the owner stood up to them
This is an absolutely outrageous scenario. How can one arm of the State effectively close a company over a ?1ml tax debt, and leave another arm pick up the Social Welfare bill of ?4ml+ annually, besides the Statutory Redundancy money that will have to be paid. BEGGARS BELIEF!!!
Because the lemmings vote for the current system.
Give it a rest Tim, this concerns real people, with real problems trying to put food on the table next week. Go back and try and finish An Phoblacht’s crossword.
Pierce you wanted a 100% reduction on the dole in a earlier article so i suggest your a hyprocrite of the highest order going on about people putting food on the table ..poser
I wanted 100% reduction in somebodies dole who doesn’t follow through with their responsibilities. Two seperate issues there Brend.
SO you want someone to live on nothing for no taking what Burton is offering nothing at all ..Are you an employer yourself if i may ask ?
Yes, you can ask. There is no such thing as free money, if somebody doesn’t want to follow the rules then that’s their choice, there is an appeals process if you think it’s unfair. if you want to discuss this any more the go back to that article, thanks.
Thought so..look i dont want to fall out with anyone it just sees where all going to get punished on welfare for the actions of a minority we should know all about that in this country ..good evening to you Pierce
Me neither Brend, good luck to you too, hope you are not on the welfare for too much longer, been there man.
I don’t know what to think about this situation. I think there could be more to this than meets the eye, however, I am annoyed to see yet another indigenous Irish company gone with the loss of 400 jobs because of high overheads, vis a vie, fuel and more importantly the tax on it. It seems you only matter to Irish politicians if you are a foreign company or in the tech sector – 12.5% corp amongst other knacks pulled to get them in, awarding of extra points to those good at maths as a direct result of lobbying from multinationals. I am all for foreign investment, but lets not forget, indigenous companies by their very nature are permanent, multinationals as we have experienced would leave us at the drop of a hat! We are forgetting all about many big Irish employers like Target and their concerns while we run around like headless chickens trying to keep the likes of Paypal and Google happy!
Paying tax is not voluntary.
Heard a story about a man who owed about €100k to the revenue, but didn’t have the money.
He offered them €60k.
They said no, he was tried and sentenced to 3 months.
After a week, Revenue got in contact asking for €10k for an early release. The man said no, actually it’s not too bad here….
He finished his sentence and now owes Revenue nothing.
So, it seems paying tax isn’t exactly compulsory either….
Sean non story. If you serve a jail sentence for tax evasion this doe not clear you account. You must still pay.
@Sean
That’s a great story.
Now he has a criminal record. Bet he has some nice new nicknames.
Deal with Target on a daily basis, very sad news, fully support the workers there.
400+ extra people a week on the dole plus benefits i’m not an accountant but i think that would equate to more than the 80,000 owed.
They should’ve under-declared to avoid this.
Definitely confirmed your suspected troll status with that one Tim.
“Revenue are corrupt” followed by “they (target express) should have underdeclared”
It would take someone a long time to rack up that kind of a tax bill. Until target give full details on how the built up that bill and why it wasn’t paid on time like all of there customers have to pay them in time. I’ll be siding with the revenue here. We have long been complaining about people being allowed to have huge debts with out paying up. I wonder how many others they owe money to
Maybe that’s the very problem Target express faced, customers not paying them on time.
Every self employed person you speak to says they have an awful time getting people to pay up. You could easily see how they would dip into taxes owed to keep the show on the road.
@Chuck: believe it or not it wouldn’t take long to rack up that bill, Especially a large company.
Damian,
They are perfectly legitimite to do that. Unless you want the entire country to be jobless?
They had a turnover of 50million vat alone on that would be 8-10million miss one months vat payment and u have 800k-1million. Prob not that simple but ye quite easy to clock up that bill.
There is no way that Revenue would enforce like this without months of tax going unpaid and months of effort to engage with the company to work out a payment schedule. No way. In this instance it looks like the company just decided either not to pay the tax or not to engage constructively with Revenue and are now reaping the reward. I feel sorry for the workers but it’s the owners who need to answer questions here.
Some serious allegations Tim. I presume you have something to back them up
Ben,
Most of the posters on this site are intellect right-wing nut jobs. No point in trying to reason with them due to their low comprehension. However, the Irish people will decide in the next election whether they aspire a failed Fine Gael or vote f9or change like Sinn Fein.
I was talking about your allegations about Revenue. Where’s your evidence of corruption?
This is only the first of many haulage companies that are about to close down. Government just don’t realise how much crippling fuel charges are affecting them. Or maybe they do, but just don’t give a toss. It seems their sole agenda is to keep Merkel and her gang happy. And of course they can’t do anything that might jeopardise the EU presidency gig, that’s coming up. God forbid that Enda had to forfeit his few months of world leader and statesman.
@Tim. Show me one scintilla of evidence to show that Revenue are a corrupt institution. Actually corrupt. Y’know, on the take, stealing, that kind of thing. Corrupt like……
I’ll be waiting. Cheers.
Again, calling people names is not very polite Tim.
I think Tim has forgotten to take his medication. Calm down Tim you and your fellow sinn feiners really know how to rant for Ireland.
Tim keeping talking let the Bertie Brigade make an arse of themselve’s again .
Tim, don’t see any evidence of you trying to reason with anyone, you’re just repeating unsubstantiated allegations.
Debate debate until the cows come home and what comes of it nothing.What is evidently happening to this country is put on the backfoot until we have absolute actions by the Government the undeniable evidence of what is eating away at our country and then we will be out in force problem is there will be nothing let of the country to fight for.Apart from one dodgy Government to another nothing has changed in the minds of the people and if it has its at a slow reluctance.
@Eoin – with this guy, don’t feed him – just report his statements as potentially libelous…..
Only two people on here making arses of themselves Brend – the thumbs tell the story…
If the announcement was about 398 jobs being created the three Ministers from which the owner sought help would not have been so silent in not commenting on this disaster for the unfortunate people who have lost their jobs.
Has anybody heard anything from the LABOUR party about these workers being thrown on the scrapheap.
Screw Labor. I’m voting SF in the next election.
I wrongly gave FG and LAB my votes in 2011. Never again.
Labour isn’t working.
(Credit: Saatchi, 1979)
Course you did Tim….Voted for FG my arse….
Wait for the full story to come out lads instead of knee jerk reactions to one side….wait and see instead of bashing without facts
I’m with you Mick.
On the surface it seems extremely unlikely that the math fits the reaction from Revenue. It seems something else is behind this. If it is what it seems on the surface then, yes, it’s a blatant overreaction but it would be very surprising if there isn’t more to this.
I run a business and I’ve noticed a very sudden change in the revenue commissioners in the last 6 months. They have gone from being really reasonable and easy to deal with, to being tough and impatient. I’m paying my tax in exactly the same way and timeframe that I have done for 8 years, but now it’s with demand and threats, rather than notices and reminders. It’s a shame, I always thought they were the kind of people you could talk to and come to reasonable repayment plans with, but now it’s like they are inflexible and uncaring. Small businesses are taking flak from all directions these day and this is just one more on the list. It makes you wonder whether it’s worth it at all.
I agree,there is a sense of cutting off the leg to save the foot here.the powers at be are cutting throats for some reason.but they wont comment on individual cases.Same words mary harney and other like minded people have used in the past.this is not a way to ease the public at all.
New Sec Gen at dept of finance maybe ?
Mabye cos the whole country has been screwed over by people and company’s who couldn’t be bothered to pay their taxes that revenue has realised they have no choice but to put the foot down and stop letting non compliant ignorant people run this country into the ground altogether ?
Ah the “Chairman” is a woman, it’s starting to make sense now
Cop on.
Very sorry Michael little joke there appears not to be to everyones liking. My bad
Sorry Vinny, misread!
;-)
Really bad news for the staff and it’s bloody awful to watch Irish companies failing at the rate they are , seems to me to be something odd around the circumstances of this that doesn’t look right on face value , I’ve had dealings with revenue before and found them firm but fair in the past , they usually engage to try accommodate difficult scenarios for business , also , I cannot understand why the option of examinership was not taken by the owner , must be some reason we haven’t heard , this would have given the business a period of protection from creditors including revenue to allow a more orderly solution to be worked out and giving the business the ability to continue paying staff etc would have been far far better than the current outcome.thought it disgraceful the owner did not communicate with his staff but was quick to run to the media for interviews today too.
but the good news is Easons are to take on 30 new workers…
“As Revenue Chairman Josephine Feehily, on previous occasions, has said “we want to help viable businesses and taxpayers who want to pay their taxes but can’t in the short term.
“We can, and do, put alternative payment arrangements in place to help such customers through difficult periods…But businesses and individuals must engage with us at the earliest possible opportunity and this engagement must be realistic
By the article they asked if they could pay friday but were closed down because the Revenue wanted the money by wednesday..something is not right here..if the Revenue closed them down for this reason and put 400 on the dole they should be hung!!
Yes – plus, today is Tuesday so why would they take action before the deadline has passed? Unless they’re talking about last week – either way, it doesn’t add up that such an extreme reaction from revenue is a result of being 2 days late.
A bank will never threaten to pull the plug until all avenues are explored. Revenue, however will work in reverse ie go for the jugular simply because they can. If target express created 390 jobs tomorrow can you imagine how fast Enda & co would be scrambling for the TV cameras.
All that aside I have huge sympathy for the owner and employees. Im sure he didnt start this company to end up in a situation like this.
KENNY FOR EX-TAOISEACH 2012.
Well said Pajo.
They wont be happy until there’s nothing left…wake up
Next election: Goodbye Fine Gael.
Tim in this country i wouldn’t bet on it..one can hope though
Brend: how could people still elect FG and LAB after their calamity and lies? Why would the electorate be so silly to re-elect them? I made the mistake of voting FG and LAB in 2011. I will be voting for Sinn Fein in the next election. Screw the current government – they suck.
Its called willful denial Tim.
An outstanding tax bill of 300k. So dump 390 people on dole at minimum 188 a wk. so that is 73,320 pw or just over 4 wks to pay out another 300k. Am I over simplifying or is this a total no brainer??? Can anyone at revenue use a tad of common sense and a calculator?
If Revenue looked at it like that no company would pay tax because they would know Revenue would never chase them down for it out of fear of putting people on the dole. Revenue can’t let themselves be seen to accept ever excuse and the back of the hand ….. what would we run the country on with no taxes ? Having said that I’m nearly countering my own argument by mentioning the voluntary giving up of child benefit. Two kinda different messages out of our governors, no ?
Is there something wrong with Tim Jackson?
I’m quite worried about him.
Gagsy: Please, in the interest of intelllectual decorum – lower your parochially woven skirt. Your insular, ignorant Mormon is showing again!
I feel certain you’re putting me in my place, but I’m not quite getting it….
Mormon?
Bottom line on this is there is no joined up thinking in this country. It is as simple as 400 dole payments out versus 80k in. Don’t forget the creditors who cannot be paid due to the accounts being frozen.
If someone has misbehaved in Target then the Revenue should set the Gardai/ODCE on them. Instead they have ensured that this company closes its doors and in doing so the Welfare tab falls to the Exchequer Social.
It’s outright treachery on behalf of Revenue.
Heard Minister for transport today state that owner was in touch with his office but he did not deal with it.
Minister if 400 odd jobs are on the line in your sector you better damn well deal with it. Agree with the poster if this was google/dell or any other multinational same minister would be jumping through hoops to land/save 400 jobs. A sucessful/strugling indigenous company and we get waffle and rubbish. I like many other SME owners wonder is it really worth our while struggling through this recession trying to keep our heads above water, try to keep loyal employees in employment. Government/Revenue and welfare really need to stop grabing everything and take a long hard look at the bigger picture. There is very little wiggle room left for those of us that are still standing.
@Tim. What did the Mormons ever do on you?
So in summary: the government have saved €1m and cost themselves €4m.
Would somebody mind subtracting one number from the other there. My calculator keeps resulting in a negative figure. Surely this isn’t correct as the government couldn’t have been this fupping thick….
Wrong. This was not the government’s action. It was the Revenue.
It costs the state €20,000 for every worker moving from employment to the dole. 390 jobs lost will cost the taxpayer €8 million PER ANNUM in respect of a €1 million one off debt. No joined up thinking between Revenue and Dept of Social Welfare.
As far as revenue are concerned, this is one individual ‘client’ who was earning millions, and not giving it its cut – even if that individual entity is a company employing hundreds. No thought was given to the repercussions. Revenue’s job is to maximise revenue. Social welfare is to reduce welfare, if the overall bill is negative then the dept of finance who will instruct both revenue and welfare to play hardball more (again, sigh, to ensure bank debts, now almost all sovereign, are paid), resulting in more hardship and job losses.
There is no joined up thinking, each department is doing what they are told, and no credible alternative to the government, so we are in a hopeless situation until either the euro breaks or a new enlightened party is formed. Plan for more emigration those who have lost their jobs… It is easier to get jobs abroad being recently employed, than being one of 300 fighting for a diminishing pool of dole and jobs out there.
@Darragh I get what your saying about people owing them money but that should have no bearing in the revenues to wind them up. It’s not there job to chase targets debts. If target can’t call in there own debts then they are not a viable company. Whats upsetting most people is the job losses but again if there is no viable future for the company I’m sorry but they will end up on the dole like a lot of other people over the last five years in the same situation.
Kenny has to be voted out of office. His administration is a disaster.
KENNY FOR EX-TAOISEACH 2012
I understand they dont normally comment on individual cases but we really need clarity here. If its the case there are other factors as to why this company was closed down thats fair enough but if they closed it down for the reasons stated above we have reached a whole new level of incompetence in this country
Simple issue here is Revenue are judge and jury, and have limited evidence. If anyone else wanted to attach to a bank account they have to go to court and prove the case to a judges satisfaction. Who polices he police? Any other creditor would work with the company, even if problems were much bigger.
Yes, the revenue do seem to have been very heavy handed in this case. If there was a proper plan in place for Target to pay off their tax liability within a few weeks why wasn’t it taken? If there is more to this story then revenue should come out and defend themselves, instead of giving sweeping statements about revenue’s policies. There are 400 jobs gone and surely someone should be held accountable.
It was the right decision by the Revenue. After all, this way they get paid in full….
Oh wait…
Well at least you make a valid statement of facts and figures ..
Oh wait ..
are you being sarcastic ??
They put a guy in jail for misdeclaration of vat on garlic for christ sake even though he is paying it back 30 k per month….now they pull the trigger on 390 jobs. Will someone please answer me why Mick Wallace hasnt got touched for his vat misdemeanor or why revenue havent pursued Bertie Ahearn? Ray Burke is a convicted criminal but gets 120k from a state pension. Michael Lowry has questions to answer but revenue cant b bothered with these guys. they prefer the soft touch self employed any day.
@Darragh….Revenues actions have a knock on effect on these businesses also. It is not a typical case of tax dodging, and I think Revenue should be called to explain their actions on this case as the net result is that the country is financially worse off
In a nutshell Darragh…We should be asking our local TDs to press this matter it really needs to be explained and if Revenue are correct they need a good kick up the arse for not clarifying it sooner
Mr McBrien is listed on the website of the group known as Concerned Irish Business, which has offered support to the former head of the Quinn group, Seán Quinn.
got this from the Irish Times Website, conciedence????
Oh yea! An easy Target…Revenue
A point that’s been missed here is that we have lost a major player in the express freight industry. This could potentially inflate the cost of doing business for the many thousands of businesses which rely on this sector. Whilst this is good news for the remaining players who already operate on a tight margin it will not help the overall economy. We also need to look at the knock on affects ie. Who maintained their fleet? Who supplied their fuel,insurance,tyres etc? There could be many more jobs lost as a result of this!
For anyone who thinks this is the whole story – send an email to your local tds expressing your outrage. Expect them to do something, they won’t be coming to thejournal.ie in order to see your anonymous outrage.
As a business owner, I couldn’t agree more that revenue are not a lender but since when did small businesses become lenders to the state? I know of one business, who at the moment had revenue on his back for money but yet the Hse owe him 130,000 that he can’t get off them.
what about all the creditors ?? where do they stand with this?? how many other lives are indirectly going to be affected by this move?? surely somone will see this and evert this crisis?? please somone up there has got to put a stay on this tragic situation ..
if Targets version of events is true then this is a disgrace!
but i guess you’d have to acknowledge that if the revenue had a penny for every time they were told that a cheque was in the post then i guess we’d have enough money already to be out of this mess!
How many people giving out about the revenue, govt..etc will still vote for a corrupt and false-hope giver of a candidate in the next election??? All candidates give all these assurances then when they get into office they realise they can’t uphold them due to the former corrupt leaders, it’s a vicious circle..and on Mick Wallace, how can anybody in his constituency have confidence in a man that is screwing his own country?? Should be turfed out and held accountable for his shocking shirts!!!
Chuck. Darragh was talking about the people who Target owed money to not the people that Target was owed money from. Can anyone confirm if the company was apart from the Revenue bill doing Ok???
To clarify my point, I’m guessing that Target have creditors in the same was that all businesses have a few creditors (i.e the person who may have filled the water coolers in their offices early this week, or a garage who filled one of their trucks on account yesterday morning). Target are probably willing to pay these people but can’t as their accounts are frozen by Revenue.
Revenues actions have a knock on effect on these businesses also. It is not a typical case of tax dodging, and I think Revenue should be called to explain their actions on this case as the net result is that the country is financially worse off.
OK,first , Revenue does not answer to any Minister , they are an independent organization that have a Board, of which Josephine Feehily is the Chairperson. If you are a taxpayer and are in difficulty and you decide to approach your T.D to make representations on your behalf to Revenue , they will totally disregard anything he says or writes . I know this because I used to work for them in the past , and that was one thing that was drummed into us in training . Bottom line is Revenue is a State Sponsored Debt Collection Agency
Does anyone know How many other haulage companies went to the wall and lost jobs as they were tax compliant and couldn’t match targets rates?
have your say