Student wasters
I know of students who possess phones, use public transport, demand to sleep in a bed at night and waste €8,000 to €12,000 a year on student accommodation, work nights, weekends and during their holidays to earn the minimum wage (and possibly pay tax), socialise occasionally – and yes, even eat food and buy clothes – and otherwise carelessly waste money they could save for a university education. God help us.
What will we ever do with the spendthrift youth of today? – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS FINN,
READ MORE
Co Galway.
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Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Irish Times
Brittany Ferries boosts Rosslare-Cherbourg sailings
Brittany Ferries has said it will boost sailings on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route after rival Stena Line axes its service between the two ports next month. Stena confirmed recently that it would end its service between Rosslare and the French port from the end of September following a review of its routes. Brittany Ferries, which already operates the same route five times a week, said on Tuesday that it would increase the number of ferry services between the ports to seven a week from the start October. The move means the company will sail daily from Rosslare to Cherbourg. READ MORE Cork and Rosslare-based Brittany Ferries said it was stepping in 'to fill the gap left by a competitor' on the route, adding that it would also increase space on vessels sailing between the ports. Christophe Mathieu, chief executive of Brittany Ferries, said the company moved quickly once opportunities knocked. 'News that our competitor was stepping back started the firing pistol in a concerted effort to secure port slots and better serve customers in Ireland and France,' he added. Brittany Ferries offers a rail service that can transport freight from Cherbourg to Bayonne on the French-Spanish border, which it launched midway through last month. Dubbed Ro-Ro (roll-on roll-off) Rail, the service allows quick access to the French rail network and on to Spain and Portugal for trailers from Ireland. Brittany Ferries launched its Rosslare-Cherbourg service in 2021 to meet demand from truckers seeking to bypass Britain following Brexit. Freight has doubled on the route this year while passenger numbers are up 50 per cent. Glenn Carr, director of commercial business units at Irish Rail, owner of Rosslare Europort, welcomed Brittany Ferries' announcement. 'Since Brexit, direct sailings between Rosslare Europort and the European Continent have increased sixfold and our priority has been to ensure we maintain that capacity and choice for industry and tourism alike,' he said.
Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Irish Times
Has Ireland become too pricey for tourists? An economist and a tourism industry representative debate
David W Higgins: Ireland's hotel and restaurants prices are almost 30% higher than EU average When tourists travel there are a mix of costs. This can include flights, car rental, souvenirs and guided tours. High on the list is the cost of restaurants and hotels . It's basic. Tourists need somewhere to stay at night and eat throughout the day. The prices set for these items can decide if their trip happens or not. It's therefore disappointing to continually find that Ireland compares poorly across Europe when measuring these costs. Eurostat recently compared countries for the mix of prices on hotels and restaurants in 2024. It found that Ireland was 29.3 per cent higher than the EU average. The only country higher than us was Denmark on 47.6 per cent. There's a silver lining in being second because it means the Danes can feel rich travelling here. I once met a Dane who said coffee in Dublin was really affordable. You can imagine the raised eyebrows and blank stares from anyone who heard this. With a population of just six million, Denmark won't be enough to keep Ireland a vibrant tourist destination going forward. The years emerging from the Covid pandemic saw countries around the world rattled by supply chain disruption and an emergence of meaningful price jumps for the first time in decades. Consumer prices in Ireland are up 25 per cent across the board since 2016. READ MORE As wages have also risen here and elsewhere, we can assume this first 25 per cent move isn't an issue. It's price growth above these levels that should worry us. That's where restaurants and hotels continue to sound alarm. Prices linked to restaurants and hotels are up 39 per cent on 2016, according to Eurostat. What's worse is that this masks the underlying mix of the two parts. Inflation data is compiled with the Irish consumer in mind. In a given year, many of us spend sizeable amounts with local cafes, pubs and restaurants. Our spend on hotels is a much smaller fraction. Inflation among accommodation providers is up a seismic 77 per cent. It's manageable for locals and sometimes unnoticed because domestic travel is less frequent than our visits to restaurants. Now put yourself into the shoes of international travellers. Their mix of spending is heaviest on accommodation. It's the main plank of their trip. [ Alarm bells are sounding over falling visitor numbers. But is tourism really in crisis? Opens in new window ] The hospitality sector has admittedly faced rising input costs. All sectors have. We can give further allowance to policy changes such as higher minimum wage levels. This has notched up wages across hospitality at a pace higher than in other sectors. You can understand how restaurants, cafes and pubs have had to pass on higher costs. It's just hard to feel sympathy for hotels. But how is this possible? Surely a competitive market will attract new hotels, B&Bs and other sources of supply? The opposite has taken place. The surge in migration sent the Government scrambling for beds. Hotels were offered safe contracts which guaranteed income, instead of the precarious fluctuations they normally face from tourism. Even with International Protection Accommodation Services numbers falling, the latest data shows 7 per cent of hotel rooms are still used for this purpose. Releasing these rooms would mean a welcome easing to price pressures. It's all the more essential given the clouds that now hang over the tourism sector. The latest CSO data on international arrivals showed a 10 per cent decline in May, compared with the same month last year. Travellers from continental Europe are down 21 per cent. You might have expected travellers from America to be down, given the moves in the dollar this year. Numbers are actually up 11 per cent. But this is only cause for more alarm. As the tariff story unfolds, we may also see a turn. Americans are on course for a big inflation development of their own. Something's gotta give somewhere, because international tourists will only keep giving so much. David W Higgins is an economist Eoghan O'Mara Walsh: Nearly two-thirds of all holidaymakers rate us as 'very good' or 'good' value Now that we are in the peak summer tourism season, a question often asked is if Ireland is still a value-for-money destination? In my opinion, the answer is yes – and crucially it is not my opinion that counts. Fáilte Ireland, the State agency for tourism, carries out annual surveys with tourists as they are holidaying here. One of the key responses that is closely monitored by industry leaders is the value-for-money question. The latest available research shows Irish tourism is doing pretty well: 63 per cent of all holidaymakers report Ireland as being 'very good' or 'good' value, with a further 32 per cent rating us as 'fair' value and only 5 per cent rating us as 'poor' value. US visitors, buoyed by a relatively strong dollar were most positive; cash-strapped British and price-conscious Europeans a little less enthusiastic. The truth is that Liveline anecdotes about how expensive Ireland is as a holiday destination are often more of a domestic concern, whereas the international visitor tends to be a little more insouciant. The three primary reasons visitors come to Ireland after all are low-cost to no-cost: the friendliness of the people, the stunning scenery, and our culture and heritage. That's not to say Ireland isn't a northern European destination in terms of costs and prices. Last month, as noted above, Eurostat ranked Ireland as the second most expensive country in the EU, with prices 38 per cent higher than the average. That is bound to find its way into the pub, restaurant and hotel bills that consumers pay. There is a huge onus on tourism and hospitality businesses to continue delivering a compelling experience for visitors. If the quality of the Irish tourism product drops then we certainly will have a problem. [ Is Ireland really suffering a tourism collapse? Opens in new window ] How Irish tourism is faring this summer depends on who you talk to. National Central Statistics Office numbers indicate a double-digit tourism decline for the first half of the year, whereas industry data is less alarmist, pointing to a flat year. Consistent feedback, though, from all quarters is that escalating costs of business continue to squeeze already tight profit margins. Many of these business costs are of course State-induced and tourism chiefs are rightly pressuring Government to row back on some of these impositions. That is why industry leaders are pushing for Government to deliver on its commitment to restore the 9 per cent VAT rate for hospitality on budget day. My economics lectures may have been some time ago but even I remember that adding supply to meet demand helps moderate prices. So as well as curbing costs of business, the Government should be working to attract additional capacity into the market. Instead it seems to be doing the opposite. Tourism chiefs are mystified with the proposed draconian clampdown on short-term rental tourism properties. There is widespread agreement urban centres need more long-term rentals but the blunt way the legislation is currently designed means there is a real risk that rural and coastal Ireland will be denuded of holiday homes and self-catering properties, a staple of Irish tourism for decades. Taking so much stock out of the market is going to do nothing to support our value proposition. And why hasn't the passenger cap at Dublin Airport been lifted by this stage? It has been debated ad nauseam. More air access into the island's main gateway would lead to greater competition and better value for visitors coming to our shores. [ The Irish Times view on the Dublin airport cap: will politicians or the courts finally decide? Opens in new window ] Tourism and hospitality is the country's largest indigenous industry and biggest regional employer. There are more than a quarter of a million people employed in the sector across 20,000 businesses. Put simply, tourism matters. Minister for Tourism Peter Burke is set to unveil a new national tourism policy this autumn. Hopefully it will match the ambitions of the industry. But sustainable growth can only be enabled by pro-tourism and pro-enterprise policies. Competitiveness is all-important. Let's curb additional business costs and facilitate extra supply into the market. That will be a win for the visitor, for industry, for the exchequer and for the communities across swathes of regional Ireland where tourism is the only show in town. Eoghan O'Mara Walsh is chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
‘I was delighted with the big, happy head on him': Stories of soundness restoring readers' faith in humanity
It's the summer time and it is a bank holiday so – for one day only – we are going to dispense with giving out and highlight some of the good and great customer-service stories we have heard of late. We are going to start with our friends in Ryanair as we know they think we are biased against them, something that could not be further from the truth. A reader called Emer mailed us at the start of July with a story she said was 'different to the norm as it is about two good news stories' rolled into one. Her good news begins in Bologna on July 4th with some very bad news indeed. READ MORE Emer admits that she is 'old school' and prints her boarding passes before travelling. This was something she, perhaps, had cause to regret on that particular Friday as both her and husband's passports and boarding passes were stolen. The theft happened at around midday on the day they were due to travel home and they had less than four hours to try to resolve the situation. Their first port of call was the authorities, Emer writes in her email. 'We immediately went to the police station to report the theft and contacted our son who was a travel rep some years ago and he contacted the consulate in Milan,' she continues. The couple knew the clock was ticking and – given that it was a Friday afternoon, things were looking bleak. 'The consulate contacted us and told us to go to their office in Milan on Monday as they were closing for the weekend and could not help us till then. We could not book a hotel anywhere as we had no identification,' she says. [ Where's the humanity? Customer experience report shows service in Ireland is getting worse Opens in new window ] 'With our police report of the theft we got a taxi to the airport on the very off-chance we would be allowed on the Ryanair flight with our Irish social welfare travel cards as an only means of identification,' she writes. 'We told our story to the girl on the luggage check-in desk and she talked to her supervisor, and then to Dublin, to see if they would let us through passport control and if we would be allowed on the flight.' Pricewatch would not have been holding out much hope at this stage, we have to say. 'Word eventually came from Dublin and we were on our way home. So a huge thank you to Ryanair and their check-in staff,' Emer writes. We can only assume the couple were able to make it through passport control without their passports – and Emer adds a second piece of good news which was that she and her husband applied for new passports on the Sunday after they arrived home and three days later their new passports came through the door. 'So thank you to the staff at Ryanair for your caring and compassionate response to our plight and thank you to the staff for your efficiency and speed in the passport office.' Next up is Phil from Navan who says he is 'always more fond of e-mailing about great customer service than bad'. He visited Decathlon in Dublin recently searching for what he describes as his 'very comfy socks, which I'd clicked and was collecting. I struggled to get from the car to the click and collect location because of my mobility disability. Meanwhile the security guard was eyeing me up the whole time.' 'The security guard sprang into action to slide me over a trolley and ensure I was staying upright safely.' Photograph: iStock Phil successfully collected his order and turned around and noted that the security guard 'still had my eyes and I beckoned over towards the trolleys and asked if he could please get me one – all this without speaking to him! 'Quick as a flash he sprang into action to slide me over a trolley and ensure I was staying upright safely. I followed my family around the shop, stopping by to pick up some more comfy socks,' he writes. 'I emailed the shop that evening telling them that I was delighted with the big, happy head on him.' Noeleen had a very positive experience with Petworld recently. 'I telephoned them on March 31st at about 11.30am asking about their delivery service. I told the helpful girl that I was rehoming a dog and needed a crate urgently.' Noeleen was told to place an order online, which she did at 11.55am. The Petworld staff member told her the order would be marked as urgent as soon as it showed up on their systems. 'The courier delivered the item at 12.14pm the following day, just two hours after the dog arrived.' Noeleen 'needed a crate urgently' to rehome a dog. Photograph: iStock Louise got in touch to praise David Cullen Jewellers in Clare Hall. 'I dropped in a chain for repair but it couldn't be repaired on site,' she says. 'I received a text when it was sent off and a phone call to confirm I was happy. I also got another text message with an estimated completion time and was updated daily and called when it was ready.' And, speaking of jewellery, we also heard from Sheelagh. She recently wrote to Newbridge Silverware in connection with a bracelet her sister had given her which had broken. She returned it to the company for repair and in her note said – in a by-the-way fashion – that her sister had bought five bracelets at the same time for herself and each of her sisters 'to mark a sisters weekend. Unfortunately my sister has lost her own bracket on the very day she gave them to us,' Sheelagh writes. To her surprise, she subsequently received not one but two bracelets from Newbridge, with an invitation to a factory tour at any point in the future. A reader called Caroline recently needed to have some building work done on her home. 'Unfortunately, the external structure needed a bigger job than I had envisioned and more unfortunate again was the builder I initially asked to do the work.' [ How to find the right builder: check the Construction Industry Register Opens in new window ] She says he went missing in action and she ended up dealing directly with the steel manufacturer. 'Here is where my faith in humanity was restored. From my very first call to Keystone Lintels in Cookstown, wherein I advised them of my situation, they were exceptional. Aimee in customer service was always efficient and patiently kind. Their technical engineer, Paul, hearing of my plight, contacted me directly asking how they could be a part of the solution. They have gone above and beyond in addressing a problem that was not their issue. A woman called Terry was in touch to say she had 'the most positive experience dealing with the VHI in sorting out my upcoming renewal. I was not at all happy with the new quote for my health plan and the lady I spoke to went to extraordinary lengths to help find a plan to suit my budget,' she writes. 'I explained that I couldn't understand the complex range of plans on offer, I just wanted a very basic plan. The lady spent almost three-quarters of an hour clearly and in simple language finding me that plan, and making sure I was happy. No add-ons, or trying to make a sale, just giving me what I needed. So patient, customer service at its best.' Three cheers for staff at Dublin Bus. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien Catherine got in touch to share 'a very positive experience I had with Dublin Bus staff'. She notes that the company 'often gets a bad press with the phenomenon of the 'disappearing buses' and frequent talk of unpunctuality etc. However, I wanted to highlight our really positive experience recently.' Catherine's teenage daughter was travelling on the Number 40 bus late on a Tuesday from Lesson Street to Drumcondra. 'Unfortunately she left her new iPhone and ID card on the bus when she left the bus in Drumcondra. Cue panic all round. She managed to get the number of the bus depot from another bus driver. She called next morning without much hope or expectation. A friendly voice said they had the phone and to 'come on out'. So, the mother and daughter drove to the Harristown bus depot 'and she was met by a number of staff in the lost property department who had all the details of her phone and who were all friendly and very helpful. 'After some quick ID verification she emerged completely thrilled with her iPhone, her ID Card and some money (notes) that she had tucked into the back of the phone. Who says the age of honesty is dead? Three cheers for the driver of the Number 40, the brilliant staff in Harriston bus depot and for the honest person who handed in the phone.' [ Ireland's best and worst customer service: Guess which list Aer Lingus and Facebook are in Opens in new window ] We also heard from Donal from Sligo who noted that Pricewatch occasionally 'offer bouquets instead of brickbats and today I would like to nominate a company for a bouquet. For the past number of years my wife and I have travelled frequently by ferry between Ireland and France and Ireland and the UK. We travel exclusively with Stena ferries because their booking system is easy to navigate and if there are particular needs to be addressed there is a phone number.' He also says the 'telephone is always answered promptly by a person' and he adds that the 'personnel on the end of the phone have always been friendly, helpful and efficient.' He suggests that the 'same staff culture is also evident on board their ferries and at the ports. It is so refreshing to receive such welcome customer service with no sign of a bot. I would emphasise that the only connection we have with Stena is as satisfied customers.' Declan's tank took a little less than the 1,000 litres of home heating oil he'd ordered. Photograph: iStock Declan from Dublin mailed about a brief encounter with good customer service 'by way on contrast with so many of the other kind which we hear about'. He says he recently ordered 1,000 litres of home heating oil from Capital Oil/Local Fuels and paid €838 by credit card. 'However, the tank took a little less than that, costing about €18 less. This was shown on the docket left on delivery. I meant to send an email but did not get around to it for about a week. 'Doing a routine check on my account, I found that the difference had been credited back to it by Capitol Oil without any intervention from me, in contrast with the dozens of complaints you get about how difficult it is to get valid refunds from so many companies. Good customer relations or what?' Then there was Damian, who got in touch after coming back from 10 days in Spain where he had hired a car through National in Malaga. He had the basic insurance cover as he had an excess policy with AIG. He says that, to cut a long story short, half way through his holiday he had parked outside a supermarket when 'some kind soul in the same make parked beside me using the side panel of my car as a guide to park his'. He says this caused four small one-inch scrapes in the paintwork. 'Goodbye to my €1,700 excess with National, I thought, but upon my return and when I pointed them out to the agent in full disclosure mode, his response was we don't worry about small scratches like that. Now that is a great end to a holiday.' We also have a good news story about Eir. On Tuesday June 10th Peter reported two manhole covers and surrounding paving in disrepair in his housing estate in Wicklow. A week later they had been replaced and repaired. 'Fair dues to Eir and their contractors for fast and efficient service.' And finally there is Diarmuid, who bought a hand-held vacuum cleaner last November from Lidl at a cost of €25. 'I only got round to using it three weeks ago and found that it would not charge so I contacted Lidl . I also had lost the receipt. Today I received a new replacement model from the manufacturer in Germany.' As we were reading through all of these stories something struck us. They are all linked by a single thread. Soundness. Sometimes customer service is not that complicated and if businesses just made the decision to be sound or to empower their staff to be sound, then we would have a lot less to be giving out about on this page and our world would be a much better place.
