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RTÉ News
4 hours ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
Call for pensions to be able to tap into private markets
Changing pensions rules to allow investments in private markets would benefit consumers and the country, according to the CEO of one of Ireland's leading investment firms. With the pension auto-enrolment scheme set to come into place at the start of next year, the Irish pension sector is set for its most significant change in decades. However Alan Merriman, co-founder and CEO of Elkstone, wants to see a broader reform of pensions rules. "There is an opportunity for us to be much more progressive," he said, speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland. "One of the challenges we have in Ireland is our domestic economy - investing in our domestic economy, infrastructure. We're all conscious of the housing market, and pensions is a source of funding." Allowing pensions funds to tap into private investment opportunities would follow similar moves in the US and UK. US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order soon which would allow private assets to be included in 401Ks - meanwhile the British Chancellor in May announced plans to get pensions funds to invest 10% of their assets into private funds by 2030. However there may be some reluctance to do so, given the very different nature of investing in private firms and projects as opposed to publicly-listed assets like shares and bonds. Private investments can be riskier - especially when it comes to the likes of early stage companies - while the money is also likely to be out of reach for much longer. However Mr Merriman says that not opening pensions pots to other types of investment is a risk of its own. "Globally at the moment there's a much greater concentration in public equities, so it's actually more risky not to be diversifying, not to be allocating some of your money to private markets," he said. "Historically institutions have done that, it's only in recent times that retail investors are getting the opportunity to put money into private markets." He also said that pensions money was an ideal fit for the kind of longer-term thinking that is often required in private assets. "Pension money is long-term investing... private markets is long-term investing. You're getting a higher return because it's an illiquid market, it's a premium for that investing," he said. Part of the UK changes will also oblige pensions funds to allocated at least 5% of their investments towards British assets - which is seen as a way of supporting the economy and new businesses. Mr Merriman said he would like to see this rule mimiced in Ireland - and potentially expanded upon. "Here in Ireland we're disadvantaged, we don't have the deep pension industry that other countries have, we don't have the big foundations, we don't have teacher pensions like they have in Canada, he said. "We need to go further, we need to self-help, and one of the ways we can self-help is to encourage our own retail investors companies to invest in Ireland Inc. "Government money - tax-payer money - is going into support this [auto-enrolment] so the Government mandating and requiring that a certain percentage gets allocated to the Irish economy makes a tonne of sense."
RTÉ News
4 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Sisters urge DPP to appeal brother's 'lenient' rape sentence
The sisters of a former priest who was convicted of their rape and jailed for eight years have called for the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal the sentence. Earlier this month, Richard Brennan, aged 64, who is originally from Rathfarnham but had been working in the United States, pleaded guilty during his trial to raping and indecently assaulting his sister Paula Fay when she was between 15 and 17 years old. He also pleaded guilty to raping and indecently assaulting Catherine Wrightstone when she was between nine and 13 years old and he admitted indecently assaulting a third sister, Yvonne Crist, when she was 20 and he was 18. He changed his plea to guilty after all three of the sisters had given evidence at the Central Criminal Court and two of them had been cross-examined. The judge imposed a global sentence of nine years and suspended the final year. An older brother, 67-year-old Bernard Brennan, was jailed last month for four and a half years for the sexual abuse of Ms Crist and Ms Fay. Speaking on RTÉ's Oliver Callan programme, Ms Fay and Ms Wrightstone also called for reforms to how cases of historical sexual abuse are handled and for witnesses to get paid time off work to attend court, similar to jurors. "I think Irish courts seem to have broad discretion over such cases as ours, and lenient sentences, especially in historical sexual abuse cases, are sometimes justified on the basis of remorse, time elapsed and, one of the things I find a little bit disturbing, is the offenders recent good character as stated in character references provided by family and friends who only know what that person allows them to know," Ms Wrightstone said. She added: "So, in terms of reform, I would love to see the introduction of mandatory, binding, sentencing guidelines that treat sexual abuse and rape as serious offences regardless of the time elapsed. "And create a statutory offence under sexual assault for sibling sexual abuse." Ms Wrightstone also called for mitigation based solely on family support and a lack of other convictions to be disallowed. "These predatory urges don't just magically disappear, especially when there is no intervention and when decades of denial of abuse by the perpetrator are present, which was the case with Richard. It was denial right up until the very end," she said. "I would also love to see them issue judicial training directives and case law clarification, via statute, that family support must not be considered a mitigating factor unless requested by the survivor," she added. Ms Wrightstone said any updated legislation must clarify that delayed disclosure of offences due to trauma and family pressure do not lead to more lenient sentencing. "The seriousness of the offences does not diminish over time. The law should reflect the continuing harm." She said it was also important for the voices of survivors to be included when "shaping policy", along with mandatory consecutive sentences for multiple victims and mandatory training for judges regarding sibling sexual abuse cases. Ms Fay said it was vital for witnesses to be entitled to paid time off work for the duration of a trial they are involved in, particularly in a trial of this nature. "When I sought leave from my job, I was informed all I was entitled to was to either take annual leave or unpaid leave. That there was nothing in law to protect me as a witness," she said. Witnesses are entitled to paid leave for the day they are testifying but not for the whole trial. "I was completely committed to this process from the very beginning, and I feel that we need to be treated differently," Ms Fay said. She added: "I know that jury members are entitled to be paid through their employment when they're on a jury, for the entire trial, and I feel that something needs to change that a witness is also doing their civic duty. I feel it is exactly the same."
BreakingNews.ie
5 hours ago
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
'Concerning' misinformation online after attack on garda
Assistant Garda Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan area, Paul Cleary, has urged the public to get their news from credible sources in the wake of inaccurate reports following the stabbing of a garda in Dublin's Capel Street on Monday. 'Unfortunately we see it every day, and we have some people with their own agenda trying to use incidents like this to inflame situations for their own ends. We would always say to people to make sure that they get their information from credible media sources. Advertisement "Very inaccurate misinformation and disinformation went out online after this incident very quickly. So it is concerning and we would ask people to make sure that the source of their information is credible,' he told RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland. Mr Cleary commended both members of the force involved in the incident for their courage and professionalism 'in the face of such an unprovoked attack. "The garda did receive a wound to his upper right arm in the tricep area. His official issue stab vest sustained some stab impact damage. So that's a good job. 'I've appointed a senior investigating officer. It's crucial that, in addition to gathering the evidence to bring the offender responsible to justice, we also want to understand the motivation behind the attack and any learnings we can take from the investigation of the attack. Advertisement "I'll ensure that we consider those learnings in our future planning and policing operations.' Mr Cleary said that assaults on members of the force would never be accepted or tolerated. Welfare supports were available to any member at any time and he had listened to concerns expressed by representative bodies. 'I will meet again with the representative bodies.I have introduced in the last few months a new high visibility strategy in the city and I've been able to get 174 new guards for this high visibility strategy to provide reassurance to the communities in the cities and the business communities and people visiting and socialising in the city and basically it takes the form of members on high visibility patrols in areas of the city where we have identified from crime location data and from feedback that they need to be. 'So we have received positive feedback for this initiative. It's a permanent high visibility strategy and we will be adding to it and we'll be expanding it. Advertisement "We have more guards coming out from Templemore in August and as the year goes on we'll expand it and including out to the suburbs. So we are moving in the right direction.' Pay and conditions The vice president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), Niall Hodgins has said that the attack on a garda in Capel Street in Dublin on Monday was a reminder of why garda pay and conditions had to reflect the dangers and uniqueness of their role. Speaking on RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland, Mr Hodgins extended well wishes to the injured garda and wished him a speedy recovery. The attack served as a reminder of the dangers that are faced by Gardai each and every day, he said. 'But this is not just Dublin North Central. This could be any village across the country because, unfortunately, the precedence of attacks on our members is occurring on a daily basis. There's an increased amount of violence being perpetrated against our members daily.' Advertisement The issue needed to be addressed 'by all facets of the State' he added. That included the judiciary and the government with regard to legislation and penalties. 'There's a myriad of issues and remember these attacks lessen the morale yet again when we don't see that our members are getting support. "What I'd also say there now, this attack is a reminder that the pay and conditions have to reflect the dangers and the uniqueness of the guards, of being a member of the force.'
RTÉ News
5 hours ago
- General
- RTÉ News
'Not a shred of evidence' Hamas withholding aid in Gaza- UNICEF
There is "not a shred of evidence" that aid in Gaza is being withheld by Hamas, according to Executive Director at UNICEF Ireland Peter Power. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said that aid organisations "were not in the business of giving humanitarian assistance to terrorists". "I think that trope has been widely debunked at this stage; it's simply not true. Not a shred of evidence has been produced to back that up," he said. Mr Power said UN agencies and other trusted humanitarian organisations have been doing this for around 80 years now and are guided by the "highest principles of humanitarian delivery." "They're not in the business of giving food or other humanitarian assistance to terrorists, and the all the briefings I've received from our own people it tells me, definitively, that that has not happened and that sort of accusation should not be made." He added that 5,000 children in Gaza were severely malnourished and at risk of dying. "In Gaza City, where I've visited, 16.3% of the children are severely acutely malnourished. When a child is severely acutely malnourished, they're at real risk of dying," he said. "We have diagnosed 5,000 children in that category who need urgent medical assistance, but there are hundreds of thousands or more, of course, who are malnourished." Every day, 200 children present at their malnutrition centres with acute malnutrition, he said. Mr Power described the aid airdrops into Gaza as "tokenistic", as it was far short of what was required. "Obviously, any aid whatsoever is welcome. But I should say that airdrops are really tokenistic. "Each parachute can only drop one or two pallets, and a number of pallets would fill a truck. "We need 500 trucks a day, that's what the United Nations system was bringing in during the ceasefire." Man-made starvation crisis Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya yesterday, hoping to secure a bag of flour or some aid, amid worsening humanitarian conditions. A global hunger monitor said yesterday that a famine scenario was unfolding in Gaza, with malnutrition soaring, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access severely restricted. The alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the man-made starvation crisis in Gaza could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let in far more food. With the international furore over Gaza's ordeal growing, Israel announced steps over the weekend to ease aid access. But the UN World Food Programme said yesterday it was not getting the permissions it needed to deliver enough aid since Israel began humanitarian pauses in warfare on Sunday. Gaza health authorities have been reporting more and more people dying from hunger-related causes. The total stands at 147, among them 88 children, most of whom died in the last few weeks. Images of emaciated Palestinian children have shocked the world, with Israel's strongest ally, US President Donald Trump, declaring that many people were starving. He promised to set up new "food centres". Israel has denied pursuing a policy of starvation. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said yesterday that the situation in Gaza was "tough", but there were lies about starvation there. The war began on 7 October 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities. Israel says the militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people into captivity in Gaza.
RTÉ News
6 hours ago
- RTÉ News
'Concerning' misinformation spread online following attack on garda
Misinformation surrounding an incident in Dublin yesterday in which a probationer garda was attacked has been described as "concerning". A man in his 20s, who is an Irish citizen and born in Ireland, remains in custody after he was arrested in connection with the incident on Capel Street in the city centre, shortly after 6pm. The garda who was on a high visibility patrol was attacked and stabbed in what gardaí say was an unprovoked attack. He was taken to hospital for treatment and later discharged. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Assistant Garda Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Region Paul Cleary, said there was a lot of misinformation about the incident circulated online. "We have some people with their own agenda trying to use incidents like this to inflame situations for their own ends," he said. "There was very inaccurate misinformation and disinformation that went out online after this incident very quickly, he said, adding that gardaí "would always say to people to make sure that they get their information from credible media sources". Mr Cleary said a Senior Investigating Officer is leading the inquiry and said "it's crucial that in addition to gathering the evidence to bring the offender to justice, we also want to understand the motivation behind the attack." He said he is confident gardaí have adequate support on the job. "Every garda going out on duty every day is aware of the potential risks ... if you take this particular incident, for example, the official issue stab proof vest did its job. "They [responding gardaí] were able to use the equipment made available to them to subdue the suspect immediately and to detain him, and that went hand-in-hand with their training. "I'm happy that they do have supports available to them, going out on their high-visibility patrols," he added. Mr Cleary said that as soon as the call went out yesterday, gardaí were on the scene quickly. "The place was swarmed with gardaí in less than a minute, and it shows that guards are active and visible and around in the city, that they're able to assist so quickly." Mr Cleary said that the suspect had not come to the attention of gardaí previously, and that the investigation was ongoing.
