......
The financial incentive is full wages, no need to vary pension entitlements. Working up to 70 is available in much of the public service since 2019. There is no set retirement age in private employment, it is up to the employers. Self employed people can do what they want.
Joe Duffy is a great example of this working well after the age of 64 and working as hard now as he ever has…….
64 is way too young to be a blanket retirement age, it's true. People working certain jobs obviously need to be looked after earlier (heavy jobs, construction, etc) but having a blanket rule that says everyone retires at 65 is just screwing younger people who need to pay for more and more pensions of the older people.
There is no reason why if you're working a comfortable indoors job (office job, whatever) that you shouldn't be able to work until 70.
Incentivise people working longer, give them a better state pension. For people in protected industries (eg construction), let them get to the same level of pension at an earlier age. Just needs a bit of planning like.
It’s hard to imagine people being this out of touch in Ireland but here we have it playing out before us every Sunday morning. It’s funnier than most of the comedy RTÉ produce to be fair so if you listen from that perspective it’s amusing.
Israel’s overstepping could have been stopped by Trump now. No mention of Biden of course! Honestly the bias is laughable!
Dinner party chat for a certain class here, that's all it is Imv
A piece suggesting a DOGE style appointment to curb wasteful expenditure was commented on as follows:
I don’t think there’s a lot of wasteful spending by the government, but maybe they’re spending money on things they shouldn’t be spending money on……
No comment or challenge from the host or any of the other panel members to this of course.
64 is way too young to retire says the guy who's sat at a desk all his life.. Try trowelling plaster laying blocks for 30 years amockeen and then come back to me
Dearbhail with a slightly inaccurate statement about the number of “No Kings” protests in the US yesterday where she said there were “200,000 separate protests across cities and towns”. The correct figure was 2,000. Did she correct herself? Of course not. A mistake or propaganda? 🤷♂️
The always excellent Niall Stanage was a brief guest. He was on for approx 4-5 minutes. I don’t see the point in getting the man up at 6am US time to only utilise him for that little time when he would bring more to this topic than possibly anyone on this side of the pond. A waste of an excellent contributor.
Brief mention of the political assassinations in the US yesterday, no mention of the suspect’s connections to Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz - despite this being widely reported. I wonder if he had a connection to Trump would it have been mentioned?
Panel (inc. regulars Ellen Coyne, Graham Finlay, and Cormac Lucey) solving the housing crisis now btw.
You can be sure of that Peter.
She’s not an RTÉ employee - I’d imagine this gig pays very well for the 4 hours (incl. breaks) each weekend you do it.
That segment brought back memories of climbing over the wall around ballyglunin house which she mentioned and hiding in the bushes watching a crowd of young ones (our own age) , mostly American accented around a fire singing sometime in the late/mid 70s.. It all looked so exotic to us at the time
Very good interview today with Anne Marie Allen who has written a book about her experience in the RC church organisation Opus Dei.
Worth a listen back.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22520696/
https://www.gillbooks.ie/biography/biography/serve
Mod: Please take the general discussion to the RTÉ thread.
250,000 per years is Kevin's basic pay. He also gets employer pension contribution of 25% of basic pay, this is tax free. In addition he gets a Car Allowance, this payment is taxable.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/rte-director-general-kevin-bakhurst-made-an-error-on-air-when-he-under-reported-pay-package-by-31500/a102893713.html
Is it?
0700MI four females to one
9 o'clock. usually male
!0 o'clock Clair
12 Louise
13 Rachel
1345 male
15 ray
1630male and fem
19 usually male
RTE have to do gender equality. They have two women and two men on the Sunday newspaper panel every time. It is being implemented to a lesser degree for the presenters, men still well ahead.
Hi- a question on the 250/338k figure you quoted? I thought his figure was €250k. What makes up the additional €88k?
Yes, I’ve heard that theory - cap them at €250k but require them to work much less and/or give more holidays but the money is guaranteed regardless.
The top line figures only tell part of the story here - we need “fee per show” figures to see what increases/decreases have happened over the last few years. If for example Presenter A was getting €250K in 2024 for 45 weekends/90 shows and is now getting €250K for 30 weekends/60 shows he’s actually getting an increase in fees but RTÉ will likely say the cost was neutral - which is some spin, but they have lots of previous on this. Being more devious you could even work a press release to say something like:
“Presenter B was paid €250k in 2023. They’re now being paid €200k in 2024, which is a 20% reduction, significant saving to the broadcaster and taxpayer, and a commitment to our ongoing efforts to reduce costs etc.” while leaving out that they presented 150 shows in 2023 and 100 shows in 2024, ergo getting significantly more per show - €1,666 in 2023, €2,000 in 2024. Crude example for sure but the point holds.
Im no fan of Dearbhail, but at least she seems prepared to come to work over the weekend.
Have to agree with you there D.
I can't listen to this DEARBHAL one ..her droaning and monotonous voice is torture...it seems she knows everything ..same tone to her voice..no sense of humour.. had to turn her off ......please come back BOC ......ASAP and put us,out of our misery
BOC is meant to be on 250k a year, that's obviously if he works every weekend.
But seriously, he must be out more than he's in this year.
I appreciate he's not getting paid when he's off, but sure rte have to pay Dearbhail to cover him nearly every weekend.
If it was any other job, his boss would be saying "do you want this job or not?"
The working theory is that the top earners have been given more holidays. It helps to keep the salaries of the top earners down and in check with KB's 250/338k remuneration.
BOC off again!
Its beyond a joke at this stage.
Why not just give Dearbhal the job?
That very point was made on this show (O’Connor’s) on May 25th by Peter Browne who not just advocated for the removal of VAT for building firms, but the removal of all taxes.
It was greeted with stunned silence by the host and an incredulous panel btw.
You just happened to hear the the single economist with a unique viewpoint. And you saw through his wrong headed thinking. So no need to worry that anyone else would believe him. It is not a demonstration of a general problem in this case. And fair play to that radio station for letting him have his say, going against every other economist.
I think there's a general problem in this space with people getting a platform, whether in government or the media, to pontificate on it, with their pet solutions from their own points of view. Just this morning, I listened to someone advocate dropping VAT from construction costs, (which I think is a good idea). But, he was asked will the builders not just swallow the additional profit, and I thought - okay, will we get an honest/unbiased/nuanced answer to this question? Nope. They will pass all the savings on to the consumer, says he.
Any economist will tell you in that situation, the builders are going to take at least some of the additional profit. Even if they took all of it, it would still have the beneficial effect of increasing output massively and more broadly. As the head of one of the two big housebuilding firms said recenty. We don't need two big house builders, We need at least eight of them. But, you can't explain that in a soundbite.
All noted GAA pundits.
Joining Dearbhail to dissect the Sunday papers are Sarah Carey, Irish Independent Columnist, Prof. Rónán Collins, Consultant Geriatrician, Sam Tranum, Editor of the Dublin Inquirer and Louise Burne, Political Correspondent for the Irish Mirror.
Three new ones for 2025, plus Burne on her second appearance.
