How ‘inertia, incapacity and appalling ineptitude' stymied attempts to redraw the Irish border
One hundred years ago, the Irish Boundary Commission collapsed in acrimony after the proposal by the three boundary commissioners suggesting a new border in Ireland was shelved and the border remained as it was, as it still is.
Under the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, which provided for the prospect of a boundary commission to decide the contours of the border, three commissioners were to be appointed to carry out the task. The chairman was to be appointed by the British government, with the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland governments appointing one representative each.
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Irish Examiner
18 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
From one in four to one in 25: Ireland's shrinking farming workforce
The farmers, foresters, and fishers responsible for Ireland's primary production are now only one in 25 of the working population, and about one in 50 of the total population. They are the 108,450 working in "agriculture, forestry, and fishing" in 2024, according to the Central Statistics Office's Labour Force Survey. However, calculating farmers as a percentage of the working population depends on which of the CSO's surveys you follow, as explained by agriculture minister Martin Heydon, when asked for the number of people engaged in the food production industry as part of a parliamentary question before the Dáil broke up for the summer recess. Mr Heydon also gave the results of the CSO's Farm Structure Survey 2023, which indicated that 299,725 people worked on 133,174 farms across Ireland in 2023. The holders of these farms were 86.8% men and 13.2% women. Only 5,791 were aged under 35, while 50,392 were aged over 65. The Farm Structure Survey differs from the Labour Force Survey because it includes all people working on 133,174 farms, including those for whom it is not their main occupation. Mr Heydon added that for the purposes of calculating the agricultural labour force in 2023, 127,976 farm holdings of a defined size were included. Sole full-time Of these, 67,362 of farm holders defined farm work as their sole full-time occupation; 28,886 described farm work as a major occupation; and 31,728 as a subsidiary occupation. Excluding farm holders, 171,749 people worked on farms. Of these, some 132,278 were spouses and other family members, and 39,471 were non-family workers. This figure includes both part-time and full-time workers. Mr Heydon also gave the breakdown of the country's 299,725 people working on farms, both family and non-family workers, by region. Most are in the West, with 66,182; the border area has 56,249; the South-West has 49,814; the Midlands has 28,515; and the Mid-East and Dublin region has 27,704. In his parliamentary question, Dublin Fingal West Labour Party TD Robert O'Donoghue also enquired about age demographics, and the minister's reply included the mean age of farm holder by county and region. Nationally, this averaged 59.4, with relatively little variation, from a low of 58 in Donegal to a high of 60.9 in Galway. The youngest farmers are in the South-West, averaging 58.6. The oldest are in the West, averaging 60.7. Main occupation To complete the Labour Force Survey information, the minister said the 169,300 who worked in the agri-food sector as a main occupation in 2024 (representing 6.1% of total employment in Ireland), included 56,850 in the "manufacture of food and beverages" category, along with the 108,450 in the "agriculture, forestry, and fishing" category. Of those people employed in the manufacture of food and beverages, some 50,225 worked in food and 6,625 worked in beverages. Including them, and assuming that 75% of Irish-produced food is exported (it's about 90% for livestock products; however, Ireland also has large food imports), each worker in the Irish agri-food sector can be said to contribute to the nutrition of 30 people in Ireland, plus 90 overseas.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Banks are making obscene profits – we should tax them to fund cost-of-living package, says Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty
AIB and Bank of Ireland have made combined profits of €5bn this year but will pay little or nothing in Irish corporation tax on the profits, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said. This is because they are allowed to carry forward losses incurred during the banking collapse and set them off against any corporation tax they owe. Mr Doherty called for the law to be changed to stop investors in the banks pocketing billions of euro in dividends. If the profits of the banks were fully taxed, it would fund energy credits for families this winter, he added. 'There is something rotten at the core of our economy when banks can extract €5bn in profits and pay essentially no tax,' Mr Doherty said. The two banks have a combined corporation tax liability of just €39m for 2024. Obscene profits have been made over the last year The Donegal TD said the Government needs to 'stop facilitating the banks to avoid paying taxes on profits' they have made off the back of ordinary workers. 'Obscene profits have been made over the last year as banks heaped more pressure on workers and families during a cost-of-living crisis,' he added. The Government has said it will not be paying out a cost-of-living package, which included energy credits last year, in this October's budget. Mr Doherty said: 'The two big banks in the State, AIB and Bank of Ireland, boasted a combined profit of €5bn in 2024. ADVERTISEMENT 'We know from their financial statements that they now plan to not pay fair taxes on these unjustified profits – profits that are just the result of jacking up mortgage rates and short-changing savers.' Mr Doherty referenced the annual report of Bank of Ireland, which he claimed shows it plans to pay less than 2pc of its profits in tax, just €31m in Irish corporation tax. 'But it gets worse,' he said. 'AIB plans to pay just 0.3pc in corporation tax, or just €8m, to the Irish public on the profits they made in 2024.' He claimed this means Bank of Ireland is avoiding €221m in taxes, and AIB is avoiding paying €319m, even under Ireland's generous corporate tax rate of 12.5pc. 'That's over half a billion euro that could be helping workers and families through the cost-of-living crisis that is being siphoned off into corporate coffers and investors' pockets.' He said AIB and Bank of Ireland avoid paying tax on their bumper profits by carrying forward losses they have incurred in the wake of the financial crash and the subsequent bailout. The bailout is a gift that keeps on giving Mr Doherty said Ireland is an outlier in effectively applying no limitation on corporations carrying forward losses. He said the ability of bailed-out banks to avoid paying tax should end. 'The bailout is a gift that keeps on giving. And the Irish public keeps on paying,' he said. 'Government-sanctioned corporate profiteering needs to end. 'Banks must be made to pay their fair share of taxes.' The Department of Finance said what it called 'loss relief for corporation tax' is a long-standing feature of the Irish corporate tax system and a standard feature of corporation tax systems in all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. 'It recognises the fact that a business cycle runs over several years and that it would be unfair to tax income earned on profits in one year and not allow relief for losses incurred in another,' it said. Loss relief works by allowing a deduction for losses incurred in one accounting period against profits earned in another period. AIB said it is a very long-established part of Irish tax legislation that a business that makes a loss can offset that loss against its profits in later years and that is standard across all sectors. The bank added it adheres to all tax laws and rules and makes a significant tax contribution. 'In 2024, the total amount of taxes and levies paid and collected by AIB was €763m, with €376m of that paid by the group itself and a further €387m collected from employees, customers and shareholders, and paid over to the tax authorities,' it said. It said that as a result of changes announced by the finance minister in the budget in October 2023, AIB's bank levy payment has increased from €37m in 2023 to €94m in 2024, with a further levy of €94m to be paid in 2025. Bank of Ireland said that for last year, it will pay around €116m in Irish corporation taxes and levies made up of €31m in corporation tax and €85m for the bank levy. Since its introduction in 2014, Bank of Ireland has paid €404m for the bank levy. The group also pays taxes on profits generated in other jurisdictions. Bank of Ireland Group said, like any other company, it is allowed under the law and the tax codes to carry forward trading losses and utilise them against future trading profits. Changing the rules risks making Ireland a less attractive location for inward investment.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
We cannot police the streets if online material is not regulated
Vicious attacks on members of the Indian community recently were jolting. When I was growing up in the 1970s there was no racism here, or so it seemed. There was, apparently, no racism because there were almost no foreigners. Apart from family who came home from England, it was just us, and everyone else was the same as us. Except, on second thoughts, there was more to it. When I think harder, I remember anti-English feeling as a child. We didn't use the word British much. But it was popular to be anti-English. Violence played out on black and white televisions every night from Northern Ireland and that had an underlay of racism. But because it was for and against a united Ireland, it was insisted that the hate was not racial. Odd, given Cromwell had clear views to the contrary. But if Northern Ireland was obvious, what was almost invisible were the very small number of people who did look different. The testimony of the late Christine Buckley and others of colour was of a cruel State. But in the way we were brilliant at segregating out what we did not want to mix with, that uncomfortable truth was unseen. Itinerants – we didn't use the word Traveller then – were in plain sight but ostracised. READ MORE [ President condemns 'despicable attacks' on Indian people Opens in new window ] In the 1980s, I first experienced a multicultural society in the United States. The talk in Irish pubs among the newly arrived often instantly picked up on the outright racism that characterised parts of Irish America. It was bad alchemy. Ireland started to change dramatically in the 1990s and by the early noughties, in what was still an analogue culture, there was feverish talk of a 'them' who were getting everything from free prams to free houses while claiming asylum here. The Citizenship Referendum in 2004 was the answer to that and it largely settled the issue for 20 years. In hindsight, that apparent lull was helped by the economic crash. Now things are at full tilt again economically, immigration is an economic necessity, and right-wing racism is on the rise. Racism in this State is old. What is new is the vile discourse online, and most of it comes from abroad, principally the United States and United Kingdom. We spent a century fantasising about being contaminated by foreign filth in the form of dirty books. Now the reality arrives via algorithms on an extraordinary scale. [ Social media algorithms boosting videos of attacks on asylum seekers, says campaign group Opens in new window ] People correctly look to Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan and gardaí to act in relation to the recent attacks, and they should. It is Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan who is at the front line. The Ireland is Full protests are native but copycat the far right globally. Talking down to disaffected people caught up in the anger will serve no purpose. The electronic ether, acted out on protests, is socialising hate in working-class communities. Children and younger teenagers – mainly boys – are picking up hate in stereo on the ground and online. The number who act out these impulses is still small, but the consequences are potentially deadly and inflammatory. [ The Irish Times view on racist attacks: No place for hate on our streets Opens in new window ] Beyond the few who move on from verbal assault to actual violence, there is an ecosystem talking up untruth and legitimising hate. Casual abuse and the feeling of being unsafe are increasing for members of the Indian community, immigrants and Irish people who look different. We could kid ourselves about what sort of society we were in the 1970s, but not now. Schools have been remarkably successful hubs of racial integration, but are not a simple answer. The dilemma about occupying bored teenagers over the long summer holidays is perpetual. There is an open question about whether these attacks were coincidental or copycats. In any event, they were horrific and have blighted the lives of the victims. [ #WeAreIrish and proud, but the online racism is exhausting Opens in new window ] Today marks Independence Day in India and US president Donald Trump is meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Their world, where there are no rules, reflects reality online. It is Trump's world and the base of his power. Global tech platforms are rapidly reversing online moderation in the name of free speech. The ether is a new frontier of dystopian untruth. Government or EU intervention to police it will provoke a US backlash. That presents a difficult challenge for Mr O'Donovan because we can't police the streets if we don't regulate online.
