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Irish Independent
13 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Des Cahill at centre of RTÉ's €11m PRSI court case
RTÉ sports presenter Des Cahill is at the centre of a landmark High Court case that could have an €11m cost to the national broadcaster. Cahill is one of two high earners at the broadcaster whose cases have led the Department of Social Protection to determine RTÉ was obliged to make extra PRSI payments on their salary. The former Sunday Game host's case has been examined as part of a department review into whether presenters' employment at RTÉ was more akin to that of employees than independent contractors. Cahill, who has non-staff contractor position at RTÉ despite working there for over 40 years, is the subject of one of two cases RTÉ has appealed to the High Court arising from the department's inquiry into alleged bogus-self employment at the station. The two High Court cases have been brought by RTÉ against the Social Protection Minister and an appeals officer in the social welfare appeals office. Both are listed for mention in the Master's Court on July 8.
RTÉ News
a day ago
- RTÉ News
It's been one big beautiful bust-up for Trump and Musk
There were many tensions in the relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Some had been clearly visible; others were well concealed. Their relationship was widely considered the most consequential in current US politics. The proximate cause of its end was the bill that will probably be Donald Trump's most consequential piece of legislation. The one big beautiful bill has caused one big beautiful bust-up. The United States has a budget problem, and a big one. Simply put, the US government spends more than it takes in taxes and uses borrowings to cover the gap. The borrowings have mounted up over the decades and now stand just north of $36 trillion. Elon Musk was touted (mostly by himself) as the man who was going to fix it. During the election campaign last year it was Musk who first raised the idea of a "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) in a podcast he did with candidate Trump in the middle of August. Musk said he would be willing to serve in the administration, leading DOGE. Because he was - and remains - very worried about the Federal debt and is convinced of the urgent need to reduce it. The DOGE plan was to use the techniques of Silicon Valley start-ups on the fusty world of government accounting and slash and burn its way quickly to big savings that would help to close out the tax and spend gap. Cutting the deficit was the strategic goal, and Trump campaigned on the idea. As long as lenders - foreign and domestic - are happy to lend money to the US government for an interest rate it can afford, and the economy is growing fast enough, borrowing to make up a shortfall for a few years shouldn't be a problem. And the US market for government bonds is the world's deepest and most liquid, so lenders don't look for high interest rates because they can get their money out any time they want, and make a reasonable return lending to Uncle Sam. Right up until the moment they don't - and then $36 trillion becomes a very big problem. We have seen this up close and personal in Ireland during the financial crisis. And although the US is a long way from Ireland's financial woes, when interest rates start to rise (the famous 'yield' on government bonds goes up) governments get worried. This is exactly what happened in the US recently over the president's tariff policy. Such was the disruption to trade and commerce, investors rethought their strategy and demanded higher interest rates for lending money to the government. The so called "bond market vigilantes" didn't like the Trump tariffs, and put pressure on the government in ways ordinary voters cannot. They did for former UK prime minister Liz Truss three years ago, and wreaked havoc among the PIIGS 15 years ago (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain - all doing a lot better than the Euro area average these days, thank you for asking). So Trump already has the vigilantes on his back over trade. But he promised the voters tariffs, and said the money raised from them would help balance the government books. Trump slammed Biden for his deficit spending (6.5% of GDP last year - the Maastricht Treaty limit in Europe is 3%, and an "excessive deficit" ruling requires governments to set up a plan to get the deficit back in range - ideally balanced over a number of years). In America they have a debt limit - an effort by Congress to rein in the constant deficit spending. Every so often - these days with increasing frequency - the Congress has to raise the debt limit, so the government can borrow more to fund day-to-day activities. If not, the government starts to shut down. This has actually happened in the past. There have been three last minute raises in the debt limit in the past year, as the anti-borrowing members of Congress engaged in brinkmanship to try and bring a runaway budget under control. Enter the man with a chainsaw and baseball cap. I watched from the back of the hall in a convention centre hotel in National Harbour, Maryland, as Musk took to the stage at the C-PAC annual DC gathering of Conservative political activists. The chainsaw was a gift from Argentina's President Javier Milei, who presented it to him on stage. During that August podcast with Trump, Musk cited Milei as an example the US should follow, as did Trump himself - "the new head of a place called Argentina, he's a big MAGA fan: he ran on MAGA and he took it to extremes, and I hear he's doing really a terrific really cut and I'm hearing they are starting to do really well". Musk concurred, saying Milei was cutting government spending, simplifying regulations and doing things "that make sense". He said Argentina was a lesson for the US in what can go bad - a country that used to be very wealthy but which had gone way off course by poor policy choices. Musk tried earnestly to tell Trump his belief that government over-spending causes inflation, that "if the government spends far more than it brings in, that increases the money supply, and if the money supply increases faster than the rate of goods and services - that's inflation", he told a clearly bored Trump, who started talking about how he had rebuilt the US military in his first term in office, before getting the message at the third time of asking: "I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayers' money is spent in a good way. And I'd be happy to help out on such a commission," said Elon Musk. "I'd love it", said Donald Trump, finally. "You're the greatest cutter", he said laying on the praise for Musk's record in business. "You walk into a company, they want to go on strike, you say that's OK - you're all gone. You're all gone. So every one of you is gone. So you are the greatest." It was the beginning of the bromance, as Musk invested his hopes in the candidate, and Trump strapped on the booster rocket of Elon's fame and prestige. That, and the hundreds of millions of dollars Musk threw at the Trump election campaign, including paying voters to register to vote, with the chance of winning a million-dollar jackpot in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And there was the undeniable star power of Musk himself - tech zillionaire, car maker, rocketship maker, owner of a social media platform, paymaster to Neuralink (a genuinely useful company) and Starlink, the satellite internet company. Truly Musk was and remains a rockstar of the digital age. He brought new, hard to reach voters into the Trump rallies and their more important TV audiences, adding even more energy to the already high-wattage Trump himself brought to bear. He was particularly important in cementing the coalition of 'tech and crypto bros', and the 'manosphere' of podcasters that brought a significant lump of younger male voters over to Trump. In a tight election, it made a difference - possibly the difference. He had the mission, he had the means, he had a sort of a mandate from the voters, and most of all he had permission from Trump - permission to try and cut government spending, abolish departments, fire civil servants - engage in all the fast, simple, direct action many of the MAGA faithful wanted to see: if it inflicted pain on the hated Washington DC and its Deep State denizens, even better. So Musk moved fast and broke things and predictably ran into trouble with the actual cabinet members - the ones who actually are in charge of government departments, the ones who actually had to appear before Congress and do hearings to see if they were suitable for the job and would adhere to the constitution and all that. The first report of a screaming match at a cabinet gathering was not long in coming. More followed as February progressed. Still the cult of Elon Musk grew in the outside world, even as the reality of DOGE was slowly revealed as it attempted to smash the granite edifice of the federal government and its two and a half centuries of political deal-making and legal fortifications. A revolution was afoot in Washington, I wrote in early February, in a piece casting Musk as the Robespierre of this revolt. It was a not so subtle nod to the widely held view in DC that Musk would not last long in government, that his way of cutting just wasn't sustainable. Nor would it result in enough savings. It would just annoy people. And so it did, not just cabinet secretaries, but more importantly, Trump himself. "Elon was wearing thin", he posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday. "I asked him to leave, I took away his EV (electric vehicle) Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" He followed it up with another post, touching on the big conflict of interest that always dogged Musk's government work: "The easiest way to save in our budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do it." In his meeting with the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (who skillfully said almost nothing, apart from a well aimed dart on Ukraine), Trump rose to a reporter's bait and spoke out against Musk over his attack on the One Big Beautiful Bill: "I'm very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. "He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair. "We want to have cars of all types, electric. We want to have electric, but we want to have a gasoline combustion. We want to have hybrids. We want to be able to sell everything. "And when that was cut, and Congress wanted to cut it, he became a little bit different, and I can understand that, but he knew every aspect of this bill. He knew it better than almost anybody, and he never had a problem until right after he left. "And if you saw the statements he made about me, which I'm sure you can get very easily, it's very fresh on tape, he said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn't said bad about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next. But I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot." Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if Musk had raised his concerns about the tax and spend bill privately, and if Trump's own comments were just sour grapes, the President replied: "No, he worked hard and he did a good job, and I'll be honest, I think he misses the place. I think he got out there and all of a sudden he wasn't in this beautiful Oval Office, and he's got nice offices too - but there's something about this, it's just a special place. "World War One, it started and it ended here, and World War Two and so many other things. Everything big comes right from this, this beautiful space. It's now much more beautiful than it was six months ago. A lot of good things are happening in this room. "And I'll tell you, he's not the first: people leave my administration, and they love us. And then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile. I don't know what it is. It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it, but we have it with others too. "They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour is gone. The whole world is different, and they become hostile. I don't know what it is. Someday you'll write a book about it, and you'll let us know." Musk's responses to his monstering on live TV - about 80 posts on his X social media platform in which he exhibited the full range of political skills of the average moody 16-year-old - veered from threatening to immediately decommission SpaceX's fleet of Dragon spaceships, used by NASA to ferry supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station, to claiming that the reason the Trump administration hasn't fulfilled its promise to publish the Epstein files is that Trump features in them. It is a matter of public record - i.e. newspaper articles, videos, photographs - that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein knew each other and attended social events together, including parties at Epstein's Manhattan mansion. These were mostly in the 1980s and 90s, when Trump would attend the opening of an envelope if it would get him a mention in the New York Post. They are not the smoking gun Mr Musk thinks they are. They are barely the smoke. The row that had been coming for months was now on full public display. The gloves were off, and what used to be called a Twitter fight was under way, the richest man in the world and the president of the United States behaving in an undignified manner for the entertainment of the masses. Rarely has the popcorn emoji on mobile phones been so thoroughly overused. But Trump is the winner here. Musk is simply the latest meal for the apex predator of American politics. Like the nature films where the young buck tries to take on the old alpha and is seen off, so Musk is away with his tail between his legs. His excursion into the swamp of DC politics ended in pain, humiliation and considerable financial loss. The share price of Tesla, Musk's main source of wealth, are down 30% since the start of the year, as enough consumers reacted with a boycott of the electric carmakers products that it caused a crisis at the company that required his full-time attention to fix. And his full-time keeping quiet on the national political stage. His personal loss of fortune since joining the Trump administration was estimated at $27bn dollars. The Irish banking crisis cost €31bn. Once Tesla reported its first quarter results, the clock was ticking very fast for Elon Musk's tenure in the US government. That's when it became generally known that he was on a 130-day contract that would finish at the end of May. Then he was said to be in wind-down mode, withdrawing from government having established the core DOGE team (featuring a precocious 19-year-old known as "big balls"). Both sides tried to handle the departure with grace and formality. But then once he had his US equivalent of a P45 in his hand, Musk launched a blistering attack on Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), calling it "disgusting" and "pork-filled" earlier this week. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it," Musk wrote on X on Tuesday night. Was the whole DOGE thing just a distraction, something to create the kind of instability that Trump thrives in so that he could get his real priorities through the system - a system he knew far more about than Musk? Was Musk just used by Trump? Will Musk seek revenge by funding primary challengers to vulnerable Republicans in next year's mid-term elections? California Democrat Ro Khanna says the party should embrace Elon Musk. Musk himself is now musing on starting a third party "that actually represents the 80% of Americans in the middle". Will any of this come to pass? Who knows. All that is sure is that the OBBB is still facing the fundamental arithmetic problem we started off with. The bill as it stands would make the tax cuts that Trump introduced in 2017 permanent. They are currently due to expire next year. Trump likes to call them the biggest tax cut ever: if they do expire, Americans will accordingly face the biggest tax hike ever. Obviously no sitting politicians wants that on their record. So Trump must have those tax cuts made permanent. And that will cost money. Which this bill does not prove for. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill as approved by the House of Representatives and now before the Senate contains $3.7bn in tax cuts. Offsetting this is $1.3 trillion in proposed spending cuts. That leaves a $2.4 trillion dollar hole in the accounts, to be filled by more borrowing. Trump disputes the CBO figures, saying they don't take sufficient account of the economic growth he says will come from extending the tax cuts and the investment flowing from his 'America First' trade and tariff policy. There will also be some additional revenue from tariffs, he argues - but nowhere near enough to close the gap. But $2.4 trillion is a lot of hope value. Musk said at the outset he hoped to cut a trillion off government spending through DOGE. The current estimates say DOGE has at best achieved about a fifth of that, probably less. And now Elon is gone. Maybe "Big Balls" and his chums can do it - but again there is a lot of hope value in the proposition. Meanwhile the bond market vigilantes are poised, and the balanced budget fundamentalists in the Senate are talking up a last stand. There are two of them - Rand Paul and Ron Johnson. Trump could lose these two and still carry the day in the Senate, where the Republicans have a 53-47 majority. Four other Republican senators talk a good game on the Federal debt, but are swayable, and will probably be swayed by Trump - especially now he has dispatched the richest man in the world with brutality and cunning. In this he was aided by Steve Bannon, the godfather of MAGA, who despises Musk and the entire Silicon Valley set, regarding them as tech plutocrats intent on robbing Americans of their money and their liberty - especially the latter. He has also called for an investigation into Musk's immigration status, dubbing him an illegal immigrant from Africa. And he urged Trump to seize control of Starlink. Musk called Bannon "a Communist retard". MAGA probably won't miss Musk. But don't rule out a reconciliation, especially if it suits Trump. Plenty of Trump supporters have been calling for a healing of the rift. Former Russian President Dimitry Medvedev jokingly offered Russian mediation to end the hostilities between Trump and Musk - for a fee. In the meantime, all of Trump's domestic energy will be focused on getting the OBBB across the line in the Senate. He wants it ready to sign by 4 July, of course.
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Irish Examiner
The Menu: A rare award that has the greater good of the Irish food world as its concern
Two weeks ago, at a special lunch in Ashford Castle, Euro-Toques Ireland unveiled the winners of their annual food producer awards for 2025. Sweet suffering kidneys of Christ, says you, not more awards. With each passing year, it seems more crop up, right across the commercial world. Very often it is about self-promotion, to generate buzz and publicity for members of a particular commercial sector, to gain a bit of traction with the public and then dub them the 'Oscars of the Tricycle Importers of West Longford' or whatever product or service you're trying to flog. Increasingly, especially in the food world, awards are being created purely for the financial gain of the organisers, whose knowledge of the sector can prove surprisingly scant. Some years ago, when I used to work with small food producers, a client rang to ask about a new 'Irish food award' run by a foreign commercial entity for which they had been invited to enter. Further investigation revealed that, on top of the entry fee, there were further charges for displaying product at the awards, potentially running into thousands. Then there was the cost of attending the awards themselves. The price of a table for, say, 10 (you and all the staff of your small speciality food production business, perhaps) would again cost several thousand. It is a model used across multiple sectors, an opportunity to cash in with a lavish event, milking it for every last dime. Coincidentally, I had been invited to be a judge for these awards. Sniffing the reek of commercial opportunism, I asked how much I would be paid to compensate for my time. Nada… but it would allow me to promote my own 'brand'. Travel expenses? Nope. I regularly donate my time gratis to voluntary causes or organisations and will do so in future but I baulk at giving free time to a commercial entity primarily focused on profit. I advised said client to say no and I did likewise, subsequently noting the professional calibre of certain judges was such that they'd struggle to judge a crisp-opening competition. The Euro-Toques Ireland awards are markedly different in both structure and ambition. For starters, Euro-Toques Ireland is the Irish chapter of a European-wide, chef-led organisation dedicated to preserving and championing local food culture, traditional food craft and gastronomy, and chef-members not only pay an annual membership fee (€150) but also devote time on a voluntary basis. Food producers can also become members for free. Secondly, nominees don't 'enter' the awards or pay an entry fee; they are selected and passed through the judging process by the chef-members, only learning of their nomination once the dye has been cast. The cost of the awards lunch (members €65; non-members €80) is to cover expenses (the chef-member venue is donated free), no more, even though Euro-Toques Ireland has a skeleton professional staff, one part timer and head of community Manuela Spinella (familiar to Irish football fans as translator to erstwhile Irish football manager Giovanni Trapattoni), the only full-time employee, and membership fees and sponsorship are its sole source of income. Each nominee gets one free ticket for a gorgeous lunch with wine and can buy more at member's rate. Safe to say, Euro-Toques Ireland is an entirely ethos-driven organisation with the greater good of the Irish food world its sole concern. Euro-Toques Ireland came about in 1986 when Myrtle Allen was approached by three-star Michelin chefs Paul Bocuse (France) and Pierre Romeijer (Belgium) to form a European-wide chefs organisation on foot of growing alarm at the loss of traditional food cultures and professional cheffing practices as a result of the increasing industrialisation of agriculture and the food sector. Myrtle best represented the true values and aspirations of the organisation, once famously scolding her fellow Michelin-starred members for serving up coffee with UHT milk instead of proper milk. Her life's work at Ballymaloe was the essence of the Euro-Toques ethos in action, brilliantly cooked seasonal menus based on traditional produce of the local terroir. Enjoy a well-cooked meal of this year's Euro-Toques award-winning produce and I promise it will be a culinary highlight of your year. If you want it to be more than an annual highlight, check out Euro-Toques online and start engaging more with the cooking and produce of chef- and producer-members. Host kitchens sought Chef Network is seeking Irish restaurants and other hospitality ventures to follow in the footsteps of Glover's Alley, Aniar, Rare at Blue Haven, and many more by registering as a host kitchen for Open Kitchen Week (Nov 10-16). The initiative, in its third year, offers aspiring chefs of all ages and backgrounds hands-on experience in a professional Irish kitchen, from TY students to mature learners as well as career influencers such as parents and teachers. Host kitchens, in turn, get to showcase the culinary sector, attract new blood and help to sustain the sector's future. TODAY'S SPECIAL If new season strawberries, which I wrote about last week, are an annual edible highlight, they are nothing compared to the first new potatoes of the season. A bowl of steaming hot new spuds, chopped parsley, a grind of black pepper and drowning in enough melting butter to fund a cardiologist's yacht, is my favourite dish, death row meal and last supper all rolled into one. I always purchase my first of the year from fine independent grocery/food shop, Menloe Stores, of Blackrock, who source directly from growers but new spuds should be on shelves all over the country by the time you read this.
