Latest news with #AngelaRyan
CBS News
5 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Inflation, tariff concerns push families to start back-to-school shopping early
Although inflation is cooling, President Trump's new tariff rates are threatening to drive prices higher. That could lead to higher prices on back-to-school essentials like backpacks. Concerns about prices and the overall economy are changing how parents shop. It isn't even the midpoint of summer break, but Andrea Cuneo of Bloomington has already tackled back to school shopping for her two kids. "Except for shoes, I'll let the kids pick out their shoes and then we're good to go," Cuneo said. According to a report by Coresight Research, 62% of shoppers say they'll begin back-to-school shopping before August, up over 8 percentage points from last year. Coresight's John Mercer say shoppers are seeking deals and value for money, while preempting tariff-driven price increases down the line. "Tariffs have gone up, even if deals are struck. The baseline of tariffs has gone up. More tariffs are due to come in on August 1, and the flow through to prices is really only going to be upward from tariffs," said Mercer. Angela Ryan of Otsego is focusing on comparison shopping. "I wanted to make sure I was getting the lowest price. With two kids, when you have to buy four sets of markers or four sets of crayons of my fifth-grader needs a special case for all of her stuff at school, I want to make sure I'm paying the lowest price," Ryan said. Cuneo is also saving money by assessing what they already have. "We try to reuse backpacks. I don't need a new one every year unless it's worn out," she said. Even with parents' financial concerns, Mercer expects back-to-school spending will be up 3.3% compared to last year. "We think higher income consumers will drive retail growth. We think low income consumers will be much more cautious. Low income consumers, some of them will be hit by changes to SNAP, to Medicaid. And higher income consumers stand to benefit the most from income tax gains from the 'big, beautiful bill,'" he said. Another reason for earlier back to school shopping is Amazon Prime Day. About 40% of Prime Day shoppers used it for those items this year.
Irish Independent
02-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
‘We're running out of road,' Uisce Éireann warns as Dublin's water system struggles to keep up with huge demand
Wastewater treatment works are meanwhile so stretched that the capacity to cater for new houses will be exhausted in just two or three years. The strains on the region's water and sewage systems were detailed for politicians at the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, where Uisce Éireann's asset strategy manager Angela Ryan warned: 'We're running out of road.' Ms Ryan told the committee that homes, businesses and services in the Dublin region used 643 million litres of water on Monday, but the supply was built to provide 620 million litres at most. She said the continued high demand was not sustainable without investment in new infrastructure. That meant getting the proposed Shannon-Dublin pipeline started, a project the committee heard would cost at least €4.6billion and take over four years to build if it got the final go-ahead. Until then, the supply situation would remain critical. We have a dependency on Ringsend Ms Ryan said there were similar constraints on the wastewater treatment side. 'We have a dependency on Ringsend [wastewater treatment plant]. We have upgraded it, but ultimately we have two to three years of growth left within it.' She said even that forecast depended on Uisce Éireann completing lots of small projects to try to ease pressure, such as by preventing groundwater infiltration in the system. 'We can get up to 2028/29, but that's where we run into difficulties,' she said. ADVERTISEMENT Fianna Fail's Seamus McGrath said: 'So we're never too far away from restrictions?' 'Agreed,' Ms Ryan replied. She added that money was being spent on these short-term works to prop up the system when it would be better spent on long-term solutions. The Greater Dublin Drainage Project – a new wastewater treatment plant and linked upgraded sewage network – was in planning and awaiting a decision, while a planning application would be submitted for the Shannon-Dublin pipeline by the end of this year. Both projects would have to await final approval from the Government, however, and Niall Gleeson, Uisce Éireann chief executive, said he was conscious that many agencies were seeking to get projects included in the National Development Plan, which is currently being reviewed. I can see them drifting to more attractive projects in the UK He said he was concerned about the impact of the uncertainty around future projects on the specialist contractors Uisce Éireann would need to build them. 'To me the biggest threat is the UK, which is investing £90 billion in water projects,' he said. 'If our supply chain doesn't see a guarantee of work, I can see them drifting to more attractive projects in the UK.' The condition of the water and sewage systems is of concern as the Government attempts to accelerate house building, with around 150,000 new homes hoped for in Dublin and the wider eastern region. The committee heard from ESB Networks that it too was facing difficulties meeting growing demand for electricity for new homes, expanding businesses, including the power-hungry data centre sector. Managing director Nicholas Tarrant said new homes needed enough power to run electric heat pumps and electric vehicles, which meant providing for double the capacity per unit compared to a house built a decade ago. He said that at the moment, north and west Dublin were key areas of concern, but a five-year funding plan had been submitted to the energy regulator late last year and it was hoped this would be approved soon to enable priority and urgent works to begin. Regional TDs and senators also spoke of their frustration at hold-ups in building homes due to lack of electricity and water infrastructure in smaller towns and villages. Several asked if developers could be allowed provide temporary wastewater treatment facilities so that construction could get under way. Mr Gleeson reminded the committee that this was allowed during the Celtic Tiger building boom and Uisce Éireann was still working its way through about 800 such facilities, trying to repair them and take them in charge. 'We have a lot of legacy issues from the last time developers were allow to put in developer provided infrastructure,' he said. He said the facilities were 'in various states of disrepair' and the job of fixing them was ultimately going to cost from €500m to €1bn. Uisce Éireann had submitted a five-year funding plan totalling €16.9bn for 2025-2029, comprising €10.3bn for capital investment and €6.6bn for day-to-day spending. That was to cater for a government target of 33,000 new homes per year, however, and since it was submitted, that target was increased to 50,000 annually. Uisce Éireann is seeking an additional €2bn to cover the extra expansion. ESB Networks meanwhile is looking for €13.4bn to cover the 2026-2030 period.
RTÉ News
12-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Changes needed to meet housing targets
The Government's target of building 50,000 homes a year is possible, but would require some change, not only in terms of financing but also regarding "key enablers", according to Uisce Éireann. Assets Strategy Manager with Uisce Éireann Angela Ryan said that they had contacted the Government late last year to say that it had sufficient funding to address just over 30,000 houses per year, but identified that additional funding would be needed if targets were to increase. "We will need more money, but we will also need some other key enablers in that space, so we will probably need a little bit of reform of planning, we probably need greater advocacy for infrastructure projects, we need greater support across government to go behind these initiatives," she said. "Also, there are some other capabilities that we need to address in the supply chain," she added. "Uisce Éireann are quite good and have a really, really good track record on delivering projects on time and on budget – we have the solutions, we have the capability, I think we just need those key enablers and some additional funding in that space." Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Ms Ryan said that projects needed to move through planning much quicker in order to deliver major infrastructure. "The Greater Dublin Drainage and the water supply project Eastern and Midlands region, if we don't get those projects moving it will be very difficult to sustain that level of housing ambition," she said. Plans for homes in jeopardy Amid reports that plans for 6,000 new homes in Dublin could be in jeopardy because of a lack of water and sewage infrastructure, she said that the Greater Dublin Drainage Project (GDDP) needs to be progressed. Dublin City Council wants to build the homes in Ballyboggan, but the Irish Times has reported that Uisce Éireann has warned the council that a lack of water and sewage capacity could threaten the development. Ms Ryan said that demand for water and wastewater treatment is "really high at present". "We've got a lot of growth within the system and also because the economy is doing quite well, there is a lot of commercial usage of water," she said. She said that there are plans in place to address the increase in demand, but there are cases where those projects are getting delayed, causing "significant issues". "Particularly on the wastewater side, the Greater Dublin Drainage Project is stuck in planning right now; we really need that project to be approved and we really need to start progressing that project so we can meet housing needs." She said that there is an integrated water services network in place to serve the wider and greater Dublin area and added that wastewater capacity is becoming an issue "specifically on the northside". "We have an existing wastewater treatment plant in Ringsend, but we also have some arterial sewers that lead into that treatment plant," she said. "We're starting to reach the hydraulic capacity of those sewers." Infrastructure needed to meet population growth Ms Ryan said that the GDDP involves a new wastewater treatment plant in the northside of Dublin, but also an orbital sewer which would take the pressure off arterial sewers within the city. "We need to get that progressed as quickly as possible, put in some local solutions such as pump stations, but we need to get that infrastructure in place so we can support the growth." She said that the planning permission for the GDDP was approved in November 2018 and attributed the six-year delay to an appeal made to the High Court on a number of grounds. "One of those grounds was upheld, it was just a procedural piece, some documentation between An Bórd Pleanála and the EPA, but what that has resulted in is significant delay to that project," "That project is still in the planning process six years later, we're hoping to get a decision on that over the coming months, but we really need to start progressing on with that project now." Ms Ryan added that infrastructure will be needed to address the demands of a growing population. "We're over-reliant on infrastructure that was built for this country when we had a population of 3.5 million people, we're now up to 5.1 million people, so we need to get those major projects progressing now."
