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A COMMUNITY-BASED organisation that tries to empower men to take care of their mental health is one of the finalists on this year’s Social Entrepreneurs Ireland shortlist.
The Irish Men’s Sheds Association joins organisations concerned with access to residential care for children, to affordable mental health services, rehabilitation service for young people caught up in crime – among others – in the final eight. Each organisation on the shortlist will receive three months of support and guidance before a final award of €130,000 in direct funding as well as €70,000 worth of support over two years is given to three chosen winner of the ‘Impact Award’ in October. The five other finalists will receive €22,000 in direct funding and €10,000 in further support services over the coming year.
These are the eight finalists, all trying to have a positive impact on their fellow citizens’ wellbeings in a number of arenas:
Krystian Fikert – MyMind “Providing those in need with fast, affordable and quality mental health care”
The aim of the Polish-born psychologist and psychotherapist founder of MyMind is to make inexpensive, flexible and accessible mental health care available to Irish people, both online and in person. Early intervention is seen as crucial in helping people avoid reaching crisis point and has two centres in Dublin and one in Cork, supporting over 5,000 clients since its foundation in 2006.
Natasha & Toby Haslam – The Galtee Clinic “Improving outcomes for children in the care system”
Psychologist Toby and businesswoman Natasha run a centre in Tipperary from which they host children whose needs cannot be properly met in the foster care system. While staying with them, the children receive a specially tailored programme to address their specific needs which result from their difficult start in life. It gives the children a secure place to participate in the programme.
Peter Johnson – Jobnet “Helping a new kind of jobseeker in the Irish market”
Jobnet aims to help jobseekers to network effectively and seize opportunities in their local area, in effect helping them become their own best recruitment agent. It runs a tailored programme for these jobseekers, for whom job satisfaction is as important as the pay cheque.
Graham Jones – Solas Project “Reducing the likelihood of reoffending through pre and post-release support”
Founded by a criminal defence lawyer who noted that lack of support and direction was a major factor in young people getting caught up in crime. The five-step programme starts engagement with prison inmates between the age of 16-25 while they are still incarcerated, helping them beyond their release to empower themselves, change their path in life and ultimately reduce the chance that they will reoffend in society.
John Evoy – Irish Men’s Sheds Association “A grassroots organisation that empowers thousands of men across the country to help themselves”
This organisation identifies the trend of increased unemployment and social isolation of men across Ireland and helps men to set up their own local ‘Shed’ where they can meet with other men in the area to offer each other solutions and talk through their issues in a non-judgemental environment.
John Kearney – Irish Community Rapid Response “Enhancing local emergency services and saving lives”
Initially established in west Cork, the idea behibd ICRR is to put in place a ‘second tier’ of emergency situations where volunteer doctors in the area respond to emergencies in addition to the national ambulance service. The ICRR estimates its intervention has meant an average of two extra lives are saved per month and are hoping to bring their model to the national level.
Brian McCormick – Adtruism “Providing an easy and innovative way to fundraise online”
Founded by young entrepreneur McCorkmick, Adtruism gives website and blog owners a chance to raise awareness and funds for causes they want to support – 100 per cent of revenue generated by widgets placed on ‘host’ sites goes to the charities.
Mags Mullarney – Move4Parkinson’s “Educating, inspiring and empowering people with Parkinson’s to achieve a greater quality of life”
The goal of educating and informing people with Parkinson’s diagnoses to take an active part in their own care is central to this organisation. Founded by Mullarney, who was diagnosed with the condition herself, it promotes and simplifies “self-management” of the condition and helps those with it to find a programme that best suits them.
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I want to say this early before it gets lost in the comments. This money is not our and never will be. If the case is ruled against apple the tax gets distributed to the other EU countries not us. Apple have already paid all the tax owed under Irish law to us. Its in our interest to support apple in this as it keeps them here defends our tax regeime.
@Thomas Kearns: you could pay every apple employee a million euro and still have 7 or 8 billion euro left for schools hospitals , upgrading infrastructure such as broadband etc . It might not be our money but its worth a lot more than apple can ever give us
@johnbrady: Do you not understnad my comment? We do not receive any of this money even if Apple lose the case. At the moment we are holding it in escrow to either be released back to Apple or to be distributed to other EU states. There is no scenario here that we receive these funds.
@johnbrady: Um…… what?
@Thomas Kearns: I’d still prefer if other European governments had the money than have it sitting in the Cayman Islands for Tim Cook to brag about having.
@Fifty Shades of Sé: That sets a terrible precedent that other EU states can just reach into the private companies that are registered in other countries. Would you be happy for Germany, France, etc to just take profits from a homegrown Irish company like Kerrygroup just because we exported goods to the EU?
Also the funds have to stay within the EU and used within the EU eitherway. If they try to transfer teh funds back to the US they will have to pay additional taxes there.
@Thomas Kearns: no place for common sense on this website, even though you are 100% right
@Thomas Kearns: indeed even if the comission wins, the proceeds will likely go to other EU states. Millions have already been spent in legal fees to defend apple so end of day we are only losing money.
With that being said, our low tax regime days are numbered and tax harmonisation in the EU is just a matter of time. Government needs to find other incentives to keep FDI coming into the country, and the tax base needs to be increased and diversified.
@Thomas Kearns: Don’t waste your time trying to educate those who just can’t appreciate that foreign direct investment into Ireland and Ireland’s tax policy over the last number of decades is what has made us the economy we are. Also, and interestingly (to a few anyhow), doesn’t the fact that some of this tax would have to be distributed to other tax authorities actually prove that Ireland did nothing wrong??? If these other jurisdictions had taxing rights all along, why should Ireland have taxed the income?
@Thomas Kearns: we could steal it. I’m fairly handy with a spoon, that might help
@Thomas Kearns: you are wrong there son. Other countries could try to make claims on the money, they might even be successful in that regard so a portion of the money and yes it could be a significant portion could get redistributed but to say Ireland won’t get to keep any of the money is incorrect.
@Sean: He’s completely correct. It seems most people don’t understand the issue at hand, which is that Apple’s tax maneuvering gave it an effective tax rate of about 0.05% on its European profits. Ergo this back tax is for EU profits passed through Irish division. The only reason we’re caught up in this is because of our tax breaks. In fact, if a lot of the French and German EU big-wigs had their way, we’d be hit with a hefty fine and a unified corp tax rate.
@Gabriel Chagas: “Tax harmonization in the EU is just a matter of time”.
Ireland was given a concession regarding our corporate rates if we voted YES to Lisbon mk 2. That concession could only be removed by us in a referendum and would almost certainly be rejected by the Irish voter. If it was forced upon us it would make the result of Lisbon mk 2 invalid.
@Thomas Kearns: I’d prefer if all corporations paid their fair share of tax instead of exploiting loopholes in tax laws to avoid doing so. I think it’s terribly wrong to allow Apple to say they make iPhones here just to avoid paying taxes that they can comfortably afford to pay. The EU has been enormously generous to Ireland over the years yet we’re helping Apple to impoverish it’s member states.
@Thomas Kearns: do we receive a share
@Gabriel Chagas: and yet we worry about Brexit and worry about Trump and fail to realise the EU is going to do us the most damage.
@Thomas Kearns: Has the time for an Irexit? Seems like the EU will come after our corporation tax rate soon too
@Thomas Kearns: this not true on a number of fronts. Firstly if its deemed illegal aid was provided by the Irish state apple have not paid all the is owed in taxes to Ireland. Secondly the tax policies for funneling money through Ireland and the double Dutch loophole have been closed. Therefore this case does not defend the current Tax regime.
@Frankie J: no place for facts by the looks of these tweets.
@Thomas Kearns: erm…..no expert but, pretty sure if you sell goods and services in a country and try to funnel it through a complex set of lower rate structures in another country to avoid paying tax it’s pretty much tax evasion……
@Gerard Anthony McBride: finally someone who has common sense….praise the lord
@Thomas Kearns: then why did the Irish Government spend Irish taxes to pursue this case in the first round with the judicial system. One would imagine that Apple Corp. should pay all costs.
@Thomas Kearns: There it says 14.3 billion in UNPAID TAXES TO IRISH GOVERNMENT!
What a waste of time and money, this is a vanity project for Vestager, proof is that she waited until the very last moment to say she was going to appeal. The appeal can only be heard on a point of law, which has already been rejected by the court.
@Kevin50: complete waste of money they have no chance of winning and never did in the first place!
@Kevin50: Exactly she is going to not win this, my memory isn’t as good as it was but in 1991 EU didn’t have competition legislation like we have now, 2007 was only 5 years after Nice and can’t remember when Lisbon treaties requirements were implemented.
If she wants to look at funnelling funds have a look at Belgium, Netherlands and others. I worked in companies in finance and I can assure her allegations against Apple are small beer.
@PaulOMahoney Irish: the EU rules on State Aid have always been in the Treaties and were there when we signed up in 1973
@PaulOMahoney Irish: original EEC Treaty of 1957 had the competition and state aid rules. Nothing new about this.
@Ciaran O’Mara: May have been on paper but certainly wasn’t implemented. France for example having a lot of goods passing through remote airports add additional costs to product while subsidising French companies. One example but it was rife
If we ever need that money, now is the time!
@Mary Walshe: It’s not our money. It’s money collected through sales in other jurisdictions and simply funneled through Apple’s Irish operations. If Europe win this case and Ireland receives this money, the Irish State will be up to its neck in claims from other European countries for their share. Our proportionally small share will be eaten up with court cases and legal costs and in the long run it will cost us more than we gain. So no, we don’t need this money.
@Tommy Roche: Actually, it’s worse than I thought. As Thomas correctly points out Apple have already paid the taxes due in Ireland, so we get nothing.
@Tommy Roche: it’s funny as well. The whole basis of this case being a competition law issue and indirectly a tax issue is completely lost in all discussion.
I’m not actually sure how much would be repayable to other member states. You would have to see how Apple had written their contracts.
Can anyone actually actually clearly state why it would be repayable to other countries, we’re talking about corporation tax here not sales tax and therefore it’s residual profits that matter not where the sales were made.
One way or the other the money isn’t ours and the Commission is going to lose its case.
Good on the European Commission to Appeal , and correctly so, as Apple funnelled massive profits out of this country, and were as a result not liable to pay tax to any state, which is illegal under European law .
@Timothy Culligan: do you have any idea what you’re talking about?
It was completely legal!
@Timothy Culligan: according to the EU courts so far, it’s not illegal.
@Timothy Culligan: guess you better tell the judge who ruled in favor of Apple then. Looks like you know more about the law than them.
@Timothy Culligan: the fact that you don’t know that you can’t “funnel” profits anywhere because profits are taxed and that if you’re going to “funnel” anything it would be revenue speaks volumes as to your knowledge.
The neverending story part MMXXIV
I am no expert but, if you sell goods and services in a country, then funnel said profits through a complex set of low rate tax structures in another country to avoid paying the going rate in the place you made the money in the first place I am pretty sure it’s tax evasion.
Apple and Ireland and dont forget the OECD, this wouldnt have happened if these mammoth companies were reined in. Of course some big countries dislike distrust and try to dismantle bodies like OECD UN WTO etc. If there isnt respect for international systems all we get is, dog eat dog and some individual major world powers think they can benefit from this but no it just leads to chaos and big business taking an unfair advantage.
@Michael: those massive companies provide us with a lot of employment.
@RampantMisanthropy: But do they really need to pay tax rates at 0.005%? Does it have to be THAT low?! They may employ loads, but we really are taking the mick with just how much they get away with relative to SME’s that pay 12.5% as standard.
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