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BUDGET 2016 HAS been unveiled and the reaction is mixed.
The budget, which has been widely described as a ‘giveaway budget’, confirmed many of the predictions and kites that were flown in the coming days and weeks.
It brought tax cuts, free GP care to under 12′s and a boost to the minimum wage.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Minister for Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin unveiled a €3 boost the old age pension, while the Christmas bonus was restored by 75%.
So how did you fare in the final budget of this current Government before the general election?
Here’s the breakdown on the winners and losers.
WINNING: Workers
Michael Noonan says all workers will get an additional week’s wages due to the tax changes made in today’s budget.
From January 1, around 42,500 workers will be completely removed from paying the Universal Social Charge, USC, while the entry threshold will increases from €12,012 to €13,000.
USC Rates will be cut from 1.5% to 1%, from 3.5% to 3% and from 7% to 5.5%.
Minister Brendan Howlin also confirmed that the minimum wage will be increased to €9.15 an hour from January 1.
In terms of job creation, 2,260 new teachers will come on stream in 2016, including 600 new resource teachers while an extra 600 gardaí are to be recruited next year.
LOSING: Jobseekers under 25
There will also be no increase in the jobseeker’s allowance for under-25s, which was cut to €100 in Budget 2014.
WINNING: Pensioners
LOSING: Start ups
The Budget has been criticised for not supporting start ups. It has been described as ‘incredibly disappointing’ and as encouraging startups to leave Ireland.
WINNING: Social welfare recipients
The Christmas bonus, which was partially restored last year, has been increased by 50% for people on weekly long-term social welfare payments.
Today’s announcement means a jobseeker receiving €188 a week will get an extra €141 at Christmas.
LOSING: Smokers
The price of cigarettes is to rise by 50c, bringing the cost of a 20-pack to €10.50.
Retailers Against Smuggling say this move means that smugglers are ‘laughing all the way to the bank’.
WINNING: Parents
Child Benefit will go up by €5 a month to €140 next year and the Respite Care Grant has also been restored.
It was also announced that fathers will get a paid paternity leave of two weeks from September of next year.
In childcare, it was revealed that all children will avail of free preschool/childcare from age 3 to 5 and a half or when they start primary school.
While 8,000 childcare places were announced to support parents in low paid employment.
LOSING: People who wanted a tax of fizzy drinks
The sugar tax didn’t happen, despite the fact that the Health Minister Leo Varadkar had written to the Minister Noonan asking for a 20% tax on sugar-sweetened drinks in an effort to tackle obesity.
Irish Heart Foundation said “by failing to introduce a tax on sugar sweetened drinks the Government is prioritising the wealth of multinational companies over the nation’s health and particularly the health of children”.
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This is why we have food traceability…to get to the real source of the problem. What a rotten deal for those who had bad turkeys. I would be hugely disappointed if it had been me.
Seems it happened last year also..
@Seeking Truth:
They bought turkey from Tesco, tesco bought it from the farmer, is this enough traceability
@Seeking Truth: why did we have to wait till the end to find out that ‘ most cases’ where in the UK
@Seeking Truth: part time staff not storing them correctly is a guess
@Shane Cormican:
With that attitude I am thinking your probably one of the managers that is responsible for the part time staff, if that’s the case your responsible
@Shane Cormican: Part time staff are on minimum wage and zero hour contracts. They are not paid enough to care about the job they do.
Management knows this yet insists on endangering their customers by using cancer capitalism.
Serves Tesco right.
@Colin Morris: if there was issue with how they were stored then the onus is on the manager . Every store has a goods inward manager and part of their job is to ensure that frozen and fresh food are stored properly as soon as they come through the goods inwards . Nothing whatsoever to do with part time staff!
@Nucky:
Does it make any difference to you whether they were in the UK or Ireland.
@Nucky: Because you skipped the headline?
@Scott Hazel: they had green turkeys last year
@Carina Clarke:
Eco-friendly ones??
@Colin Morris: incorrect Colin. Nobody on zero hour contracts or minimum wage.
@Casper: he’s got a point. Open refrigeration is crap. Often get rank milk etc from Tesco. Not a rare occurrence.
@Misanthrope: dunnes lidl ALDI and SuperValu all use open refrigeration as well so they should all have the same issue
For the others, weve been through this time and time again, Tesco don’t have zero hour contracts. Only the unions spout that rubbish.
And at Nicky, yes it does matter where the turkeys come from. UK turkeys are from UK farmers. Irish turkeys are from Irish farmers.
For the traceability comment, yes it is important. There should be a trail of how and where the meat was transported and stored.
IMO, sounds like the birds were killed to early and improperly stored. Expiry dates for a turkey on dec 26th is a bit tight for me!
I bet we’ll find that they were all bought from the same region if not town and store!
@Casper: No not really.
What farmer? What dates were they slaughtered? Who delivered them to Tesco? Who ensured their proper storage? Having worked in the medical industry where you can trace every medical product back to the date and time it was produced, who put it together, who packaged it, etc. it makes finding the source of a problem quite easy. Food is the same….or should be….trace it back to the source and then you know where the problem lies and how to correct it.
@Nick Allen: not that it’s really your business idiot , I’ve always bought my turkey and ham in Tesco
@Neal Ireland Hello.: the headline has been changed
Buying chicken fillets is a gamble at tesco yet alone a whole bird
@Dave O’Hanlon: Tesco have the best quality of chicken fillets. Their conditions are far more strict than other stores, from the same supplier.
@Peter: yerra Tesco sold you horse meat and you thought it was “the best quality of chicken fillets”. I have never heard such delusion about Tescos quality control.
They should be compensated with free bog roll for the week at least.
I’ve bought chickens that had gone be off before their sell by date.
However I’ve got a feeling some are jumping on the band wagon.
Some are down to bad storage.
How can you not know the turkey had gone off before you cooked it? It must have smelt rancid.
Also one woman claiming to be sick after handling a rancid Turkey. Did she not wash her hands and counter after handling it? Has she ever heard of cross contamination? Think she is seeing pound signs!
@Lily: I got a Tesco turkey (not rancid) in my online shopping. They come free sealed in plastic when they so I could well imagine you might miss the small until you open it on the day, especially of you have a cold.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: but some actually cooked it first
@Lily: Food like this causes 280,000 food poisoning cases a year in the UK.Look what M&S had to do to get the quality up M&S customers are a bit more vocal than Tesco customers. The only way that they could stop the customers from killing themselves from cross contamination from chicken SH IT was to seal it into an oven ready bag and get the customer to literally cook the SH IT out of it.
M&S will seal each of its chickens in a special bag that can be roasted
The supermarket said it will reduce the risk of transmitting campylobacter
The bacteria causes 280,000 food poisoning cases a year and 100 deaths
The new packaging only applies to whole chickens and not fillets or pieces
Campylobacter is present in 59 per cent of chickens according to the FSA
@Harry Browne: well really people should wash their hands, the counters and any utensils that came into contact with raw chicken, even throwing away the plastic it came in, you still have to wash your hands after handling it, and clean the taps that you turned on with raw chicken over your hands.
Are they stupid?
I know that had to issue a warning to tell people to stop washing chickens as the water splashes and contaminates everything it touches.
Fails safe method of roasting chicken in the bag. So consumers don’t have to handle raw chicken. If they can’t handle a raw chicken without giving themselves food poisoning then humanity is doomed.
Many Supermarkets have Irish Flag and they are packed in Ireland but imported from places in the 3rd world. Factory Farming is hitting back big time. What do you expect, you buy a force fed Turkey/Chicken that had a terrible life, in it’s own faeces, then given antibiotics….. what happened to the butcher who supplied you with a Turkey or Chicken from somebody they knew personally? where the birds at least had a normal life outside and living on Grass. I have bought many rancid fillets of Chicken. What do people expect at such low prices? you get what you pay for. I have more or less gone Vegetarian, delicious ! I don’t preach but factory farming is having it’s say .
@Rosemarie Martin: Sounds like you’re preaching
@Rosemarie Martin: sounds very preachy for somebody who doesn’t preach. You might want to watch that.
@Jumperoo: not so much preachy as a bit ranty I would’ve thought. There’s a fine line between preaching and ranting.
@Rosemarie Martin:
The farming methodologies used for poultry have nothing to do with the incorrect storage later in the supply chain. Your agenda is not applicable to this story
@Nick Allen: Yes it seems the storage went wrong somewhere along the line. I doubt tesco would accept the turkeys first off if they were rancid. Factory farming supplies food at a very cheap cost to the consumer. I reckon most people are glad of it. It’s only certain sectors of society who can afford organic food.
Bet the Irish customers were sorry they didn’t buy Irish!
@Mark Moran: it was in the uk.
I remember years ago buying chicken in Tesco. When i took the wrapping off it that evening with the intention of making a stir fry it was rancid.. took it back following day & despite being wrapped in two plastic bags the girl in CS desk almost fainted with smell.. Now i just buy meat from a butchers directly a bit more expensive but better quality & guaranteed freshness everytime…
@vero: Meat from a butchers . . . . . nah, it’ll never catch on.
@vero: most butchers are buying their meat from the same sources as the supermarkets these days to be fair so there is no difference in reality
Who actually buys meat in Tesco anyway? Worst of the worst
@the phantom: Some of us are on a budget, Lord Grantham. Or buy online in bulk for freezing because we can’t drive.
Food traceability based on EU regulations designed for the customer’s safety not for the supplier’s profit. Pity UK customers didn’t think of that on 23rd June 2016. Wouldn’t bank on similar regulations in a post Brexit little Britain. It also puts the soft/hard border discussion in sharp context here! UK and NOI are highly likely to become a ‘food no go zone’ after Brexit …. soft border implies trust…. not much of that in evidence…. so physical inspections inevitable…. not the conclusion anybody wants but citizens health dictates it.
Why is this news in Ireland? It happened in Tesco UK but no mention of that in the headline. Misleading and sensationalist.
Rancid? Of course it is…after all it is decomposing flesh. I know, I know , that statement of fact will annoy some people, but all I’m doing is stating fact. You can’t disagree with that.
Hands up, yes, maybe I am a little preachy [did not mean to be ] apologies, but surely somebody has to care? If you are eating the flesh of animals that lived in un natural conditions, were force fed, lived in unatural light all their lives, did not eat proper food that turkeys/chickens should, were dosed with Antibiotics that are to kill the infection from faeces up to their necks, how can you expect something like this not to happen.
Preachy? no, Do I care about Factory farming? yes, You get what you pay for.
The appalling lives the animals live ~ well they can’t speak for themselves.
To the idiot who took it out 32 hours before it was recommended to – that’s why it’s gone bad. Frozen food must be used within 24 hours of thawing. I’m sorry but you get what you pay for. Harsh, maybe. Buy your turkey from a reputable butcher or direct from the farm, never from a supermarket and never, ever frozen. Frozen turkeys are the dregs of the food chain. Store it in a fridge, below 5 degrees (preferably below 3), not in the garage, utility room or elsewhere ‘cool’ and use within 3 days or bin it.
@Aisling Boyle: to the idiot who didn’t read it properly she took it out as per instructions to let it thaw out and then cook it. In other words she followed the guidelines.
It should be a criminal offence to sell unsafe and rotten food.
Tesco will get off very lightly because of market strength.
@Fiona deFreyne: they didn’t know it was unsafe or rotten at the time ..otherwise they wouldn’t have sold it ..
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: scant comfort for those who’s Christmas dinner was ruined. They are responsible for what they sell, ignorance is an excuse.
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: donoghue v Stephenson, the absolute principle on the law in matters like this, places the duty of care firmly on tesco.
Can’t believe they’ve tried to blame part-time staff too. Vicarious liability also places the whole blame on the employer. I’d say they’re proper fooked.
@Deborah Behan: of course they’re still to blame ..i never said otherwise did I?
Pluck that!!
Hardly surprising, Tesco meat is awful quality.
I’d imagine that there’s a few rancid turkeys around today after last nights festivities
Meat is murder. A Quorn roast would have been the better option. No animals would have needlessly suffered and lost their lives.
Tesco needs to follow M&S lead to stop people from killing themselves
M&S will seal each of its chickens in a special bag that can be roasted
The supermarket said it will reduce the risk of transmitting campylobacter
The bacteria causes 280,000 food poisoning cases a year and 100 deaths
The new packaging only applies to whole chickens and not fillets or pieces
Campylobacter is present in 59 percent of chickens according to the FSA
Marks & Spencer has announced it will only sell chickens as ‘roast in the bag’ from 2014 on to protect customers from a dangerous food poisoning bug.
The decision will stop people coming into contact with campylobacter, which has been named as a major public health threat.
The drastic measure has been backed by the Food Standards Agency and is expected to be followed by other retailers.
The M&S initiative is part of a five point plan designed to reduce exposure to campylobacter.
Its proposals include paying farmers a cash bonus if they manage to keep their chickens free from campylobacter and blast chilling them in an attempt to kill the bug.
The store said the plan is already reducing the number of birds that carry the bug. The new packaging will apply to 85 per cent of chickens with immediate effect, and to all birds by the end of the year.
Should have had the Bosh mushroom Wellington!
@Pounamustone: I made that…it was delicious with Tesco red onion gravy. Love cruelty free food.
When you buy something with best before 1 day before you cook it what do you expect??
Also known as “Revenge Of The Turkeys,” a Christmas horror film showing at a cinema near you. We keep hearing about “Turkeys voting for Xmas.” This movie is about a group of renegade birds who didn’t want to be stuffed, plucked, basted, carved up or end up the focal point of the festive dinner. Parental supervision recommended but not essential. Violent scenes including lots of vomiting to be expected.
God I hate Turkey.. Terrible Country !
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