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LAST UPDATE | 10 Sep 2019
FINANCE MINISTER PASCHAL Donohoe has this morning confirmed that Irish people will be able to shop duty-free if heading to the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
In a statement, Donohoe said that legislation had been passed earlier this year relating to Ireland’s position should the UK leave with no deal.
British Chancellor Sajid Javid’s announcement today that UK citizens returning from European Union countries will no longer have to pay taxes on alcohol and tobacco products means Ireland’s position has changed.
Donohoe’s statement read: “As the UK has today decided to apply an unrestricted Duty-Free scheme in the event that the country leaves the EU with no deal, in line with the reciprocal policy, Ireland would not in this eventuality commence the relevant legislative measure and European Union rules in relation to passenger travel from ports and airports between the EU and third countries would therefore apply from 31 October.
“In effect this would mean that excise and VAT free sales on purchases of tobacco and alcohol made at duty-free shops, subject to quantitative purchase limits, would therefore operate between Ireland and the UK.”
The British government will also forego taxes on similar products travelling in the opposite direction in an attempt to give the tourism sector a boost should the country leave the EU without a deal, finance minister Sajid Javid announced.
The EU abolished duty-free shopping between member nations in 1999, saying it was incompatible with the single market.
The government estimates that a bottle of wine purchased in an airport duty-free on the way to the EU after Brexit could be up to £2.23 (€2.50) cheaper.
At the point of leaving the EU, travellers to the UK would still be able to bring home unlimited alcohol and cigarettes if they pay duty on it in the country of origin, as is the case currently.
But they would also have the option of buying limited amounts of duty-free alcohol and cigarettes at duty-free shops in Europe, said the government.
“We want people to enjoy their hard-earned holidays and this decision will help holidaymakers’ cash go that little bit further,” said Javid.
The move was considered by previous prime minister Theresa May, when it was estimated that it would cost the Treasury between £150-£200 million (€168-€224 million) a year.
Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke said that the move would help coastal towns such as Dover, which he represents.
“This will deliver a big boost for tourism – helping our coastal communities and ferry industry after Brexit,” he told the Sun UK.
Coastal communities such as Dover had some of the highest proportions of Brexit votes in the country in the 2016 referendum.
Duty-free shopping is already permitted for travellers going to non-EU countries.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK will leave the EU on October 31, with or without a deal, but is currently deadlocked with MPs who have passed a law that could force him to extend the current Brexit deadline.
With reporting by Garreth MacNamee
Words fail me. Horrific excuse for a person to do that to a new born baby. Give the child up for adoption, not attempt to kill it. Crazy!!
There are no words. So sick.
Dublin Lad- ironic comment given your strong advocacy of Abortion on demand during the year? Not having a go. Just making a point.
Making a stupid point…
Kevin what’s your point? That you don’t know the difference between abortion and murder?
Same result
Not really, one results in no baby being born, the other results in a dead baby (or in this case critically injured).
Andrea- stunning evocative and thoughtful riposte, there. I’m in awe of your debating prowess.
Gearoid- actually the result is ultimately and incontrovertibly exactly the same; one less person walking & talking around the place.
Oh no, Kevin is unimpressed by me. That’s my Christmas ruined! Are you impressed by my sarcasm at least? Please say you are!!
Nobby nomates
Nobby nomates – must be a bootlicker of FG, probably dreams of enda kenny wiping his nose on his jacket!
Andrea- I don’t know what you mean. I was very complimentary about you, was I not?
Joe.. Same result.. So true..
It not the same result. There’s a dead person after a murder. There’s not after an abortion. An abortion does not mean there is one less person walking the earth, it means there is the same amount of people. Unless you count a fetus as a person in which case we’re wasting our time.
There’s a Huge difference between an abortion and THROWING a child out a window!!!! This woman was obviously not in her right mind , hope that poor baby is ok.
So it’s only a person when it pops out? And your inference that any other viewpoint makes the person unworthy of any ‘real’ debate is really crass. Sorry but I think you need to do some research….
Haha, I never said or implied any of that stuff. My views are a bit more complicated then “it’s only a person when it pops out” and it’s nothing to do with anyone’s views being unworthy, I’m just not bothered with conversation that will just go around in circles so don’t worry, no need for you to get up there on your high horse. I’ve researched the subject of abortion extensively, I’m pro-choice and my conscience is clear. I’m happy to discuss it with anyone but I’m well used to how it goes when it comes down to the “abortion =murder” point of view and I know from experience that that argument is a fat waste of time for everyone involved.
I hope the baby makes it thru
Tragic, on all sides…
Not going to say more than I hope the baby makes a full recovery until more facts are know about this case. It all seems very bizarre .
She fuked the baby out the window. She is mentally not right in the head. Hope the baby recovers.
If it was the father that threw the newborn out the window, we’d be looking at a very different comments section right now. There’d be no shortage of blame and ridicule.
I have never heard of a man becoming pregnant through rape or incest, having to conceal or deny a pregnancy, being denied or unable to afford an abortion, nor be forced to raise the child of his rapist. Men can generally abandon or deny their offspring with impunity, and are less likely to face adverse or dangerous consequences for becoming pregnant, being sexually active or becoming a parent.
Now it’s early and unfair to comment on this case, and there there is no reason why a tiny and vulnerable person should ever be made to suffer, but in our society we generally take into account the personal situations, mental stability and social contexts of those who have transgressed society’s rules.
Harming a baby is indefensible, but there are certainly differing sets of mitigating factors at play for a woman and a man in these situations. To pretend otherwise is to be deliberately disingenuous.
My point highlights a double standard ever present in public consciousness and media consciousness.
When a man kills a child it is both reported and considered an evil act and in itself indefensible. When a woman does it, or attempts it, the automatic assumption is mental illness.
In actuality, it’s normally mental illness at play in both cases and for both genders.
Likewise there have been very high profile cases in Ireland whereby fathers have taken children away from violent partners and they have been portrayed as kidnappers by both media and wider society. All they did, was protect their children as best they could.
So, you see, excuses (often valid) are made for one gender, and not for another. You have in fact, made those very same parallels in your post.
Well said, Conor.
Red Rooster, men doesn’t go through the hormonal changes during nine months of pregnancy, together with the added stress of disapproving parents, and then giving birth with no medical or emotional support. This is not about men, only in the implication that the father of this particular child wasn’t around to support the mother of his baby!
*Men don’t*, before the grammar Nazis start! ;)
I made no such inference. You did.
“men doesn’t go through the hormonal changes during nine months of pregnancy” Not so. Men do go through changes. Major changes. It’s all out there for you to research if you so wish. Chemical, emotional, and neurological changes.
However, I made a simple observation in my initial post. That observation stands, despite Conor’s post and yours.
You’re quite right, redrooster: men do go through hormonal changes. They’re not as strong as the hormonal changes the mother goes through, and at the end of the day the woman is left holding the baby, literally. It’s not all that long ago that women and girls were giving birth in secret here in Ireland. A little compassion wouldn’t go amiss maybe. And as some of the other comments have said we don’t know the full circumstances of what happened.
I agree it’s not long ago women were giving birth in secret. Nor is it long ago that a woman gave birth and the newborn was whisked away by nuns straight after birth never to be seen again. We live in a country with a horrid history – a history within living memory.
Now, roles have reversed. And we treat men in the same ways through our lack of laws – unmarried fathers, and our family courts.
We are doing the same things we always did. But this time we do it to fathers.
That said, we also expect mothers to be perfect. They are not. I’m not. No one is.
My own partner felt much shame at not being able to breastfeed our child years ago. She did everything ‘right’. But on occasion there was no milk and a screaming baby. The pressure she felt, was enormous. She felt like a failure as a mother and cried her eyes out at 3am with a hungry baby and neither of us knowing what to do.
She has pressures I’m unaware of. I’m aware of that.
Does your compassion extend to men Mary?
Yes it does, especially when the man wants to take his fair share and either the mother of his child or society prevent him from doing so. However in this case it seems the father just fecked off and let this poor woman go through a completely traumatic exoerience on her own. It may be that her family are very conservative and would have made things impossible for her. I just think there are very black and white reactions to what is a very sad story for all concerned. Judge not etc, etc…
This is what happens when people feel they have no other options and no support,
There is always a solution if you should open up. There are a lot of women in poor countries who manage to give their babies a chance no matter what.
Indeed Mila , there are always solutions , babyhatches are making a big resurgence in Europe , perhaps every hospital should have one http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521538/The-revolving-door-baby-hatches-abandoned-newborns-German-hospitals-mothers-weeks-change-mind.html
This is not the fist case in Spain in recent times of this happening. Something similar happened when a mother threw an 18 month old out the window of a first floor and the Grandfather managed to catch her by sheer luck.
Well done to those cops for resuscitating the baby. Certain death otherwise.
I just give birth last week, my second baby. Excuse me but I don’t feel sorry for her, I hope she ends up in jail and throw away the key. She asked her parents to take her to hospital so obviously she only thinks about herself and nothing wrong with her head. Hope baby makes a full recovery.
Exactly Blondie! Quite willing to expose her secret to save herself when it came down to it. Vile creature who should go to prison. Hope poor child recovers.
My sister gave birth just 3 days before this animal, the thoughts of doing that to a poor defenceless little baby, a similar size to my tiny nephew boggles the mind. Hopefully he’ll recover well and be adopted by lovely people and have a great life :-)
I hope all involved get the help they need, there must be something terribly wrong with the mother for doing this to her baby, was she afraid of her own parents reaction to the pregnancy, why hide it??
A 35 year old who manage to have sex and get pregnant, carry the baby till full term, gone to labour, gave birth to a full live baby then just toss it away like a rug? The victim is the baby not the mother.
Poor woman no one in the right mind would do this, if you have the thought she is bad your just the same what she needed and needs is human compassion.
Very few of us are bad, on till you are unfortunate to be put some were, were a person takes your weakness and use them against you till you snap you cant judge.
My heart is with both of them, my mind won’t allow me go there until I know more.
How heartless!! No words for this!
What a tragedy. What must the woman have been going thru to make her hide this then go thru the agony that is labour alone and then discard of the baby. I feel sympathy for her. Hope the baby pulls thru but also that the family pull together and support them both.
Given that it’s referred to as an umbilical “chord” I’m not taking the article above as 100% fact.
Comparing a woman who has just given birth to a father is ridiculous.
Puerperal psychosis is very real but hey, in a grand little country like Ireland, why would we attempt to understand mental illness? Ignorance, knee jerk reactions from idiots are par for the course.
Couldn’t agree more – no one In Their right mind would do that. Who knows what her circumstances are- but straight away she’s the devil incarnate – she obviously wasn’t thinking straight. I fell sorry for both & I hope the poor baby will recover. Very sad.
She asked her parents for medical help, her mother being a mother herself by instinct went looking for the newborn and rush the baby to hospital. Realistically, that’s the fact of life. We always have an excuse but we are missing the focal point of importance here, the baby”s life !
Tell you what Conor… based on this article, ill condemn her and I think she should be stripped naked, bundled in a pair of jeans and dropped out a……lets say a 50 foot window onto concrete in the freezing cold, hopefully breaking a bone or two. …Then I’d probably drive over her in my car and drag her till I need diesel.. ill explain my reasons to her when I stop at the garage … fair ?
Erica, with all due respect, if your answer is not tongue in cheek, then I think it’s very blood thirsty and judgemental. Psychotic behaviour might try to find a legitimate home in ‘righteousness indignation?’
Puta madre
You think you are being funny and clever Simon, but perhaps she was. We don’t know the facts of this case, and probably never will know the full and true facts. Been seeing as people are commenting and jumping to judgement it is worthwhile examining some of the more likely scenarios.
Perhaps this woman was a prostitute (Simon’s hilarious comment ‘puta madre’ means prostitute mother in Spanish and i roughly equivalent to saying motherfuc*er in English). Thousands of woman are forced trough economic necessity to sell themselves. Perhaps she was doing this to keep her and her parents alive, unbeknownst to them.. Perhaps her intention was lot to harm the child. Maybe she thought the baby was dead. Perhaps she was stupid and naive and thought se could hide the baby on the terrace until her parents were away. Who knows?
On a side note, how media relate stories is interesting. Here we are told that she ‘threw’ the baby out a window. Given that the baby was later found, a nobody witnessed the throw, is it not possible that she ‘placed’ the baby, or in pain and panic ‘dropped’ the baby. We’ll never know, but the verb ‘throw’ makes a better story and attracts more comments from judgmental hypocrites who would see weak and vulnerable people hang for actions they would most likely do themselves if in a similar situation.
lets not condemn this woman with evidence taken from a Journal.ie article, our own imagination, and society’s prejudices.
Are you well ? , or has the eggnog gone straight to your head , lock the bitch up and throw away the key , child endangerment and attempted murder charges need to be brought , any medical help for mental health issues can be administered from inside prison , this freak had no problem seeking medical help for herself and having her “secret” exposed when she felt herself in imminent danger , abortion , infanticide and child euthanasia seem to be the order of the day for all these progressive liberals , let me tell you all this is not progress but genocide
Ironic.
You tell us we dont know the facts (The ones the police gave).And then you continue your retort with an essay of hypothetical situations.
It’s also possible that this woman has a learning disability and does not understand her actions. Let’s wait and see.
Stephen, I acknowledged the potential for irony in my comment. Re-read it of needs be. I said that while some are assuming a clear cut attempted murder scenario, without it being possible to definitely know, I would suggest some other potential scenarios. So actually not ironic..
Whatever this is Deasun it’s not genocide. The definition of genocide is the systematic attempt at the wiping out of an entire people, ie, Hitler’s ‘final solution’ or the dreadful slaughter in Rwanda. This hasn’t even got as far as infanticide yet and hopefully it won’t.
Thats fU ck3d up
Hope the baby survives. Sick young girl.
What a rotten woman!
If true it sums up the state of degradation we the human race continue to be in. Savages, that’s what we are – still in the cave.
We need to introduce a proper programme of education for all human beings instead of the garbage taught in schools.
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