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THE NUMBER OF firms who plan to increase their staff numbers has almost doubled since last year, according to a new study.
The latest report from employers’ group IBEC shows 21 per cent believe they will hire new workers in the next three months – nearly twice the figure for this quarter last year. The improvement was mirrored in a separate study from the Small Firms Association, which found that 15 per cent of respondents plan to hire new permanent staff while only three per cent said they would be laying people off.
In 2009, the number of small firms planning layoffs stood at 22 per cent.
The IBEC study, which covers the second quarter of 2011, also shows positive indications in a number of other areas. Companies’ confidence in the overall business environment continued to improve, with the figure now at minus 17 per cent – up from minus 32 in the last quarter of 2010. And export sales remain strong, despite a slight decline since the first three months of 2011 – which was matched by a five per cent dip in domestic sales.
Fergal O’Brien, chief economist at IBEC, said: “If we are to really tackle the unemployment problem, domestic demand must improve. Government must communicate better with consumers in relation to the nature and scale of the economic challenges.”
There was also bad news for the financial sector as it emerged AIB is still pushing to cut around 2,000 posts. The bank’s proposals have been referred to the Labour Relations Committee after talks with unions – who were seeking assurances that all redundancies would be voluntary – broke down last week, the Irish Times reports.
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So why does Knock still charge passengers €12?
Airports are allowed charge a levy of their own, usually in order to fund expansion or renovation.
Holy water in the toilets?
A Development Fee of €10 is charged to all departing passengers from Ireland West Airport Knock aged 12 years and over. This is a service charge which the Airport charges for the use of its facilities and as a contribution toward infrastructure developments amount other services, usually It is included in the “Taxes and Charges” http://www.irelandwestairport.com/airportguide/airportdevelopmentfee.aspx
Perhaps they should be prohibited from charging a levy of their own. A level playing field in light of this ruling would benefit everyone.
In fairness, €12 is a bargain to get out of knock.
I’d pay €100 to get out of the kip
To fund the once-off Aer Lingus direct flight of Pilgrims from New York this summer? That flight can’t be cheap for anybody concerned!
For the holyness , sure dont u no the water in knock
Cured fr.jack himself
Good god…i hope its not becAuse off the holy water
It’s really not like our government to have 1 Fook up after another…
It was actually FF who messed up and FG changed to a flat rate before scrapping it.
Not to mention the European Commission’s lazy ruling.
And how much did the FG government spend on fees before losing this case.
I mean, it’s not as though FG are doing anything different from FF, is it?
If Michael O’Leary got into politics, this would be a different country. He would sort out the lot of them up there trying to bleed the country dry
Yes and maybe we would be working for his low pay way of life too.
On the contrary, it’s people who think that running a country is like running a business that have damaged this country the most in recent years.
So I assume aer lingus and Ryanair will refund me the tax I paid to them that they never passed on.. I also assume I will have to go through the small claims court to get the money back as I have travel 39 + times … ching ching
Ryanair comparable *family friendly*flights cost double that of June 2013 prices when the tax was included to flights . ryanair are ripping off ppl and now have saved 12 million from tax payers . Michael o Leary propaganda using his family to make money family friendly my a** . MoL only believes in profit. He should donate that money to #jakeslegacy and make a difference
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