... As a health care professional I have worked for many years with professionals of various ethnic groups, and got to know their families through social occasions. More recently my home town was selected for the relocation of refugees from Serbian Kosovo conflict. Most of the refugees have made Baltinglass their permanent home; subsequently their children attend local schools. All of them are of the Muslim persuasion. I have observed some of the teenage girls practice the tradition of covering their hair. It has not posed any problems, generally accepted by all. Deeply appreciated I would imagine by teachers looking at some hair styles and colours they are faced with in Modern day Ireland. Methodology: * Reading report on Luton Borough Council 13 February 2004. About a two year legal wrangle with no outcome of benefit to the person in question, re wearing of religious garments in school. * Reading through the “The other side of the veil”; North African women in France response to the Headscarf affair. * Interview with my neighbours who are refugees now settled in my hometown....
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...REPORT RE: RECENT ACCOUNTING AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SCANDALS Contents INTRODUCTION: 3 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE 5 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN IRELAND 5 RESPONSE FROM REGULATORS TO THE MOST RECENT SCANDALS IN BANKING SECTOR 7 US CORPORATE GOVERNANCE at a time of Tyco scandal 8 RESPONSE FROM THE REGULATORS -SARBANES-OXLEY ACT 2002 9 AUDIT 10 EXTERNAL AUDIT 10 INTERNAL AUDIT 11 INTRODUCTION TO ANGLO IRISH BANK 12 The Scandals 12 Loans to Sean Fitzpatrick 13 Irish Life and Permanent Depositing Funds 14 Corporate Governance Situation of Anglo 16 Ernst & Young – External Auditor 17 Impact on Shareholders & The Public 18 Company Law, Financial Regulator, Accounting Standards IFRS and GAAP 19 TYCO INTERNATIONAL 20 DETAILS OF TYCO’S SCANDAL 21 ACCOUNTING ISSUES IDENTIFIED 22 THE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE WEAKNESSES AT TYCO 22 PERFORMANCE OF EXTERNAL AUDITORS 23 CONCLUSION 27 The Main Reasons for The Scandals 27 Steps taken afterwards-will they prevent similar events happening in the future? 33 END REFLECTION 36 Bibliography: 37 Appendices: 41 INTRODUCTION: Accounting and corporate governance scandals have been a growing problem in the recent years. Many believe that the blame for those scandals should be borne on two groups of people. Those responsible for managing a company and those whose duty is to provide assurance on the accounts prepared by the directors (auditors), both of whom failed to perform their jobs adequately...
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...“Analyse the current government’s argument that the nature of jobs created within an economy dictate the degree of success rather than the amount of jobs”. 1. Introduction The Irish economy has changed greatly in the last Forty years. An educated workforce and Urbanisation of our towns and cities has seen an industry shift. There are a number of important factors that allowed this to happen so quickly. Ireland’s membership of alliances such as the E.U. and the O.E.C.D and the directives that were incurred as a result of these memberships. More recently in the Nineties the economy had enjoyed a period of prosperity which was generally accredited to the provision of subsidies to knowledge based industries such as I.T., Financial Sectors and Research & Development. This coupled with a desirable location and a new highly educated workforce. As stated in the department of finances report in 2011 the economy experienced imbalances due to bad auditing systems in the banking and building sectors. “The Irish economy was transformed over the past two decades. Per capita income rose strongly, converging towards and subsequently overtaking European average levels. However, from the early part of the last decade, imbalances began to emerge which made the economy increasingly vulnerable. A major property bubble began to unwind from 2007, and the fall-out from this was exacerbated by the major deterioration in the external environment...
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...Industrial Relations and the prospect for future pay settlement modules. In the last few years Ireland has been on a difficult economic journey. High unemployment, huge decline in the construction sector, loss of union’s power, people are afraid to take any actions in a case of a job loss. The economic collapse forced the country to cut public spending and raise taxes, the type of austerity measures that financial markets are now pressing on most advanced industrial nations. But rather than being rewarded for its actions, though, Ireland has been penalized. Industrial Relations are about the balance of power and control between the employers and employees. The Industrial Relations climate is changing very fast, with many strikes than any time since the 1970's. The cause is that we are in the middle of an economic crisis. Towards 2016, partnership, with it linked incremental percentage wage increases, can be described as ambition. Unemployment rate in Ireland stands at 14.8 per cent, from 4 per cent.” The EU-IMF-ECB troika described levels of joblessness as “unacceptably high, especially among the youth” in its latest review of the State’s bailout programme last week.” (Minihan, 2012). ‘During the recent crisis, it says that increases in youth unemployment were “significantly higher” in countries with high minimum wages than in countries where minimum wage was below the median.’ ( Sheehan 2012). “Employers would be paid four-figure cash incentives to retain interns and recruit...
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...Cigarette Tax in Ireland After reading both articles from The Irish Times written by Eugene Regan and Chris Macey on the issue, should cigarettes be taxed so highly by the government with over 80% of the price of cigarettes is from the taxes that the government set. This issue has caused a lot of discussion amongst us Economists. The argument is whether or not you think cigarettes are price inelastic or price elastic. If you think cigarettes are price inelastic which means that the change in price of cigarettes is disproportionate to the demand for cigarettes then you believe in Mr. Regan opinion. The price elastic view is taken up by Mr. Macey where he believes that the demand for cigarettes is very much dependent on the price. Both articles but forward two very good arguments with very clear reasons why they think the government should try and stop this high growth of criminal activity in the area of smuggling cigarettes into the country. As we found out from the articles that there is a very high percentage of contraband cigarettes in existents in Ireland today due to the very high price set by our government. Over a quarter of all cigarettes smoked in Ireland are illegal. Irish criminal gangs our making huge profits by selling smuggled cigarettes into the Irish black market (worth over €526 million to these criminal gangs) and the government need to do something about. Both articles try to solve this problem with very different views. Reading both articles I do think...
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...Do Irish judges have too much discretion in sentencing criminal offenders? If they do, to what extend should their exercise of discretion be curtailed? Judicial discretion is the power the law provides the courts or a judge to choose appropriate sentencing, which is lawful . A sentence is ordered by the judge, based on the verdict of the jury (or judge’s decision if no jury) within the possible punishment set by law . Judges I believe do possess too much discretion in the sentencing of criminal offenders. In the Irish legal system, the sentencing of criminal offences is very broad for judges apart from the mandatory sentence of murder, which leaves the judge no discretion in his/her sentencing. Should Irish judge’s discretion be curtailed? Yes, I would be in favour of a more robust system where judges sentencing is more consistent. The sentencing of criminal offenders in Ireland, at this moment in time, is of the opinion that it is in fact too inconsistent. There are currently certain restrictions on the sentences which are applied to criminal offenders e.g....
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...Davis lecture series broadcasted on Radio Telefis Eirann (Irish Public Radio) in 1965. The lectures have been edited for print by F.X. Martin, who also produced the original radio series. In the editor’s words, “The contributions are intended to cover as many aspects as possible of the events of Easter Week, 1916.” Martin considers his compilation “…the first attempt at a cool appraisal of the Easter Rising in the context of the Ireland of its time.” The essays are organized loosely by topic. The first few chapters review Ireland’s governmental structure of the time, how its current leaders came to be, and how their predecessors had ruled Ireland. It goes on to the members of parliament and their history, and then the remainder of the book details the movements of the men and their followers who started Ireland on the path to independence from England The essays do cover many aspects of the events leading up to the rebellion, so in that way the book accomplishes what it sets out to. However, the lectures do not convert well to print, and tend to be repetitive, making the timeline somewhat confusing. Also, since the lectures are meant for an Irish audience, some details are left unexplained. For example, the editor assumes I know what Radio Telefis Eirann is . . . I have to guess that it’s Irish Public Radio. Overall, I thought the book was repetitive and a little hard to follow, but I was able to learn a lot about Irish politics, and the events leading up to the Easter Rising...
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...Irish Communications Market Quarterly Key Data Report Data as of Q2 2015 Reference: ComReg 15/102 Version: Final Date: 10/09/2015 An Coimisiún um Rialáil Cumarsáide Commission for Communications Regulation Abbey Court Irish Life Centre Lower Abbey Street, Dublin D01 W2H4, Ireland Telephone +353 1 804 9600 Fax +353 1 804 9680 Email info@comreg.ie Web www.comreg.ie Irish Communications Market: Key Data Report – Q2 2015 Table of Contents SUMMARY .........................................................................................6 Notes to data: ............................................................................................................ 8 1. OVERALL MARKET DATA ................................................................ 10 1.1 Number of Authorisations.................................................................................. 10 1.2 Overall Electronic Communications Revenues ................................................... 10 1.3 Overall Call Volumes .......................................................................................... 12 1.4 Communications and the Consumer Price Index ................................................ 13 1.5 Fixed and Mobile Market Retail Voice, Internet and TV Subscriptions............... 13 2. FIXED MARKET DATA .................................................................... 15 2.1 Fixed Line Revenues ..............................................................
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...Thanks to the Visitor Attitudes Survey carried out by Failte Ireland in 2013 it can be seen that a significant percentage of tourists enjoyed the company of friendly and hospitable Irish people with the top experience being hearing Irish music in a pub and of course the Irish scenery, where 82% mentioned that visiting a coastal town was one of their top experiences.(Failte Ireland 2014) Statistics like these illustrate that heritage is a very important factor in Irish...
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...Christopher Deion Smith 900751868 History 1112K Keywords Report #2 Irish Republican Army (IRA) The Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army was a paramilitary organization. It was created in 1919 with the purpose of using an armed force to remove British rule in order to create an independent republic and the unification of Ireland. During its time of operation it acted independently of political control and in some instances gained the advantage in the independence movement. During the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) under the leadership of Michal Collins the IRA made used of guerrilla tactics in order to force the British government to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty which resulted in the...
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...use of electronic plagiarism detection software.By submitting coursework for assessment, you are deemed to have accepted that your work may be scanned using such software. | Contents 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Economic Impact 3 3.0 Political/ Legal Impact 3.1 EU Milk Quota Abolition 4 4.0 Social Impact 4.1 Food consumption Trends 4 4.2 Demographic Factors 5 4.2.1 Aging Population 4.3 Health Concerns 6 4.4 Food Preferences and Eating Behaviour Patterns 7 4.6 Competition 7 5.0 Environmental Impact 5.1 Climate Change 8 5.2 Seasonality 9 6.0 Conclusion 10 7.0 References 11 8.0 Figures and Tables Figure 1.0: Destinations of Irish Exports (Irish Dairy Board, 2011) Figure 2.0: Estimated Rise in Irelands’ Older Population 2006-2041 (McGill, 2010) Figure 3.0: Relationship of Total Costs of...
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...been well known that excessive workplace absenteeism can be quite costly to organisations. Irish Business and Employers Confederation, the biggest employers association in Ireland, conducted a broad study of absenteeism in Irish workplace and found that the total cost of absenteeism in 2002 was astronomical - €1.58 billion (2004). Subsequently, other organisations have started to pay more attention to this rocketing issue. A survey done by Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association claimed that the direct cost of absenteeism for small businesses is approximately €1.1 billion per year and that the indirect ‘unseen’ costs of absenteeism such as loss of productivity, administration costs, etc. could be even greater than the direct ‘seen’ costs, e.g. sick pay, replacement cost and so on (ISME, 2007). Another report done by the Small Firms Association in 2008 revealed that small businesses in Ireland lose about €793 million annually because of the absenteeism (SFA, 2008). Even though there is considerable variation among their findings, the bottom line is that absenteeism is expensive for companies and thus becomes a big problem for them. As it can significantly undermine their productivity, competitiveness and in a worst scenario even their existence, employers started to look for measures to address the issue and to reduce absenteeism in their plants. This report aims to look at the Irish workplace absenteeism in greater detail and how exactly it is managed by the companies. The...
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...In 1840 he became Assistant Secretary to the Treasury in London and held that office until 1859. This position put him in charge of the administration of Government relief to the victims of the Irish Famine in the 1840s. In the middle of that crisis Trevelyan published his views on the matter. He saw the Famine as a ‘mechanism for reducing surplus population’. But it was more: ‘The judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated. …The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people’. Such racist and sectarian views of the Irish were common enough within the English governing classes and were more crudely expressed by others. For the most part, Trevelyan’s views reflected the prevailing Whig economic and social opinion and that of the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, who held office from 1846 until 1852. Trevelyan was stiff and unbending. He firmly believed in laissez faire (essentially, the importing of food should be left to the food merchants), he thought that the Government should not intervene, and warned of the danger that people might get into the habit of depending on the state. From March 1846 he controlled the public works through the disbursement of public funds. Under Trevelyan, relief by public works in 1846–7 was too little too late but also it was slow, inefficient and sometimes corrupt...
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...The Irish Economy The Celtic Tiger years were very exciting and prosperous for those who resided in Ireland. There were lots of investments being made, people were very care free about where they put their money as long as there was some sort of short-term profit available. Employment was up from 1.1 million to 1.9 million jobs available, population increased by 15% from 1996 to 2005 and unemployment was at a mere 4.4%. One of the most astounding statistics was that Ireland’s GDP was the second highest per capita in the European Union, during the times of the Celtic Tiger (Dorgan 2006). All seemed as if Ireland was the first success story of the creation of the Eurozone until the crash. After the creation of the Eurozone, the goal was to help struggling economies to use the power of the Eurozone to create growth and during the Celtic Tiger years it seemed to be working. However, the Eurozone was not doing its job of overseeing the activities of the country of Ireland and let it slip through the cracks. After the crash, unemployment soared which was caused by the huge loss of jobs in the construction market and young workers began leaving Ireland again in hopes of finding jobs. As a result, private debt was high and people lost trust in Irish Banks. Any hope of growth in the Irish economy was lost due to high percentages of debt in all sectors including households, financial and non-financial institutions, and within the government. Along with a complete loss of trust in the actions...
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...should be properly addressed. This will help the companies to adopt the appropriate legal compliance mechanisms to ensure that ethics and conduct of issues are formally addressed. However, compliance of corporate ethics and governance do not come in handy. There are several issues hurdles that several companies and organizations have undergone in achieving these milestones. This has made this topic to be widely discussed especially in the media as will be demonstrated in the articles that will be discussed here after. Most of the newspapers have taken this issue with a lot of seriousness and dedicated their time to discuss this topic wide and in depth. Therefore, several newspaper articles will be used to demonstrate this. Irish times on 3rd February 2014, Peter Murtagh published an article about ‘Government should do more to Counter Corruption’. This is according to the report that 81% of the people in the country say that corruption is widespread in the country. This therefore calls for the government...
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