February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Harry Keaney
Ireland, an island between the U.S. and Europe boasting a booming economy, a world leader in communications technology, and a computer literate population scattered throughout the globe, is ideally suited to taking full advantage of the information superhighway. There is now a wealth of information about Ireland available on the internet, ranging from the Irish Times newspaper to quite a number of government sources.
This week, for example, the Irish Trade Board has added a new search facility to its web site to help international buying teams to connect with competitive vendors from Ireland.
The trade board describes the new facility as “the most advanced offered by any government trade promotion organization.”
The new service, available at www.irish-trade.ie, can be searched using five major international languages. It enables buyers to identify potential suppliers through a multi-layered search facility using tens of thousands of product categories drawn from the internationally accepted Kompass indexation system. It leads buyers to comprehensive data about Irish suppliers, with links to their web sites.
The Irish Trade Board backs up this service by offering comprehensive, customized, free sourcing support through an international network of 33 offices. These offices can also be accessed through the trade board’s web site.
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Donald Gardner, merchandise on-air coordinator for the Home Shopping Network of Clearwater, Fla., described the new trade board web-site service as one of the most comprehensive product research locations on the internet.
Meanwhile, if you want to check out some property in Ireland, then the address to log onto is http://www.irishpropertynews.com
Irish Property Newsletters is an online organization dedicated to bringing up to date property related news to Irish citizens and expatriates. It is also able to help people locate property in Ireland free of charge, a service of benefit to immigrants contemplating returning to Ireland.
Irish Property Newsletter is based in Kirwan House, Flood Street, Galway. Its e-mail address is nettech@tinet.ie, and the telephone number is 011-353-91-565622.
And, of course, a weekly U.S. source of Irish and Irish-American news is the Irish Echo newspaper, available on the worldwide web at irishecho.com.
North election on C-SPAN
Celtic Vision will present special coverage of the June 25 election for membership of the new Northern Ireland assembly. As it did with its May 22 referendum coverage, Celtic Vision will make election programing and results available for simulcasting on C-SPAN. Regular Celtic Vision programing will be preempted for coverage of the elections and will include exit polling, a special edition of RTE’s leading current affairs program “Primetime,” results and coverage on the evening news from Dublin. For information, call John-Philip Foley at (617) 973-6441.
“Mind Your Body” session in Boston
The Irish Networking Society of Boston will host “Mind Your Body,” a discussion on fitness, health and stress management during the society’s next meeting on July 1 from 6:30-9 p.m. in the Independence Room of the John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley St., Boston. The guest speakers will be Peter Donohue, Irish winter Olympic athlete and training and fitness instructor at Maxout Corporate Fitness, Inc., and Martin Kelly, certified counselor and hypnotherapist. Admission is $5 for members and $10 for non-members. There will be a social gathering after the meeting in the Back Bay Brewing Company, 755 Boylston St. For information, call (781) 446-8074.
Jobless rate plummets again
For the fourth consecutive month, the number of jobless in Ireland has fallen in May. There are now 23,800 fewer people on the dole than at the beginning of the year as the country’s economic boom continues.
During May the number signing on for the dole was 223,941 – the first time since November, 1990, that the figure was below 225,000, according to the Central Statistics Office.
Brennan said the government target of cutting unemployment to 7 percent by 2000 and 5 percent within four or five years was achievable.
The figures were boosted by the seasonal effect of people taking up early summer jobs in tourism, agriculture and other areas.
The live register includes people signing on for social welfare credits, and those on part-time work.
The recent quarterly household survey showed that about only 136,000 of those on the dole were looking for full-time jobs.
Sky-high rents in Dublin
Residential rents in the greater Dublin area are expected to increase by 20-25 percent by the end of this year, according to the housing advice agency Threshold. The increase is the highest private sector rent hike in living memory and reflects soaring house prices and the consequent demand for rental property.
Debt will eat up surplus
The Irish government finds itself in an extraordinary situation this year: it will not have to borrow any money because tax revenue vastly exceeds expenditure. Officials in the Department of Finance expect the country’s overall budget surplus to be approximately _1 billion. However, most, if not all, of the extra revenue is expected to go toward the country’s national debt, which currently stands at _30 billion. In addition, the Irish government knows it will soon need all the extra revenue it can get. Because Ireland is no longer the poor country it once was, there will be less money coming from the European Union from now on. Part of the price to pay for becoming the Celtic Tiger, it seems.
Governor’s appointment
New York Governor George Pataki has appointed his former transportation commissioner, John Daly, to replace John O’Mara as a member of the state Public Service Commission. Daly is a former state senator.