Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
There's something strange in the latest live register figures released today by the CSO. Not the increase of 87.1% in a single year - that, unfortunately, could be predicted. RTÉ's report mentioned that 71% of the increase was among men.
[I should note that I'm using two sets of data here ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
It's not wholly surprising, but it seems possible that the meteoric rise of the Celtic Tiger could very soon be eclipsed by the current free-fall of the Irish economy.
Following on from news that the economy fell into recession in the second quarter of 2008 (with two consecutive quarters of declining ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
The BCI has just issued a call for expressions of interest in new community radio stations, with a deadline of October 23rd.
Expressions of Interest are an initial step in which groups encourage the BCI to issue a call for applications for specific stations (usually covering specific areas or audiences). Thus, ...
Posted in Alternative Media, Media regulation, Radio | Comments Off
Monday, August 11th, 2008
As another follow-up - this time to my post on commercial DTV in Ireland - the plans for the publicly-operated multiplex have been announced. With transmissions expected from Autumn 2009 (and the analogue signals to be switched off by 2012), the roll-out will be phased in over time - 80% ...
Posted in Corporate media, Digital Audio, Media regulation, Public Service Media, Radio | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
A follow-up to my recent posting on the break-down of national pay talks in Ireland. The unions have now developed guidelines for local bargaining platforms:
Under the guidelines, unions are to seek flat-rate increases of €30 per week for low-paid workers and rises that match inflation - about 5 per cent ...
Posted in Labour issues, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Talks on a new national social partnership agreement - which includes agreement on pay in public and private workplaces - have broken down in Ireland. Ireland has had centralized agreements covering pay and other issues since the late 1980s. These have ensured a voice for unions (and employers) in setting ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »
Monday, July 21st, 2008
The BCI has just announced the results of its DTT licensing process. It had three applicants for three multiplex contracts, and decided to award all three contracts to the one applicant (each applicant had applied for all three of the contracts on an 'all or nothing' basis). That applicant is ...
Posted in Corporate media, Media regulation | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
The latest edition of Comreg's Quarterly Report (pdf) is now available, and it's got some interesting nuggets hidden in it. First, VoIP is now showing up in call volumes - although Comreg only tracks certain VoIP services, and not internet-based offerings such as Skype. There's a suggestion in the report that ...
Posted in Computing Technology, Society and culture | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
i102-104, the group that won the tender for a youth service for the North-West, recently signed their contract with the BCI. The related press release promises us 'contemporary hits' and that the schedule "will also give prominence to new music and more specialist genres such as alternative rock and RnB/urban ...
Posted in Media regulation, Radio, Society and culture | Comments Off
