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ANOTHER MEATH ADVENTURE firm is facing potential closure due to hikes in insurance costs.
Boyne Valley Activities, which runs activities such as kayaking, rope courses and archery, revealed this week that it had to temporarily cease operations on 1 May as management decided what to do about a “ridiculous” hike in insurance.
In a statement, the company’s management said it has never made a claim on its insurance policy.
“Through no fault of our own we have been a victim of ridiculous insurance hikes that are crippling small businesses in this country.”
We are back open again with a 400% hike on our premium of the last six years (and a loss of revenue for the past couple of weeks-the opening weeks of our 16-week summer season).
The company said it got no warning about this hike but now fears further increases next year.
“This is not sustainable,” management said.
Rathbeggan Lakes Family Adventure Park in Meath recently announced it would close at the end of the summer season, again due to spiralling insurance costs.
Owner Dave Robinson told RTÉ’s Clare Byrne Live that despite making no claims, his business’ insurance costs increased 100% this year.
“We’ve seen this insurance rise coming over the last couple of years and we’ve taken a fine calculated decision that we’re not taking any more of it,” he said.
“Our insurance went up by over 100% this year. God knows what it’s going to be next year or the year after so we announced four or five weeks ago that we were going to close.
The formula for my size of business has gone wrong and, like any business, you need to know your margins and this year we didn’t even know what our insurance bill was going to be until we got towards the end of March.
‘A disgrace’
Boyne Valley Activities has said it is open for business until at least the end of its 2019 season and owner James Murray said they are “looking forward to a great season”.
“We had invested heavily in a new riverside coffee dock over the last few months and never got to open it because of the insurance issue but we open ‘Boyneista Coffee Dock’ today.”
The firm has reassured schools and summer camp groups that their bookings will be honoured.
However the firm said its future now is uncertain.
“We will continue to operate as usual and see can we soak up the ridiculous insurance hike we had to take. We will have a savage season and we will continue to grow-but we have big decisions to make in September.
“At this rate there won’t be an outdoor activity center left in the country for the youth of Ireland-and our visiting tourists. This is a disgrace.”
Bike Park Ireland in Tipperary also yesterday announced it will close temporarily from this weekend until it has a new policy in place. The company said it is “the latest victim of the ridiculous insurance crisis”.
“We have been working day and night to find a solution and we will continue to do so until we have it.”
All bookings made for this weekend will be fully refunded and the park hopes to reopen next week.
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Seven US states have tightened their abortion laws so far this year, including high-profile cases in Alabama and Georgia. Why is this happening now – and could abortion end up being restricted across the US? Or even banned? Sinead O’Carroll, Aoife Barry and Christine Bohan look for answers in the latest episode of The Explainer, our new podcast.
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Biggest mistake NAMA made for selling Battersea power station in London for €600 million in 2014……..Development potential of the site was €10 billion….If they had waited 18 months to 2 years could have got much more up.to €1200 million…Enought to build 2 children’s hospitals
@pc_comments: SHOCKING DECISION. ALSO airlingus sold for peanuts.
@pc_comments:
If you knew the winner of a horse race tomorrow you would be rich too. Shocking that you haven’t already put a bet on
@Nick Allen: Hello Fine gael/Russian bot how are you this morning.
@Michael Heery: And don’t forget Brendan Howlin’s sell off of the National Lottery.
@Father Hody Commody: & Fg also sold off the rights of seaweed harvesting off the coast of Connemara to a Canadian company.
@Nick ridiculous analogy…still Professional gamblers like JP Mac made a fortune by knowing which horses were going to win tomorrow!! NAMA investment managers supposed to be the top Professionals too
@Nick Allen: The Malaysians that bought Battersea Power Station and it 45 acres along the Thames knew (along with the dogs on the streets of London) that the development was worth twice their offer. Nama in its hurry to appease Germany at taxpayers expense took what they were offered without full knowledge of the London property market.
@Nick Allen:
Battersea Power Station was there prize asset.
The London property market was in recovery mode.
‘Skilled” and ‘experienced’ management would have known this.
I know they were under pressure from the Troika but still no excuse.
@Nick Allen: If the average price is 5/1 in a 20 runner race you should know to wait until the prices go out.
@Father Hody Commody: did fat hands not get her fat fingers caught in the till ahead of the great lottery sell off?
@Nick Allen: yeah who knew london property would go up in value.
@Nick Allen: Yea, sure who could possibly have known that one of the worst depressions since the 1920′s was ever going to end…..
Who could possibly have thought that a large chunk of real estate in one of the finest capital cities in the world would ever be worth anything…..
The brits are laughing at the paddies again.
This is about as far as it will go..transperancy on this would only lead to truths that the ff propped fg government would be severely damaged by.
Fg & Noonan are to blame for this mess “burn the bond holders” instead they took the option of “burn the taxpayer” & hide the evidence.
Again no accountability by NAMA a quango that is mired in corruption. Taking steps to cover it’s tracks and hide the evidence.
How much more corruption is it going to take before people realise that FG and the elite are fleecing the country and lining pockets.
Because emails take up so much space *rolls eyes*.
@Peter McGlynn: Because there was something to hide *winks eye*
Funny time to post a story relating to nama,if I was a suspicious type of person I might be reaching for new tinfoil to make a hat..
@Kieran OKeeffe: What’s wrong with the old tinfoil? I wear old tinfoil when I’m performing at gay clubs.
@PutinBot 5002:
Old tinfoils normally covered in grease and gooey shite,but whatever floats your boat..
@Kieran OKeeffe: The way I like it! Raaaar!
@PutinBot 5002: Good luck with that, and don’t forget to keep an eye out for the real Putin while you are at it. Let me repeat, while you are at IT.
@Kieran OKeeffe: didn’t you know tin foil is all the rage this season with a Boris Johnston it’s biggest fan?
What a bunch of donkeys! So a freedom of information request found out that nama policy was to delete emails one month before they are subject to FOI requests!
Nama/Noonan are likely the greatest betrayal of the Irish people since since Redmond urged you to get slaughtered in the service of the genocidal Brutish Empire.
You saps and your great-grandkids will be paying for the FFG sellout to the 1% for generations….
I won’t – suckers.
@Dessie Deratta: well said, I can only imagine the millions sitting in swiss HSBC accounts.
We never did find out who owned the secret swiss HSBC accounts did we? Bet half of nama are on that list.
Nothing to see here so.
Watch the FG clowns defend this .. Oh I see one of those with “no political affiliation” already making excuses … now it would be a different story if this was somehow linked to SF !!!!
Lidl or aldi must sell those blinkers cheap.
Pot kettle black
@Random_paddy: what has he been deleting emails?
@Random_paddy: So how is it the ‘pot kettle black’ as you put it…. There has been an unsavoury mystique around NAMA for years and some high profile portfolio deals done here that have come under international scrutiny. Wallace might have issues to answer. But they’re only in the Ha’penny place when compared to the dealings of some of the employees attached to our so called saviour of property investors in this country.
The real crooks of Irish society
@Casper: Noonan should be in jail.
@Casper: Backed by the media. didn’t david mcwilliams think this was a great idea.
In years to come im sure we will watch the NAMA Tribunal with interest.
Ha you should see what all the companies are at for GDPR
Another case of Irish style transparency. Nothing to hide would mean no email deletion. How go people keep voting for FG FF presiding over one mess after another?
Think back. Remember Noonan limited the enquiries about Anglo loans to those in excess of €10m. Protection for who? There would have been many preferential loans given below that amount. Anything that Noonan does is always questionable. Who was Finance Minister when this email deleting was brought in?
Just because it looks suspicious doesn’t mean that it’s corrupt. But then again…..
NAMA the Quango that couldnt be investigated,controlled,questioned,managed or anything else. Basically so noone would ever know what really went on precrash. Like a lot of the failed states answers to its problems.
You are being deliberately stirred. Data retention policies are normal. Important data is retained and stuff that you are either legally obliged to get rid of or is inconsequential is removed. There is no need that the details of Marjorie from Accounts leaving do in 1996 is preserved until the heat death of the universe.
@The Solipsist: Who decides what’s important?
@Father Hody Commody: Your data retention policies and legal obligations. If, despite all that, someone wants to delete something, they need only hit the delete button themselves and hoarding petabytes of redundant junk interspersed with office gossip and emails entitled “PINTS ???????” will do absolutely nothing to stop them. Actually, hoarding every shred of crap that flows through your organization makes important stuff more difficult to find.
@Father Hody Commody: that’s what I was just thinking. I presume they let some junior staff member “sort” through the emails to see what is important and what isn’t, and sure when it turns out that something of importance was in fact deleted, they can then say they have reviewed/changed their deletion policy so mistakes like this won’t happen again. Sounds Irish alright
@The Solipsist: unless you use the “search” option
It’s a great little country for the auld cover up’s all the same….
Notice how Wallace is attacked? That’s what happens whistleblowers in this little banana republic….good little serfs, don’t rock the boat…..
Shortsighted Twerps jettisoned property without considering the fact that value had to come back into the market. The question still remains as to how the NAMA Administrators were appointed and also as to why there wasn’t a monitoring body put in place, absolutely ridiculous.
These guys had a total lack of savvy when it came down to dealing with the property portfolios.
Rotten to the core, and our so called leaders stand by and do nothing.
As the story goes, there is no smoke without fire.
If they are deleting emails, then it is quite obvious that there is something incriminating contained within the deleted emails.
I wonder if these deleted emails can ever be recovered because I was of the opinion that all of this stuff is somewhere in the so-called Cloud.
I’d be interested to know their backup policy. Chances are that those emails would still be there in their backups.
The funny thing is that there would be just as much outrage on here if the headline changed to…NAMA found to be paying millions a year to data centres for the storage of emails of former employees! Remember they are deleting emails of employees who have left. A lot of companies now delete unarchived emails as a matter of course.
@joe: You don’t need offsite email data storage. The storage requirement would fit in a 4’ square box.
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