General Irish politics discussion thread

hotmail.com · 09-01-2025 11:55PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039332#Comment_123039332

You do realise newspapers and local radio charge far far more than 100 euro for death notices? They charge by the number of words.

hotmail.com · 10-01-2025 12:08AM

Jennifer Whitmore's comical suggestion proves what has become obvious the last few weeks - the Social Democrats are closer to the People Before Profit nutters than they are the Labour Party.

L1011 · 10-01-2025 12:14AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039332#Comment_123039332

150 a year per funeral director wouldn't pay for a single staff member.

It was previous funded by ads - dying online due to ad blockers - and selling directory listing space to service providers. That did work for many years but probably didn't have a long term future

hotmail.com · 10-01-2025 12:23AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039553#Comment_123039553

I'm not even sure people would care about the 100 euro fee. Ireland is an expensive country.

The Social Democrats are out of touch with reality.

mikep · 10-01-2025 12:38AM

Whitmore was on Newstalk this evening explaining her plan and proved that it was just a headline grabbing exercise..

I particularly liked the bit when she said that the HSE has all the info on deaths from the register.

Any idiot would know that the register isn't updated immediately when someone dies. You have 12 months to register a death.. the funeral would be months before the register is updated.

Idiotic…

cute geoge · 10-01-2025 05:13AM

Has Lowry luck run out ,the kingmaker .

I would love to see II involved in negotations ,will they get a say yet!!

Pete_Cavan · 10-01-2025 06:53AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039538#Comment_123039538

Why is it a comical suggestion? It would just be a website maintained by existing IT staff already maintaining multiple websites. Costs would be low and a reasonable fee can be charged. It would be a very useful service, I'd rather see such a service run by a government agency than a greedy media corporation.

Peregrinus · 10-01-2025 08:02AM

Bad enough that the traditional media have their revenue streams swallowed up by the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg without having it swallowed up by the government as well.

FrancieBrady · 10-01-2025 08:47AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039884#Comment_123039884

Surely it's traditional media eyeing up extra revenue streams by charging for something it was clear did not need to be charged for.
RIP.ie has archival value I believe, it really should be protected.

hotmail.com · 10-01-2025 09:49AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039844#Comment_123039844

She suggested it would be free, no charge at all.

I can only imagine if the government took this over - consultants, extra staff, inquiries, a dedicated minister and ultimately a poorer service to the public. It's a comical suggestion from a comical party.

hotmail.com · 10-01-2025 09:51AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039603#Comment_123039603

She is a complete idiot. She wanted more people to take Ukrainian refugees at one point and then admitted herself that she hadn't taken in anyone.

harryharry25 · 10-01-2025 09:59AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040043#Comment_123040043

A Govt left by FF/FG would prob lead to the situation you just put forward

A Govt with parties who didn't see everything as a chance to make a few pound, would be able to manage a website pretty easy without pissing away taxpayer's money imo

hotmail.com · 10-01-2025 10:09AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040072#Comment_123040072

Different government but the same civil service who are slow, inefficient and don't want to work hard. It would end up an expensive disaster for the State.

There are already many options other than RIP.ie for people to broadcast funeral details. This whole story is a farce.

blanch152 · 10-01-2025 01:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123040052#Comment_123040052

It is a silly populist proposal.

From what I have heard, rip.ie is carrying on its merry way, and most people are still putting up their death notices on it. Incumbent advantage.

Edit: Just checked, over 200 death notices put up with either today or yesterday's date.

AMTE_21 · 10-01-2025 07:29PM

I see the majority of the Independents currently negotiating with FF and FG are rural deputies, who will be looking out for Dublin interests? Why can’t Dublin Independents get together and form a grouping and negotiate as a block, Dublin is the engine of the country and god knows it needs a lot of attention.

Podge_irl · 10-01-2025 07:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042410#Comment_123042410

Barry Heneghan and Paul Gogarty are the only two Dublin Independents.

blanch152 · 10-01-2025 08:03PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042443#Comment_123042443

Roderic O'Gorman said in an interview that he was talking to Gogarty about the potential of rejoining the Greens, so that would reduce them to 1.

Loafing Oaf · 10-01-2025 08:26PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042498#Comment_123042498

who is already involved in the government negotiations, so that would be 100% of Dublin Independents…

Sam Russell · 10-01-2025 08:29PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042498#Comment_123042498

If RO'G could persuade Eoin Hayes (suspended Soc Dems Dublin Bay South TD) to join the Greens together with Gogarty, the GP would have three TDs - enough to give a majority.

I would have thought that would be a better option than the Rural Indos.

L1011 · 10-01-2025 08:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123042571#Comment_123042571

The Greens do have standards.

Peregrinus · 11-01-2025 04:51AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123039918#Comment_123039918

Small ads revenue used to be a major component of any newpaper's income stream — for many newspapers, the major component. In my time Dublin had two competing evening newspapers, largely financed by small ads revenue; both have collapsed. The morning papers were less dependent on it, but it was still very important to them, and it's largely gone.

One of the reasons so few newspapers employ journalists any more, and instead fill their columns with material placed there by agents for various wealthy interests, is that they don't have the money to pay journalists.

The IT purchase of rip.ie was a (perhaps not very-well thought out) attempt to retain some revenue from this particular category of small ad. I don't think it was ever gong to work, but there is zero reason why taxpayer funds should be used to oppose it.

FrancieBrady · 11-01-2025 09:47AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123043558#Comment_123043558

RIP.IE's success was not born to or out of print media though. It wasn't something they owned and lost. The internet/computing changed, displaced and ruined many trades and businesses, including my own. That is just a fact of life.

I think a register of births and deaths that can be trusted is something that should not be in the hands of profiteers or privately owned just like a national museum or library or national broadcaster etc.
It is more accident than design that RIP.ie achieved the status of an archival resource but that is a value central government should have been interested in.

blackwhite · 11-01-2025 11:11PM

We have a register of births and deaths (as well as marriages and adoptions) maintained by the state not in the hands of private enterprise. It’s called the General Register Office.

It just isn’t used for publicly advertising funeral arrangements.

dulpit · 12-01-2025 12:25AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123045937#Comment_123045937

But rip.ie does include useful historical info such as the names of the family, partners, burial place, stuff like that. It's genuinely useful, and would be a shame to lose it as a resource.

Peregrinus · 12-01-2025 05:13AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123046122#Comment_123046122

Well, there's nothing to stop them tweaking the General Register Office arrangements so that, when births and deaths are registered, details of other family members, burial arrangements, etc are included in the registration.

That would make a lot more sense than running a second, entirely separate, system for registering relatives' details and then trying somehow to reconcile the two separate databases.

VinLieger · 12-01-2025 11:49AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123046340#Comment_123046340

It's a nice idea but I would bet money that the registrar's office takes at least a week if not several to fully register and process a death cert. This wouldn't work with our rather speedy funeral process.

Strazdas · 12-01-2025 02:16PM

One wonders just why the Irish Times bought the website : the assumption would have to be that they saw it solely as a potential money spinner or profit making venture. There wasn't really any other reason for them to get involved, given that it had been a free service for many years beforehand.

VinLieger · 12-01-2025 05:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123047171#Comment_123047171

Its absolutely solely for profit as others pointed out newspapers would historically have had a nice little earner via the death notices which i'm guessing has seen a down tick since RIP.ie took off so they bought it to offset that. Dunno how they thought 100 quid was going to be acceptable without the uproar thats occurred.

Seth Brundle · 12-01-2025 05:22PM

Dunno how they thought 100 quid was going to be acceptable without the uproar thats occurred.

My mother recently asked me to place a short In Memoriam notice in the Irish Times recently.

As it happens, this is handled by the Irish Examiner. The cost for the notice was given a discount for previously posting a notice and it still came to €93

Sam Russell · 12-01-2025 06:13PM

The GRO only gets notifications of a death when they are registered, which is only mandatory within six months of a death. Not much use relying on that if the funeral takes place in 48 hours.

The IT have invested in a nice little earner.

General Irish politics discussion thread

Comments