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Is This the End of Drinks Receptions and Exhibition Openings?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Is This the End of Drinks Receptions and Exhibition Openings?

I don’t drink much alcohol and because I usually drive, it is just to risky even to have a glass of wine, so it wouldn’t affect me personally much, but it is interesting to observe how confused and ambivalent the attitude to alcohol in our society is.

We know that it is not doing anything good, but it is completely normal to get access to alcohol. Things are different for other substances that could possibly even help suffering patients. An interestingly different approach between the two.

But alcohol challenges the politicians. On one hand, they would like to forbid it, on the other hand they are SERIOUSLY afraid to do so because they fear the negative consequences from the voters at the next elections.

So instead they tinker around with the rules. More and more stringent drink driving laws which drive Danny Healy-Rae crazy and other attempts to influence what happens in society, but the consequent step of a blanket ban will be avoided at all cost.

Now it looks like the next restriction could be free alcohol that you might get at your hair dresser. It seems that the “Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (IACP)” and “Addiction Counsellors of Ireland” are asking the Health Minister to forbid free alcohol at a hair dresser. But if that will be forbidden, then all free alcohol, even at a drinks reception or at an exhibition opening will have to be forbidden. And if free alcohol will be forbidden, then there won’t be any glass of wine to welcome people anymore because the only other alternative would be to sell it and that is obviously illegal without a license.

Just forbid alcohol completely. That would be the only honest thing and then we (and politicians) have to deal with the consequences OR alternatively stop getting into a panic over the odd glass of free drink!

The Irish Independent reported it here.

Irish, Society, ,

Discount food markets in Ireland are most popular shops

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Discount food markets in Ireland are most popular shops

Every month, Kantar Worldpanel provides an update on market share of the different food shops in Ireland and the headline this time – at least on RTE News – is “SuperValu remains largest grocery retailer“. This is definitely correct when you look at the market share numbers, but what I find a lot more interesting is that the two discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl are combined the largest food sellers in Ireland.

They are two separate shops and on one hand you can’t shouldn’t combine their market share. But on the other hand they BOTH have – in contrast to the others – a rather unique approach to selling food, where own branded products is the majority of products.

The figures are SuperValu 22.1%, Tesco 22.0%, Dunnes Stores 21.6%, Lidl 11.8%, Aldi 11.6%

So if you combine Lidl and Aldi, you arrive at 23.4% and if you compare it to how close the other three are to each others, then a lead of 1.3% is HUGE!

There are still people in Ireland that have never bought anything in Lidl or Aldi and there are still parts of Dublin (Castleknock!) that fight tooth and nail against one of the discounters opening in prime locations there. Odd! Maybe it is a type of snobbery? It certainly is not smart.

 

Dublin, Society, , , , , , , ,

Don’t mention the war!! – Mentioning Condoms in Ireland is maybe even worse

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Don’t mention the war!! – Mentioning Condoms in Ireland is maybe even worse

The brilliant comedy “Fawlty Towers” from 1975 had a quote in its sixth episode that survived decades and even today is still known by many – even younger generations  – although they often don’t know where it originally came from. The episode was about a military drill in Fawlty Towers Hotel when Basil Fawlty insults a group of Germans with lots of references to the war despite his own mantra “Don’t mention the war!”.

You can read the whole plot here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Germans

I remember when I was in Germany the first time and some friends had invited a group of friends for an evening of “Fawlty Towers” screenings. They had forgotten about the quote and were hugely embarrassed (because of my presence) when the “Don’t mention the war!” episode was screened. I wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest (or insulted!). In fact, I find Fawlty Towers hilarious and loved that episode.

Anyway, why am I mentioning this? Well the war was this unspeakable thing that must not be mentioned or someone would be insulted.

Until 1980 (!!) contraception was illegal in Ireland and only from 1985 (Imagine!) condoms were allowed to be sold in Ireland without a prescription. That was shockingly late, but Ireland was anything but liberal at that time. Luckily a lot has changed in the 32 years since. …or has it??

Breaking News reported about complaints that were submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) and one of the complaints was about a Lidl ad in which a (real) mother and her two grown up (real) sons go shopping in Lidl. They buy lots of different things and at some stage, the mother asks her sons “Family pack of condoms?”

AIDS/HIV and STD awareness campaigners would be thrilled with the smart mother who can openly advise her sons and is “brave” enough to suggest that they should use condoms, not so a viewer of the ad. He or she thought this was “inappropriate” because the advertisement was broadcast at a time when children may have been watching.

WTF? How do kids get damaged by that question? I hope that viewer is old (and catholic) that would be the only half-acceptable justification for such nonsense and for taking the time to send a written complaint about this non-story.

Luckily (and rightly so) the ASAI rejected the complaint, but it shocked me that they didn’t say that the complaint was ridiculous, instead they said because the ad was not broadcast before 19:00 it was not seen in or around children’s programming. And they also said that they did not consider that the advertising “had addressed children either directly or indirectly” and they were of the opinion that the question at the time specified was “inappropriate”.

This reply is more shocking than the complaint! Because it implies that if the sentence had been asked BEFORE 19:00, then it would or could have been inappropriate. What a mad idea!

Irish, Odd, Society, , , , , , , ,

Is this a business or a joke? Ryanair will cancel up to 50 flights a day for six weeks!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Is this a business or a joke? Ryanair will cancel up to 50 flights a day for six weeks!

The “This is Odd!” section of the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events) is a place where I highlight a whole variety of odd things that happen around us. Usually (but not always) there is some connection with Ireland, considering that the 24,000 subscribers, 21,000 web app users and 30,000 website visitors are mainly Irish, living in Ireland or have a close connection with Ireland. I also prefer to vary the topics across all aspects of our lives and it is very rare that the same small areas will be covered two weeks in a row.

This is, however, an exception and for the second week it is Ryanair that wins in the “odd” competition. You seriously have to wonder if they are running a business or if this is a – very profitable – joke when you find out what they now are up to.

We are used to their total disrespect for customers when it comes to seat allocations and baggage charge changes and refund policies and to be honest, we endure a LOT under the excuse-umbrella that without Ryanair we would pay hell of a lot more for air travel and that after all they are a commercial company whose job it is to maximise the revenue.

Until now, though, we thought that they know what they are doing and that they might be – in our eyes – mean spirited and customer friendly, but that we at least can rely on their professionalism when it comes to their core business, which is bringing people from A to B safely and reliably.

But on Friday it emerged that Ryanair will cancel up to 50 (!!) flights per day for the next six weeks!! Maybe you think 50 is not a lot, considering that they undertake 2500 flights per day and a Ryanair spokesman quickly already pointed out that only 2% of flights are affected. But I don’t care how many percent of flights are affected if I am the one beings stranded. On Friday (15 Sept) 82 flights were cancelled and on Saturday (16 Sept) a total of 80 flights will be affected. That is a LOT!

What happens if this one little flight is the feeder flight that brings you to an airport from which you plan to take a flight to South America? You miss that and your whole holiday is gone! – Or what if that little flight was the ONE flight that will bring you to your weekend away in Spain? It’s not good enough that you can fly a day later if you only had planned a weekend away.

And even worse! Ryanair didn’t even have the decency to explain why 82 flights were cancelled until Friday evening!

And the reason? Holidays!! They don’t care in the slightest about your plans because they have to accommodate Ryanair staff holidays. And why was that not anticipated? Because Ryanair changed – without any need or emergency – the holiday year from April to March to a new January to December system. Knowing how inflexible they are with all their rules when it comes to check-in and luggage, you can bet that they are the worst when it comes to holiday flexibility with their own staff.

So in the end Ryanair created this mess themselves and we as customers have to suffer for it.

You really wonder if they are running a business or if this is all a joke to them?

Society, Tourism,

ID Cards for Ireland? – Storm in a Tea Cup

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
ID Cards for Ireland? – Storm in a Tea Cup

There are passports in Ireland and most people have one, but for some strange reason some people in Ireland are totally and passionately against any type of ID Card system and currently there is a huge amount of panic amongst that group of people. I really can’t understand why that is! But then I read something that worried even me!

It all started with a report in the newspapers about a woman who’s pension was withheld because she didn’t agree to getting a Social Services Card. We are told that there are currently close to 3mio Social Services Cards issued to people in Ireland and with all children excluded and a population of around 4.7mio, that seems like a huge amount. The card was initially used to combat Social Welfare fraud, but it seems it is now unnecessarily also used for lots of other things and that seems to panic people.

The unnecessary uses of the card are in areas where it seemingly is used as an ID Card, for example if you want to do a driver theory test or if you want to apply for or renews a drivers license or a passport. There is NO need to use a “Public Services Card” in these cases. Instead it should be absolutely find to bring your passport as ID. (The worldwide joke of having to bring some other forms of identity to renew a passport is something I will write about another time. ;-) )

There is no obligation to have a passport AND there is no obligation to have a Public Services Card, but it seems without the Public Services Card you can’t get any services so there is a form of obligation.

But let me pick the pieces apart first:
1) Is an form of ID Card justified for people that receive Social Welfare? I absolutely think so. It helps fighting against fraud.
2) Should a Public Services Card be used for all the other services I have mentioned above? Absolutely not if the person has a passport instead. Sure it can be an option to ID yourself, but only ONE option.
3) Is the Public Services Card a National ID card? No! It isn’t and it doesn’t look like one BUT it is used like an ID card and therefore the principle of “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it most likely is a duck” will apply.

Now SHOULD there be a National ID Card? I definitely think so! It does make sense to have a form of ID (instead of having to bring two household bills!!) but the use of the information “behind” the ID Card has to regulated and should be limited and that is where even I have concerns about the ability of the Irish government and state to protect its citizens.

As you know, I am German. In Germany we have National ID Cards (called Personalausweis) since 1951!! And the requirement to always have an ID card with you was introduced in 1939 and nobody has a problem with this law. I never experienced any problem due to the fact that I had an ID Card or that I had to carry it with me all the time and even today in Ireland, I always have my ID Card with me.

So what is the panic? It seems that the panic is caused by the fear of how the authorities could do bad things to you if they know who you are. BUT they can arrest you anyway if you do something bad with or without ID Card and if you don’t do anything bad then they should not be interested in you, right?

Well, in Germany (and other countries) the system seems to work and you wonder if this panic is just a storm in a tea cup!? A panic about some imaginary risk that will never happen?

But then I read the article in the Irish Times about the person that found her car registration details in the records of the Department of Social Protection. Information that they should have NO access to because every department should only have access to the information they need for their own business.

And when you realise that most likely the Irish government WILL screw this up again and will share information across all departments even if they shouldn’t. Then suddenly you wonder if the worries of the panicking privacy defenders and ID Card opponents are maybe a lot more plausible than it should be?

Irish, Justice, Politics, Society, Uncategorized, , , , , ,
 
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