Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated at 8.27am
LABOUR MEP PHIL Prendergast has called for a change of leadership in the party.
Prendergast, who is running to retain her seat in Ireland South in next month’s European elections, says Eamon Gilmore should step down for the good of the party.
She’s also endorsed Social Protection Minister Joan Burton as the most suitable candidate to succeed him.
The MEP initially made the call in an interview with the Irish Independent, after a Millward Brown opinion poll carried out for the paper placed her in seventh place in the four seater constituency — with support at just 4 per cent.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland shortly after 7am, she told the programme there were concerns about Labour’s direction at all levels of the party — including amongst ministers.
And asked whether she thought Joan Burton was the most viable candidate to lead Labour into the next election, she replied, “yes I do”.
The elephant is not only in the room, it’s cantering around the room breaking things.
This is a crisis that’s gone on for a year and half,” she said, referring to a string of poor opinion poll results for the party.
We need to take urgent action and the time to do that is now.
Returning a call from TheJournal.ie following her RTÉ interview, Prendergast said she wasn’t concerned that her actions might put her on collision course with party HQ.
“There needs to be a change and I would stand over that,” the MEP said.
She said Labour was getting a “disproportionate kicking” in the polls that didn’t fairly reflect the positive work the party had been doing in government.
She said she felt the party leadership had been “frozen into immobility” as a result of the collapse in support, and that it was clear urgent action was now needed.
“I realise I’m not going to be flavour of the month over this,” the MEP said.
She said there was a groundswell of feeling amongst veteran Labour members and councillors that Gilmore was out of touch with the party.
At this stage, I just think we need a change from the leadership.
Prendergast said while she had discussed concerns about the performance of the party with Gilmore, she had not told him directly that she thought he should quit.
Cork TD for Labour Michael McCarthy said he didn’t agree with his party colleague’s assessment of the situation, and that the issue of the leadership wasn’t in question.
“To be honest I don’t think it’s helpful for anyone to start panicking or reacting to opinion polls with little over three weeks left till polling day,” McCarthy told Morning Ireland.
Today’s opinion poll put nationwide support for Labour at just 6 per cent.
Fine Gael, at 25 per cent, remain the largest party in the country. Fianna Fáil are at 23 per cent, with Sinn Féin at 21 per cent.
Independents and others are at 23 per cent, while the Greens are at 2 per cent.
71 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the Government.
First posted at 7.35am
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Rounded down…yeah sure.
Ah the old psychology of making something look cheaper ie 1.97 instead of 2 Euro will finally come to an end. It costs the government 2 cent to make a 1 cent coin!!
The day will come in our lifetime when there will be no notes or coins. A cashless society where there is no way to dodge tax. The banks will then officially own your ass. But hey don’t mind me I’m just a rambling conspiracy theorist who drinks too much vino and smokes too much weed.
Good luck and good night
Apparently if you open a Bank of Ireland account after September 1st, 2013 you have to sign away your soul for all eternity and pay a €4 monthly fee. €4! Like we’re made of money or something.
Also, the reason things cost €x.99 instead of the round euro isn’t so that it looks cheaper but to force the cashier to log the sale in the till and give change. Otherwise the cashier could pocket the money with no record of the sale occuring.
Currently in Canada and they have scrapped the 1 & 2 cent coins. You buy something in shop and it comes to $12.32 you hand over $12.30 however if it was $12.34 you pay $12.35.
No they wouldn’t! That’s ridiculous to think at having a different price means that they must lodge the sale through! How much retail experience have you got? D you know that the bulk of sales systems don’t allow you to delete an item once it’s scanned without a managers approval? Basically making it impossible to get away with pocketing the money. On top of that, do you really think the consumer wouldn’t realise that you haven’t scanned the product in or given them a receipt? The simple reason that the prices are X.99 is to make the product look as though its price is lower than it is!
every transaction you have to pay with BOI. Having cash can cut down on how much you pay.
5 years experience through college in 2 stores!!!!! Both let you delete scanned items because it would be unworkable otherwise!!!! Why are you using so man exclamation marks!??!?!?!!?
Cool theory….how do you explain diesel for example currently being 151.9c/litre, and not 152c/l?! Your theory stinks my amigo!!!!
Yeah Australia too … However if you pay by card you only pay what you owe …$1.32 . They don’t round it up or down then. Seems to work fine …
Bullshit.
It’s to make it look cheaper.
There must be a camera on every till in Ireland by now.
I think perhaps the practice was brought in before scanners or managers passwords were invented.
About time. Those little coins are a nuisance.
I agree….. this makes a lot of cents.
Maybe everybody in Ireland from today should collect all their 1c coins, over a period of, say two months and give it to a good cause, like Crumlin children’s hospital
Please don’t, we will have nothing to rub together now !
I constantly annoy people in Tescos by filling the self service till with coppers. Its great no service charge it counts it and I get rid of the shrapnel after a night out!
Ta a mil for that tip
Are signs in shops that say you must spent 10 euro minimum on all laser/card transactions legal?
Probably because transaction costs incurred by shops on smaller shops arent worth it for many shops
I’m pretty sure thats just to stop people wasting time buying chewing gum with their card when theres a que in the shop.
No its not, its because of the fees the shop has to pay for the transaction, if someone is spending less than a tenner its not worth it to them.
I dunno bout d signs but I do know its d shop owner that makes d rules about the 10 euro charge on cards
I mean d bank don’t make that rule.
it depends on the shop. I used to work in a centra, and it was €3.30 or less, and the fees would outway the profit of the transaction. The €10 thing is greed
Anybody who doen’t want their 1c coins can send them to me.
That’s all well and good and its a move to be welcomed cause those coins are a nuisance! I always pay by card, hate carrying cash for many reasons but mainly cause if I have it on me ill spend it easier but recently the banking charges are colossal! No point encouraging everyone to pay by card more if we are going to be robbed by the banks for doing so!!!
Think most people would happily see back of 1 & 2 cent coins Burr only if it can be done fairly.
Problem us we know all retailers retail round everything up in price rather than some items up and some down.
Net result buy 5 items previously 1 cent each, now 25 cents total compared to previous cost of 5.
Some items with no rounding required will be increased in price out of pure opportunism, as every increase is profit in retailers back pocket.
Not to mention effect in supply chain, if producer, wholesaler and retailer all round up, consumer is left with a hefty increase.
Nice idea but too easily manipulated for greed to work
Five one cent items would cost 5 cent, not 25 cent, unless you bought the five items in separate transactions…..
Ginger, you really didn’t read the story, did you?
What the hell can you buy for 1cent these days anyway?!?
Read the article Ross, and silk work well in trials, but if implemented, will retailers really charge 1.97 if no 2 cent coin exists, everything will be in multiples of 5 cent.
All prices would go up if this implemented, not but design but due to retailers opportunism.
Everyone price of pint had been increased a few cents, this increase always ends up being doubled by retailer. (new menus don’t cost that much)
We would be a long way further down the electronic payments road if successive governments hadn’t put a prohibitive level of stamp duty on credit cards and to a lesser extent debit cards.
As own goals go, it’s a good one as it encourages people to make cash payments where taxes can be avoided. You could even question whether they may have lost money through it.
Yeah Charlie McCreevy lectured us all about a cashless society, and then decided to charge us stamp duty for the privilege. Only in Ireland
Got rid of them recently in Canada and I have to say I barely even noticed. It costs more to make each coin than the actual value of them so get rid.
Yessss!
PLEEEEEASE let them go ahead with this idea!
They do it in NZ, where it’s referred to as ‘Scandinavian Rounding’.
Got rid of them in Australia, years ago best idea yet.
Yes, price is rounded down (between 1 -2 cents) or up ( 3- 5 cents), balances out at the end of he day.
Now, looking at getting rid of 5cent coins, bring that on to……………..!
Ahh please don’t- what will I use to annoy the busman with now?!!
The only flaw i see in this scheme is that i can not see shopkeepers rounding down prices it is more likely that they will round up to satisfy their own greed.
Will they stop charging €1.99 etc for items?
They have this in amsterdam so u dont get your full change if its say 1.53 but u also cant pay the exact amount of it comes to 1.53 (cant pay 1.50 either) which is quite annoying when u only have exact change (some places also only takes laser card instead of cash and my visa debit doesnt count and wind up with bank charges if they do accept! Not very tourist friendly at all not all if ypu can pay by laser and nothing else incl cash! Rant over!)
As for people paying for something under a tenner with a card wrecks my head holding up the que in the shop,there just too lazy to go to ATM.
What if they’re nowhere near an ATM and don’t drive? My little village has 1 ATM and it’s about a 20 min walk from my house. If I need some bread and milk from the local shop you can wait your turn cos I’m not walking 20 mins there and back just so you can save 45 seconds of your life
Roy you are just too lazy to use the card to pay for items under a tenner.
Jesus they have no cents at all.
One thing for sure, the consumer will not benifet from this.
The savings made on banking workload will simply be absorbed into their profits
The rounding will eventually suit the retailler. Sure the €1.99 will drop to €1.95 but other items will be bumped up 10c to compensate. Already I see the large supermarkets advertising the deals as simply €2 and €1 etc… They are ahead of the curve cleaning up that extra 1c – the smaller shops will be next to cotton-on.
About time.it should have been done years ago.
About time useless shrapnel. No need for them in the first place. Should have followed the Aussies with that and plastic notes too
CGP Grey on youtube does a great vlog on how pointless and expensive pennies are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Fair comment if there’s no ATM but when there’s one in d shop and they hold up the que come on like,it’s as bad as someone going in with a bag of 1s and 2s
ATMs don’t usually give out tenners and what’s d point queuing twice once for ATM and then for the till when u can just pay by card and get cash back!! It only takes a few seconds longer! But u know what they say patience is a virtue seldom in a woman, never in a man ;-)
Roy you’ll be pleased to know they’re rolling out machines that you can just scan your card across for transactions less than €15 (works a bit like a leap card). No swipe, No insert, No pin, no signature. Quick and easy peasy!
no receipt either ? hmm. so many times ive checked the receipt to see the cashier has pressed the wrong number. not fraud or anything like that but depending on the keypad the 123 can be at the top or the 789 on another is on the top. if you are busy its easy to make mistakes. if it automated its very hard to go back witb the bank statement looking for a refund. at least with casg you can count the xhange from the note you gave.
in excess 30 million in 1 & 2 coins in circulation (confirmed with CBOI)
Lets get them for struggling charities like Jack and Jill Foundation.
If 1c and 2c coins are still legal tender they have to be accepted. Surely.
It’s illegal to round any price up has to be down
It’s illegal?
Have you a source for that rather sweeping assertion?
But I have so many!
Since we changed to the Euro, I’ve routinely given them to charity. When we got rid of the punt, I found almost £20 in small coins lying around the place…
Your bank will still take them or you could donate them to charity
I’m pretty sure I’ve enough of these coins in jar to solve the countries debt problem
So if you’re one of the thousands of people who plonk 1/2c coins into a jar and cash it when its full, you would no longer be able to ”save” easily….thanks
What about all our favourite 2cent HARIBO sweets.
What about all the HARIBO 2c sweets we sell in our shop!!!! Cola btls, rings, turtles,etc
have your say