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Families Pay, Exhibitors Pay — Why Is Higher Options Double-Charging?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
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Why Are We Charging Teenagers to Choose Their Future?

This week, the Irish Times Higher Options event takes over the RDS. The organisers proudly expect 30,000 students to attend. Each pays €12.50 for the privilege – that’s €375,000 from ticket sales alone. Add €1,490 + VAT per exhibitor (about 150 of them) and you realise this is not just a career fair – it’s a serious money-spinner.

Now compare that with Europe:

  • The European Education Fair in Paris? Free.

  • The Days of International Education in the Baltics? Free.

  • UCAS fairs in the UK? Free.

So why are Irish families paying for something their peers abroad get without charge? For households with more than one teenager, the cost is eye-watering. Education shouldn’t be treated like a luxury add-on.

👉 The alternatives?

  • Free open days at every Irish university and college.

  • Apprenticeship.ie and your local ETB for trades and training.

  • CAO, Qualifax, CareersPortal — all free, comprehensive, and accessible.

Guidance for life-shaping decisions should be accessible to all – not just to those who can afford an RDS ticket.

Dublin, Education, Events, Uncategorized, ,

Wingsuit flight through ESB chimneys a “serious safety incident”

Written by Joerg Steegmueller

Something spectacular happened over our heads on Friday: Three Red Bull Wingsuit pilots jumped out of a helicopter over Dublin and subsequently flew towards and then through the gap between the iconic ESB chimneys at Poolbeg. It seems to be part of a series of flights through landmarks and just three weeks ago wingsuit pilots flew through the gap at the Tower Bridge in London.

Nobody thinks that wingsuiting is a safe sport, Red Bull themselves say “Wingsuit flying is the most dangerous extreme sport in the world”, but it is still laughable that the ESB felt they had to release a statement calling the event a “serious safety incident”. Sometimes it is just better to say nothing. Have a look at the great flight here: www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0531/1452382-dublin-skydive/

Red Bull is known for usually getting all necessary permissions and since the ESB probably doesn’t own the airspace above their buildings or between their chimneys they probably didn’t need to be asked.

The City of London took a different stance when the pilots flew during a much more spectacular stunt “through” the Tower Bridge. They didn’t complain about a safety incident, instead they supported the event by closing the Tower Bridge for the event. In London UK air traffic control also kept the airspace clear for the event on 12 May and a pontoon was installed in the Thames for the landing of the pilots. In Dublin ESB complains about a “serious safety incident”. Interesting!

Dublin, Overexaggerations, , , , ,

Let’s hope for a better new Dublin City Chief Executive!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller

Like at a funeral, when people in Ireland feel it is inappropriate to tell the truth about the person in the coffin, Dublin City Councillors were trying to be find complementing words for the now-retired former Chief Executive of Dublin City, Owen Keegan.

But many of them were probably more leaning towards the “Good Riddance” side than the “What a pity” side.

Without a shadow of a doubt Keegan left a stamp on Dublin City (and on Dun Laoghaire) and many think he caused significantly more damage than good.

He started in 1993 as an Assistant City Manager in Dublin and then became Director of Traffic. Dublin got a break from him when from 2006 until 2013 he was County Manager of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, but reportedly people in Dun Laoghaire celebrated his return to Dublin City 2013, then as Chief Executive. Another 10 years (2013-2023) in Dublin completed his THIRTY year long (questionable) contribution to our city.

Having ZERO accountability to councillors or citizens or inhabitants of Dublin City is the worst possible arrangement. The Chief Executive of the city runs the city in ALL aspects, with the grandiose titled “Lord Mayor” being just a representative figure with no control or influence over anything. It is shocking that we still do not have an elected mayor!!

And when you then get a chief executive (that is selected by the “Public Appointments Service”, which is purely looking for the right CV, not the right passion and ideas) who has his own agenda that he ruthlessly pursues for 10 years, ignoring and overruling the elected City Councillors at every possibility, then it becomes a real good news story when he finally retires.

Deputy chief executive Richard Shakespeare will be in charge now until the Public Appointments Service (not them again!!!) will have selected a new chief executive, who again will have NO democratic mandate to rule our city. At a salary of EUR 200,000 per year, we can be certain that many civil servants will be interested in the job, but despite the high salary, it is unlikely that a talented business leader will get a chance.

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2023/09/04/owen-keegan-bows-out-after-10-years-as-dublin-city-council-chief-executive/
and
www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin/dublin-news/dublin-city-council-confirms-date-for-owen-keegan-to-retire-as-ceo/a960772956.html

Dublin City Council, Politics, , ,

The Corona Files: Next step of lifting restrictions will NOT be taken

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The Corona Files: Next step of lifting restrictions will NOT be taken

The news is out and it is not good!

Pubs will stay closed for AT LEAST another four weeks until 31 August and – let’s face it – it is highly unlikely that anything significant will change in the next three weeks, considering the worldwide Covid situation. So who knows until when they will stay closed.

This obviously also has a significant impact on any live entertainment going forward and will not only leave pub owners and employees in a challenging situation, but will be devastating news for all the musicians that we have in Ireland.

A curfew for restaurants and pubs serving food of 23:00 was introduced as well (takeaways are allowed to stay open longer) and face masks will be mandatory in shops from 10 August.

And if you were hoping that there will be SOME good news elsewhere….not so!

Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, San Marino and Monaco were taken off the green list and seemingly no other countries were added.

The limits for crowds will also stay in place: 50 for indoor events and 200 for outdoor events.

———

And ALL this while we currently only have 448 cases of reported Covid infections in Ireland. If we multiply this by 10 to catch non-reported infections, then we have in the whole country just 4480 active cases. If we assume a population of 4,921,500, you need to meet 1098 (!!) people before you meet ONE Covid sufferer. 😮

Can we survive another while without pubs? Sure we can if we have to! But looking at how public health policy is made at the moment, the makers of the rules seem to believe in the fairy tale that Ireland can eradicate the Coronavirus. Does that sound likely to you? What is your guess, when will pubs open? And will we have to cancel Christmas?

(Clarification: The number 448 is the sum of all cases that were reported in the last 14 days and is therefore the number of the cases that can assumed to be still active.)

Corona Virus, Dublin, Economy, Events, Politics, Taoiseach, Tourism, , , , ,
 
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