The Neil Prendeville Show | Cork's RedFM

00:00 Cook. If you don't wish to blame them, that's your prerogative. It's time to talk. Absolutely crazy, Neil. What went on after last? 00:06 Neil, my mother thinks you're a jemmy god. 00:09 My child is not worth the money. Where's your humanity? The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM. Where's the humanity of disgovernment? The Voice of Cook. 00:18 Be part of the conversation, the Neil Prendival Show with Elevate Credit Union. Pick up the phone, text 0868-104-106. Incidentally, if you have had issues with traffic or caught up this morning, do let us know the state of play out there because there's been mayhem all morning long. 00:35 You have an opportunity, you're stuck in traffic, you can even send a voice note. Same text line 0868 104 106, but on WhatsApp. So a crash outside Castle Martyr, killer, two cars and a truck. It's passable, but it's slowing stuff up. The south of Douglas Road, somebody was stuck there for a long time. like at least three quarters of an hour. I'm imagining it's still not clear. Thanks for that, Janice. The new inn area, Glanmire, a lot of people stuck there. Even up around the Fox and Hounds, it isn't moving. It's to do with, obviously, traffic, the volume of traffic. It also has to do with quite a number of crashes. 01:07 And on top of that, weather, like the westbound and the outside lane heading from Maham Point to Douglas and Carragher. Carragher line, there was two cars involved in a crash there this morning, and that resulted in lots of traffic back up. And eastbound queuing there. And you'll know if you're stuck in it. Oh, incidentally, I saw some videos as well. There's some pretty bad flooding in and around the South Terrace area. So bear that in mind. And then they got, was it six, seven, eight kilometre back up on the M8? That's what we know as the Dublin Road heading towards the tunnel. 01:37 All that stuff this morning. So bear all that in mind. Paperwise, both online and in print. And you heard Rory talking again. about the second Ireland-Israel match, and the fallout regarding it. Micheál Martin has come out now and says, don't be turning your attention or criticising the players. Actually, he said that Netanyahu couldn't give a toss whether Ireland play Israel or not. 02:01 And Ireland's withdrawal from Sunday's football match against Israel will do nothing to stop the genocide in Gaza, he's saying. But he's making many of the papers this morning, and I was reading it in The Sun today. He says he's urging people not to be targeting the boys in green. He's appealing to people not to focus on the players. There have been some campaigns that the players have been subjected to and have been appalling and unnecessary. But did you see? And I know I spoke yesterday morning about the chanting from the stands involving the Israeli supporters. And it just was not acceptable in any way, shape or form. 02:34 But interestingly, the mirror this morning is saying that one of those involved in it spoke at Leinster House and was invited to Leinster House, a man called Yusuf Haddad. He's the guy that leads the chant, IDF, IDF, IDF. And he's the guy saying, yeah, we lose in football, but you know what? We don't lose. The IDF, we always win. Israeli Defence Force. He's a former soldier himself. And he led the IDF chance at the Ireland-Israel match. He was previously invited into Leinster House. 03:05 So that story continues and will probably rattle on for at least another few days before they make some kind of a decision as to what exactly will happen next. You're talking about things rattling on or trying to make some kind of a decision. The Garvahi Road standoff continues. Now, the residents... The Coalition of Residents are lodging a new legal challenge to the parade as to whether or not it will be allowed. Well, it is allowed legally, but what do they think would happen, allowing it legally to happen and to march down the Garvahi Road? 03:36 So it makes the front of this morning's Irish Times with neither side ready to give way in any... way shape or form with regards to this drum creed march it's a front pager so if there are any updates with regards to that I'll come back to it throughout the course of the morning if you travelled up actually or perhaps you know somebody that has it'd be great to chat with them I know that for instance Tommy Gould was up there over the last 24 hours and hope to get to have a chat with them a little later on I think he's heading back to the Dáil at this stage. There's very alarming statistics that make many of the papers this morning with regards to particularly men, but not exclusively men's view to rape and allegations of rape and rape convictions as to what's believable or what isn't. 04:19 Like I saw it this morning in The Independent and also in this morning's Mail, where almost half of young Irish men believe that there are a lot of false rape allegations made in Ireland. It's quite detailed, actually. And there's also, you know, talk of victim blaming attitudes that are evident across the population as well, but particularly common among young men. So if you look at that story then making this morning's mail, they say two in five Irish men aged under the age of 25 believe victims are partly responsible for being raped if they were drinking alcohol or taking drugs. 04:54 I mean, that's quite alarming and quite worrying. Now, you could put that down to a bit of immaturity, if you like, but certainly that's an alarming thing to believe, that just because you were drinking alcohol or taking drugs, that you hold some responsibility for being raped. I mean, it's illogical if they sit down and try and just walk their minds through that kind of a thing. Two in five believe rape and sexual violence is exaggerated by the media. And there's even a statistic in this article for young women. Young women were more likely to think victims were partly to blame if they were drinking or taking drugs. 05:27 And that's young women. So it isn't necessarily young men thinking that. So that's very worrying. And it's a fairly extensive report, actually, with quite a lot of detail. You might want to Google it yourself at your leisure to look exactly at what maybe some young people believe. 05:42 And that nothing should be reported saying rape or using the terminology rape unless there is a guilty verdict. As in, you shouldn't say charged with or allegations of. Meanwhile, what can you do? Because we have politicians nationally that just don't seem to get it. And then we have councillors and we have city management and those that run Cork City Council. and also probably this will follow with Cork County Council, who just don't see how badly and how difficult families are finding it. 06:15 And to increase the local property tax, Because at this, you know, there's a rate that's struck nationally by the government and then the revenue enforce it. But did you know that city councils and county councils have an additional power to increase it themselves if needs be? And that's exactly what they've done. So like the Echo this morning and Cork Bio are talking about it online, where homeowners across Cork City face hikes in their local property tax. to the highest level ever recorded in Cork City. And that's not disrespectful to families struggling. 06:48 I don't know what is. They have just approved to increase the local property tax, which is already set by central government, by another 15%, right? Last year, they put it up by 12 and the year before by nine. So they're allowed to tinker with it. And why do they do it? Well, because they need the extra money for footpath repairs, traffic congestion, playgrounds and the possible hosting of the Flakyol Neherin, according to the chief executive officer, Valerie O'Sullivan. They have to find the money from somewhere. I would humbly suggest that they should be finding the money from central government and be given more funds from central government to run the city as best they can. 07:27 And if central government didn't waste so much of it, there would be some around then, which would mean that there wouldn't have to be. If you look at the increases year on year on year, they could actually, if they want, put it up by 25%. But it's all of these little tiny... Well, I shouldn't say tiny because they're not insignificant, but it's all these extras that, you know... You might take one or two in isolation and say, well, that's not a whole lot, 50 or 60 euro, whatever, 80 euro a year extra in LPT. But if you add everything else onto it, you're talking thousands and thousands. 07:59 And I will come back to that a little later. I'll give examples as to how much prices have increased for consumers just since the start of the year. But as another one makes the examiner this morning, it looks as if the old Cork prison has been saved as it is. This is my understanding of it because councillors have voted unanimously to add the old Cork prison to the register of protected national structures, which means that it can't be touched and it certainly can't be demolished if it's a national structure. The proposal was to build a big super prison, which probably would end up having the old prison demolished and rebuilt into a super prison where you'd have an extra, I don't know, 230 men and extra 100 female prisoners. 08:38 That can't happen, though. It just can't happen if this is a protected structure. So that put a bit of a stop to the gallop, isn't it? Imagine the people living up in the area and those that think that it should be protected as an historic building probably think this is a very good decision. And another decision, and I must say hats off to everybody at Knock Free and Knock Pogue Avenue because they continued all year long to... 09:03 stand together and, as they said themselves, fought tirelessly and never gave up with regards to protecting their beautiful avenue. The idea was to cut down all of the 22 trees, to knock them all. But, I mean, they're seeing a victory in this and I get that because they're confirming that 12 of the 22 trees originally proposed for felling will be saved. which means that 10 trees will be cut down as opposed to all of them, which was being proposed by Cork City Council. 09:34 So they were reporting online overnight that the Chessies will continue to be collected for years to come. It's a simple tradition, but it means so much to local families. And I spoke to a lot of people who love those trees. And the children love them, not just the Chessies, but looking out of them or having trees amongst their walkways and their footpaths. So they're saying we stood together, we never gave up and our voices were heard. So it's not a 100% win, but in fairness, it's a win nonetheless. And you know what you need to be very aware of? 10:05 Advertising and marketing and influencers who are marketing lots of products as being good for your health, they're all paid for it, right? So bear that in mind. Which magazine have just come out with yet another expose when it comes to supplements? Now, I know I've spoken in the past about multivitamins and different kind of vitamins and shelves and shelves of the stuff in all sorts of chemists and supermarkets. but a huge amount of them are absolutely useless. And you look at the witch magazine reviews and research year in, year out. 10:37 Many of these products are no better than fairy dust, to be honest with you. And if they have any kind of a little smattering of something that's good for your health, it's so little that it actually won't impact in a positive way at all. There's just not enough of the good stuff in it to make a difference. You've got to be really careful. But where they're honing in big time now is menopause and perimenopause products because expensive supplements claiming to tackle menopause symptoms are no more beneficial than taking maybe a reasonably decent multivitamin. 11:08 But yet, these supplements that a lot of women take, they sign up to and they have to take them every single month. That could be €110 a month, right? It should be €1,200 or €1,300 a year for, I suppose, menopause symptoms, perimenopause symptoms that are actually pretty much useless. It's called the menopause gold rush, where people spend hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of euros on products that that have no scientific evidence to actually be good for your health at all. It's quite worrying, actually. 11:39 And then for the things that you do buy, you all know that anything that was coming in already outside the EU has got a €3 charge per parcel. I have to tell you, according to The Independent this morning, that that is going up now. And it's great timing, isn't it? The run-up to Christmas. So any extra parcel that comes in from outside the EU... 11:58 any parcel at all, will now have an extra fiver on it. Five. It goes up from three to five. And it might be interesting to know that there were 53 million small parcels worth less than 150 euro imported into Ireland last year. Would I be right in saying that a lot of those would have been coming from China? Fantastic. 53 million small parcels. So each one of those now, if that continues this year, will have an extra fibre on it. And of course, all of that will be taken by the government to do with as they please. 12:29 Another man who wouldn't be bothered by anything like that, of course, is Mark Zuckerberg. You heard the story yesterday. I mean, he's... In fairness, it's a nice thing to do. But he's a billionaire, lads, right? And he's living down in Waterford now. He's got a castle, Strancali Castle. So he's a billionaire. He bought the castle for somewhere up to £30 million there in August. And he's divvying up £150,000 to three GAA clubs. Now, that's lovely, but forgive me. I have to make a confession. I actually thought when I read that, that he could have given 150 grand to each of the three clubs. 13:02 Never mind just giving 50, paid in 225,000 installments. I mean, it's a nice gesture, but he's a billionaire. It's very good anyway for the likes of Tallow, apparently, and Liz Moran and Shamrock's GAA. Fair play to them. They'll spend the money well. But even when Adam Clayton moves into his big, massive gaff down in Kinsale, I wonder if he'd do the same for Kinsale GAA and maybe... can sail rugby or whatever the case may be. And it's interesting to see that people are waiting and getting married later. 13:33 This is quite interesting and it makes the red tops this morning where one in four Irish newlyweds are 40 pluses. And if you look at the average age now of a couple getting married in Ireland, Have you got your seatbelt on? 38 and 36, as in the older partner's 38, the younger partner's 36. If you went back to the 70s, you'd be easily looking at maybe 25, 26, getting married, and even maybe into perhaps the 80s itself. And if you go back further into the 50s and 60s, it would have been like much, much younger, early 20s or late teens. 14:08 But now it's getting older and older. People are waiting longer to tie the knot. And if you have a few bob to spare, there's a couple and you, you know, love memorabilia. There's a couple of items that have come up on the market for sale. One of them is very interesting because I would have thought it would have gone for more. And that is the lyrics of Hey Jude. Don't ask me how they've come up on the market, who had them and where they were buried in a drawer or whatever. But the original working lyrics. for Paul McCartney's Hey Jude or an offer for half a million euro. 14:39 And I would have thought that people with really deep pockets who love, you know, musical memorabilia or things like that would pay quite a lot more than half a million, I would think. But anyway, what do I know? I mean, you look at one of the Gilmore guitars from Pink Floyd, I think the black one sold for like 10 million alone just for the guitar. So half a million for the lyrics of Hey Jude, if you're interested. And if you're a fan of Only Fools and Horses, I would have also thought this would have gone for more. Do you know the three-wheeler, which would also be known as the Reliant Regal Supervan? 15:12 The BBC apparently originally bought six of them for the series, Only Fools and Horses, but they only actually used the same one all of the time. So that now is on the market. 15:24 and is going up for auction for €46,000. You know it makes sense. But you would think it would go for more than that, particularly if it's in perfect working order. It never let them down, actually, and it's got all the logos of trotters, independent traders on the side. 15:40 And it's gone under the auction hammer for 46 grand. But there's an amazing story that makes the Telegraph today. Now, check this out. I mean, wouldn't it be an interesting thing to do? Not that I think I'd be ever able to do this, but there's a Japanese monk who is just about to cut himself off from the rest of the world for the next 12 years. He will be inside a locked mausoleum. Please don't ask me how they get food in and out. They might have shutters of doors. I don't know how that works, but he will have absolutely zero contact with anybody for 12 years. 16:12 He's completing one of the most exacting training regimes in the Buddhist faith. So Sogaku is going to be confined in a mausoleum where you put people when they die, in the capital of Japan and Kyoto. He will have no contact with any other people anywhere in the wide earthly world. He'll have no tech, nothing. 16:35 And he won't know anything about world events until he comes out on September 11th, 2038. 16:41 Can you imagine that? How the world will have changed? What will he be doing all day? Will he be reciting sutras? He'll be doing 3,000 prostations, which are boughs, I suppose, to the Buddha every day while chanting. And he'll only have a few hours sleep a night. Because with less sleep, it's believed that he'll be able to experience the vision of the Buddha. But, I mean, could you imagine? You hear the stories back in the day where like 5 and 10 and 15 years after the end of World War II, there were Japanese soldiers still coming out of the forests and the valleys and the mountains thinking the war was still on. 17:16 But imagine if you were locked away for 12 years and you came back into the world. What kind of changes? Be quite a surprise, I would think, don't you think? Having said that, only very few actually survive it. And apparently the training is so hard and the isolation is so hard that a number of monks have died of illness before the 12 years have passed. If you got sick in there, had a heart attack, got a disease, you die and nobody would know. Anyway, interesting story of isolation. Text 0868 104 106. 17:48 Text or WhatsApp Neil now. 0868 104 106. 17:53 The Neil Prenderville Show. 17:56 All right, stick with me if on a daily basis you're getting bills that you just can't pay or you're seeing everyone and anyone increasing. On top of everything else, in about five or six days, all of the energy suppliers are going to put up their rates again, 8% to 9% more. That would be on gas, that would be on electric, that would be on anything at all that heats your home. It could be home heating oil or whatever the case may be. Up it will go. In fact, by the end of the year, it probably would be fair to say at this stage that a litre of petrol will cost you in and around €2.30. And there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about that. 18:27 Then you see City Council. We have councillors there representing their own wards for some extraordinary reason, voting to increase the local property tax. Now, without overly confusing you, it's put very well in the echo this morning, the government sets the rate for the local property tax depending on the band you're in, right? Right. But councils then have an extra ability to increase it locally themselves, right? And that's what happened at the council meeting earlier in the week where the councillors voted to increase local property charges even higher again. 19:01 And you've got to wonder if they're reading the room or not. One of those that voted in favour actually was Fine Gael's Des Cahad. Des, good morning. 19:07 Good morning, Neil. What would have happened, say for instance, if you'd all voted no? You voted yes, but what would have happened if you'd voted no? 19:15 Yeah, and I suppose just to clarify, there was a 12% increase in place and has been in place for a number of years prior to the 11%. So we increased the 12% to 15%, which brings in the net roughly around 650,000 to 700,000 euros. 19:35 I know, no, no, no, no. 19:38 Hang on a second, hang on a second. In the last three years, you have increased the local property tax that the government set. You guys have increased it by 36%. 19:45 No, well, you can't do it in a cumulative way like that. Why can't I? 19:52 Wait, why can't I? 2024, you put it up by 9%, that stood. And prior to that, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then last year, 12, and this year, 15%. 20:02 Why do that at all when people are struggling? 20:08 Well, I suppose we have very limited ways of raising money. So in order for us to be able to do road estate resurfacing, tree grooming, all of which I will 100% agree should be coming out of bigger pots. They don't. And the cost of doing all of those have gone up. So the view this year was to go up 3%. The management wanted us to go to 20%. 20:27 We didn't. We went to 15. It'll still leave a gap between what they're saying we need to do for the additional works that we want to do around the city and in our parks and in our estates. 20:39 We weren't, you know, internally how it would work is that, you know, my group would have looked... We all didn't have the same figure when we went into the room where we compromised on 15. 20:47 The chief exec wanted 20. 20:51 Correct. And you settled on 15. 20:55 The majority of the council... 20:57 Correct, yeah, from 12, exactly. So while the management isn't happy either because they wanted 20, we felt that was too high. 21:08 And we thought a 3% increase to what you were paying would be manageable. For most cases, it works out at about 50 cent a week. But, you know, without that, we can't get the estates. I mean, I'm there for a while now. And there was times where we were getting two estates in my entire district done in the year. 21:27 What I mean by that is road resurfacing. 21:30 I know that. It's not so much that it's small amounts of money. It's everything on top of this. Mortgage repayments, energy costs, home heating oil, petrol, everything. There's research out this morning saying that we're into the first day of October tomorrow. And so far this year, People are paying an extra €2,141 that they don't have. They have to earn a lot more than that to get a net figure of €2,141 to be able to pay for the differences in diesel, petrol, energy costs, mortgages, when you add it all together. 22:07 So people are hurting. 22:09 It's time for council to say, we can't increase anything. People don't have it, not at this time. 22:17 I suppose the option was there to go back to zero rather than 15. And we could have said yes to that, but we would have had to say no to a huge amount of works that impact the residents directly. You know, and that's unfortunately the budget is done. A lot of what's done in the budget is stacked between others. We can't move the numbers around. 22:37 But they have zero local property. Dublin City Council have zero added to the local property tax. Why? In fact, some areas of Dublin have reduced it. 22:48 Yeah, because of the value of their houses, because of the amount of their houses, and because there's four local authorities in Dublin. 22:55 A lot of them, say Racketown, for instance, doesn't necessarily deal with the city centre where a lot of the costs would be. Hang on a second. No, but that's the answer, though. But they're in an area where there's a vast amount of houses with a very high value. So they're actually taking in far more than they need. I mean, there is an argument that it should be rebalanced around the country. It is to a certain level. But, you know, they're in the fortunate position, I suppose, of having excess funds. Whereas Cork City, which is probably the highest per capita, say, social stock, it's got a full city to deal with, it's got all sorts of other problems. 23:31 We, you know, we're not in the fortunate position of being able to give a discount. Of course we'd give a discount if we could. But you're comparing apples and oranges when you're comparing Rattstown and Cork City Council. 23:43 Some of them are actually giving money back on the LPG. 23:46 Yeah, well, Rattstown is one of those, exactly. And that's how they can do it. 23:50 Because they've got more expensive houses and they're making more money. 23:55 Correct. 23:57 It's really as simple as that, yeah. 23:58 Just hold on a second, because not everybody voted in favour of this. It looks very bad, actually, when people are struggling. And maybe that's one of the reasons why the independent councillor, Noel O'Flynn, voted against it. Noel, good morning. Noel, good morning, Neil. How are you? Okay, and why did you vote against it if they make an argument that the city can't function without increasing taxes? 24:19 I don't accept that at all, by the way. What we're doing here is picking off the vulnerable people again in Cork and Every year, ordinary working families are being asked to pay more for everything. More for groceries, more for electricity, more for heating, more for petrol, as you pointed out, more for diesel, more for insurance, more on mortgages and rents, and more on education and renting properties for young people who are attending education. And now, here we are again, where we're looking at increasing the property tax, which was voted on last night. 24:56 And mind you, may I say it was voted on by the pact and the pact are made up of Fine Gael, Fianna Fai, the Greens and Labour. And they're in this pact because they have agreed on the Mayorality for the five years. And therefore, part of that agreement is that you must vote for everything in the budget or any other subsequent budget. 25:19 You must vote for everything, regardless of any kind of debate or criticism or... To do with the budgets, to do with the budget. 25:29 And what I'm saying to you now... 25:31 So you're saying that... Is that right, Des? If you didn't agree with something, you would not be allowed to vote with your conscience? 25:41 No, that's not true. What happens is all the groups go away and they try to figure out their own position, as in their own group's position, because within that, not everyone will be in agreement either. What Noel is referring to is So you have the local property tax, and you have the budget, and you have the AGM. So those three votes have to be agreed that they have to be passed. If they're not passed, there's a problem. 26:10 But do you have to agree to every kind of budget item and every increase or anything to do with money? Do you all have to agree? 26:19 No. 26:19 Okay. No. Have you ever disagreed? 26:22 Don't let me explain it. You have to agree in a budget in totality. But the internals of that, no. I mean, that's what you negotiate and that's what you try to strike a balance with. 26:34 Yes, but if you look at this vote to increase the property tax, right, did everybody in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Greens and Labour all agree to that? 26:44 To my knowledge, yes. Okay. Well, why? Surely, be to God, some one of them in there would think... Well, there needs to be a pact. At least one of them would think... There has to be a pact where you have to follow the leader. Otherwise, some one of them would have said, listen, I can't vote for this, lad. It's not fair on people. 27:00 Well, there needs to be a practical approach to it equally. 27:02 And if you don't agree a budget, as Noel knows, the council is dissolved. 27:08 So it's very easy not to say, I don't want to agree with a budget... Do you think anyone who voted for an increase wanted an actual increase? No, but it was the only practical thing that we could do to ensure funding for the works that our constituents and neighbours want us to do. 27:24 You see, Neil, good morning, Des. Good morning, Des. You see, Neil, it is very easy for management to put up a menu of works to be done which affect councillors in their local areas. That's a tactical position always put forward. But what I'm saying to you here is that, and the question that people will be asking, Neil, what are we getting in return? 27:52 Are our roads better? Are our footpaths better? Are people seeing better local services? Are communities looking around? 28:04 The answer is yes to what? Our roads are appalling. 28:07 Our footpaths have resulted in many, many millions of compensation claims being paid out. 28:16 Two and a half million last year. 28:18 We have cycle lanes to beat the band. 28:21 I mean, people pay for any locals. If you drive any part of the city now, you will have seen roads recently done, but that's recently done. 28:29 Ten years ago, our budget for doing roads was minuscule. There was not, there was two, I was getting two estates in my entire district being done. There's now eight being done. and has been for the last year. The same with footpaths. There was no footpath repair budget. There was no traffic calming budget. They're all in place now. 28:47 Now, to put it in context... No, no, no, no. The question, as he says, is, are we getting return on our money? 28:54 The reasons for this are roads, footpaths, and services. 29:00 And parks, you know, parks, sports grants, et cetera, et cetera. All of those things have been increased over the last five years consistently. 29:10 I'm not quite sure people would see any of that as value for money if they look around them, to be honest with you. 29:16 And Neil, if I could just say there, look, Des, Des, just for a second there, look, Neil, we have a budget now next Tuesday, a national budget. And as you know, Neil, it's been leaking like a sieve. 29:30 All bits and pieces coming out. And I don't know if you remember, Neil, of course you do, probably. Phil Hogan was sacked in 1995 and when he was part of the finnegal labor and democratic left uh government sat for leaking things about the budget and here we have every single day now something being leaked and are the people going to be better off next tuesday i don't know but what i am going to tell you this is that the whole the public of this country are up in arms over the cost of living over inflation and, as I pointed out, the different areas. 30:07 And they're squares. 30:10 The Middle Ireland are being squares. Property owners now are being squares. And it just can't take it anymore. And that's the feedback I'm getting from local people. 30:22 Are they better off than they were five years ago? No, they're not. 30:26 No, because anything that the budget would offer, which is only crumbs, is taken away by other increases that we see on a daily and a weekly basis. 30:35 And a person came to me the other day and he said, Noel, I have a 50 euro note now here. But to me, I'm only getting value for 20 euros. 30:46 in so far as that, look, the money is going nowhere. Every day of the week, there's a serious problem. 30:51 And that's why... Neil, if I could, Neil, that's why I voted... For me, what happens is that I get called every week, like every other councillor, to do work for the city. OK, OK. You're getting calls from who, Desh? 31:06 From neighbours and constituents for tree pruning, for roads, for footpaths, for schools, for a myriad of things, all of which the costs have also gone up. 31:15 But you should be looking for more money from central funds, not passing on the bill to families and homes in Cork. Which we do. 31:26 And Neil, let's put it in perspective. It's 3% increase from last year. It's less than 50 cents a week. I know you can say I can spin it like that. It's still an increase. It is. But without that, half of the jobs that we would want to get done, we wouldn't be getting done. 31:43 Well, Neil, all I can say to you now, this was a small decision last night because it's going to raise, what is it, 766,000. But watch out now, Neil, for the budget meeting on the 23rd of November. 32:04 And I worry that there'll be a proposal coming forward to increase commercial rates. 32:11 And rumour has it already that there are people in City Hall promoting the idea of a 10% increase in commercial rates, which would destroy businesses in this city. 32:28 So just watch it. I know I'm not. I'm saying I'm hearing rumours of this. I can't be absolutely sure. 32:36 And would the pact then, that's maybe a question for Des, would the pact then agree to an increase in commercial rates and businesses? 32:42 No, I think the rumour that Nolan, I for one will never vote for 10% increase, by the way, no matter what. Why? Because it's too high. 32:50 Okay. So why would you vote then for local property tax increases to hurt Cork families? 32:56 Well, a 3% increase. This year? 32:59 It's a large difference from... Three years of increases. You keep putting it up. 33:04 Why would you vote for that if you wouldn't vote for... No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're doing it in a cumulative manner. No, I'm just curious. 33:10 Is it that Fine Gael are more interested in business than families and people? Which? 33:17 It was 11% for three years in a row. It was 12% for two years in a row. And now the proposal is for 15% in... 33:26 for three years in a row. That's only an incremental increase of 3%, Neil. So, you know, to go back to what Councillor Flynn is referring to, a draft budget was produced where the management had put in a figure of 10%. Yeah. 33:43 Which will never be vote, which will never be agreed. 33:45 Yeah. 33:46 So the budget will have to come back with a realistic number in it. But that's for another day. And as Noel said, these things shouldn't be leaking. But there was no leaking in the matter of the figures that they based their pre-budget on was only 10%, which will never happen. 34:01 Okay. All I know at the end of the day is it's that people and families are hurting and they continue to hurt. And that's the problem, you see. And it may only be small amounts of money, but it all adds up. And it's more about the optics, really, that people feel invisible. 34:14 And Neil, people listening to your programme now are saying today, enough is enough. We can't afford the food on our table. We have to decide between heating our home or eating food. And that's the reality of it for the vast majority of people now. 34:33 Very quickly, Neil, very quickly. It's important to say that they... City Council advertised the proposed local property tax and proposed increases to the public looking for responses back. Not a single response. Listen, I want to take umbrage to that. 34:48 Because I read that yesterday. That's like saying, well, it's your own fault. You didn't do anything about it. 34:53 No, no, no. No, hang on a second. That's not a nice thing to say. 34:55 No, hang on a second. I'm glad you made it because I saw that. And I said to myself, where was that advertised? That the public could actually have their opinion heard about this property taxing? Where? Where? 35:06 Yeah, my understanding is it's out of the newspapers. 35:10 You're understanding. 35:11 But hang on a second, did you see the ad? 35:14 No, I didn't. I didn't see the ad and I read nine newspapers every single day. Incidentally, this is a talk radio show in Cork City. Nobody sent me a press release saying that. 35:26 So for the chief executive to say we advertised it and we got zero responses, where was it advertised? 35:33 I was shocked to hear that as well because I certainly didn't see it. But as you know, the number of people now reading print newspapers is fewer and fewer every year and the right place to advertise anything. in my opinion now, would be on the local radio stations where people are tuned in. But Neil, but Neil, Watch out now for December. I know that Des brought up the 10% thing because watch out now for the budget. 36:05 I think I actually know you brought it up, but anyway, that's why. 36:07 Yeah, okay. Well, that's all very well. We'll cross that bridge when it comes to a text. 0868 104 106. Your thoughts are welcome. Maybe people can see reasoning behind it that if you want to get things done, you've got to pay more taxes. But come on, it's everywhere you turn now. Left, right and centre. Thank you to Des, Kyle. Thank you to Nola Flynn. Your thoughts are welcome. Pick up the phone 0818 104 106. 36:29 Get on to Prenderville now. 36:32 0818 104 106. 36:32 The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM. 36:36 Alrighty, Adam standing by. Frankie, Claire, Amy, all standing by. First up, Sheila. Sheila, good morning. 36:41 Good morning, me. 36:42 You have the floor. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. 36:45 The thing is, what about people on pensions? 36:50 So you're looking at about 300 a week, I suppose, to make everything pay, yeah? 36:55 Yeah, but you have to pay your property tax. Right? After owning your house and working for all your life, you have house insurance which go up also. You have the maintenance you have to get. Yet the council pays for council houses, okay? 37:09 Oh, incidentally, council houses are exempt from local property tax. 37:15 But my point also is... 37:17 The bank, people who have mortgages, it's the bank on the house, not the people. They shouldn't be paying the property tax until they get the deeds of their house. 37:26 Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's been said for years. A bit of a red herring, though, because banks would never vote for that. 37:33 I know, but they were talking about their roads as well. 37:36 Mind you, if you didn't pay a mortgage, they'd take it back because they say we own it. So you're right, you're right. 37:43 Yeah. But, I mean, I live in Douglas, like yourself, and the roads are shocking. 37:48 Pauling, they're just falling. 37:50 Even rents aren't marked. But isn't there a car tax for roads as far as I'm concerned? 37:56 Well, that actually all changed as well. It's not called motor tax anymore. It's deemed to be a carbon tax, CO2. It depends on the car or the size of the car. 38:05 They change it to suit themselves, Nick and Neil, I should say. Yeah, but I'm just saying, there's only 3%. 3% is left to a person on a pension. 38:15 Yeah, well, it's a 3%. No, it's only a 3% increase on last year. It's 15% higher than... 38:24 than the government rate that's been set, you know? So, like, say, for instance, it's probably fair to say that there are an awful lot of people in Cork living in a house that could be worth anywhere between 420 and, say, 630,000. In many areas of the city, a three-bedroom semi would be worth that, right? Would you agree? Right. Okay, so you're looking at a local property charge of just under €600 a year. 38:49 I mean, it's just an appalling tax. Yeah. 38:53 Yeah, and yet we're not getting, like, we'll get a rise in the budget. What I'm saying is they give it to one hand and take it back, like people in council houses. So we'll get maybe 10 euro or whatever, 750. Actually, the council takes it down. 39:05 How are you surviving? Is it one pension in the house? 39:09 No, we have myself and my husband. Thank God for that. 39:11 Yeah, so are you managing on that? Or do you ever think if it was just you on your own, what it would be like? 39:17 Well, we have a bit of savings. Thank God that we're using our savings. 39:21 So you're eating into savings. 39:23 We both worked all our life. 39:26 I worked since I was 13. I gave up when I had my children. My back to work again. My husband was a workaholic. He worked seven days a week. And this is what you get. And what they give you isn't worth it because, you know, someone on the dole, That someone who never worked all their life gets only 10 or 11 euro less. 39:43 Yeah, I went into that statistic yesterday. I don't know if you heard it. If you worked all of your life, there's only a tenner in the difference between working all of your life and never working at all. The pension difference is a tenner. So the people who never worked at all deserve to get a payment. I accept that because otherwise they'd starve. But people who worked all of their lives, 40 years, should get a lot more than 10 euro more than them. They should be getting hundreds more. 40:08 They should get the cost of living. 40:10 Everyone should be getting the cost of living in social welfare. 40:12 Have you noticed supermarket prices? 40:15 Oh, Neil, don't talk to me every week. Every week. And what bugs me then is, you know, get two, buy two or buy three for two. You know, that annoys me. Why don't they just reduce the one item? 40:27 Yeah, because if you're buying two for three, three for the price of two or whatever the case may be, that's a false economy. You're spending more again. 40:34 That's what I'm saying, you know. Well, I'd only do it now on just for cleaning stuff or stuff, shampoos and stuff like that that I'm using. You know what I mean? Because as you know yourself, they're all the expensive things. And I am a cleanaholic, so I'll use them things, you know. 40:50 Yeah, but you've had to cut back and budget without a doubt. 40:54 Oh, we shop nearly every day now, Neil, because we only buy as we go because we were throwing out so much food. 40:59 Yeah. 41:00 It was going off. 41:01 And do you have home heating oil or is it electric or gas? 41:05 Gas, gas, gas. 41:06 You're aware of increases on the 8th of October? 41:10 I know, I know. And to be honest with you, like, I'd be honest with you now, I haven't put on the heating yet. 41:15 Have you not? Are you cold though? 41:18 No, because we had our house insulation and it's roasted. I have to say, thank God. 41:22 There's a bit of a saving there. I wonder, are people holding off, though, from turning on the heating systems? Because it can be cold in the morning and cold at night. 41:31 Well, you know, we don't get up too early anymore now, so we're grand. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, and you could throw an old blanket over your feet by night when they get cold. So, yeah. I'm not saying we're paupers now for comfortable. 41:42 I know, I know. 41:43 But I'm talking about a person living out there on their own. 41:47 That's struggling. You know what I mean. 41:48 I do, 100%. Thanks for that, Sheila. Appreciate it. Text 0868 104 106. Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. Lots of calls after 10. 42:01 Be part of the conversation. The Neil Prent of a show with Elevate Credit Union. We have another giveaway for Saw Doctors. Tickets, they're playing Virgin Media Park Saturday, July 3rd. We have tickets to give away all week. The stunning are supporting in that gig. You're listening out for this piece of audio and I'll play it now and give it a spin again sometime between now and midday. Caller 9 wins tickets on 0818 104 106. This is what you're listening for. 42:25 We're the Joyce Country, Calevans. 42:32 Fair play to you. Keep it up. So listen out for that. Tickets on the way sometime between now and midday. To the phone lines we go. Frankie, good morning. 42:40 Morning, Neil. How are you? 42:40 Good. Pick up on the conversation from this morning. 42:44 Yeah, it's a disgrace. An absolute disgrace. I'm 29 years old. I moved home from the UK in 2024. Bought a house and now they went off the local property tax when people are shoved in as it is. 42:59 First of all, it's a local property tax that we shouldn't be paying anyway because it should be paid out of taxation, which is high enough as it is. OK. Yeah. 43:08 Yeah. We have two people working full time in our house with two kids under the age of five. We pay enough for our house. We pay enough for our mortgage. And they're doing this now. It's an absolute disgrace. And that councillor that was on earlier saying that, oh, it goes back into securities and the roads. No, it doesn't. I live in the Mayfield area. The roads, the footpaths are a disgrace. The potholes, the road markings, it's absolutely shocking. Not even a decent playground for children. to play in. 43:37 Yeah. If they needed the money for footpath maintenance, why are they paying out millions and millions of years for injuries from people who fell or were hurt on footpaths? 43:47 Exactly. The amount of people, the amount of nearly trips to Liverpool I've had nearly, it's an absolute disgrace. 43:54 Why are they paying out millions a year on damaged cars and wheels and tyres and suspensions if the roads are so great? Exactly. 44:01 Yeah, it's an absolute disgrace. And to hear that counsellor trying to justify it on the radio is actually so angering. 44:11 It's a disgrace. It's about not reading the room, isn't it? It looks awful that at a time when people are really, really struggling, more than, I can't remember a time actually in decades when people were hurting so much that there would be increasing things like this. 44:28 Exactly. Yeah, like, I mean, like, we're not well off. We have our house. We're comfortable enough. But we're still struggling with two full-time wages coming into the house. 44:37 Okay. And doing a vox pop there in the next couple of days, Seamus will be out asking people a very simple question. Do you have any savings? If so, how much and what are you saving for? Would you have any savings? Do you manage to put anything aside? 44:52 We do, we have a bit of savings. Now we do, we bought the house at the second hand house. We want to do some renovations to it. So down the line we'd be doing it up. It's like not near A grade kind of standard. But those savings we have to dip into on a regular basis. For shopping, is it? For shopping, bits and bobs, yeah. And that's with two full-time incomes every single week coming into the house. 45:19 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 45:20 Now, it's savings, but it's not a lot at all. Yeah. 45:24 Have you noticed prices then? I mean, you must have done. You certainly would with fuel, right, and things like that. But supermarket prices? 45:32 Yeah, shocking. Like my shopping before would have been, say... 100 to 120 a week for a family of four it's now gone well over 200 a week for the same items it's not as if you've changed no i wouldn't be wanting to go on big brands and all of that i the same items and they in the shops as well as a disgrace sometimes they say oh this is an offer buy two for three you you notice the difference the price hasn't changed in weeks they're just saying that it has you know, by two for three or this is half price when actually originally, say, a month or two ago, it was actually just that price normally. 46:09 Yeah, that's illegal if that's happening. The Consumer Protection Association would like to know more about that. You can't drop it to put it back up again, you know, or vice versa. Anyway, let me talk to Amy. Thank you, Frankie. Appreciate it. And good luck to you up in Mayfield. Amy, good morning. 46:25 Good morning, Neil. 46:26 Okay, so very interested at looking things through the perspective of a 20-something. Go ahead. 46:33 Yeah, so I'm 22. 46:36 I own a beauty salon and I have to say it's very hard at the moment. I don't own a house but I don't know will I ever own a house which is the most upsetting part about it because like it's like my boyfriend has a full-time wage coming in and I always think What happens if we ever want to have our own kids? Or what happens if I ever get sick and I can't go to work? There's nobody covering a wage for me. 47:06 if I did ever have my own house and everything like that, like his wage would not be enough to cover bills and would not be enough to cover mortgage and everything like that. 47:14 OK, so you have your own beauty salon at the age of 22. Congratulations on that, firstly. That's a big step for a young girl to be able to take and it's a brave move, so well done. 47:25 Do you pay yourself a wage? 47:29 I do, but to be honest, like the last couple of months, I probably owe myself money at this rate. 47:36 Um, I think just with the cost of diesel is the biggest thing for me because I have two locations. So I'm in Yall and I'm in Carrotool and between going, between, um, coming between the two of them, it's like my car costs 140 euro to fill this week. 47:53 Um, And like I said, I don't have a house, but I do like to do a bit of my own food shop at home and stuff like that, because obviously I do have my own liking to food. You want to eat right. 48:04 You want to eat well. 48:05 Yeah, exactly. 48:06 So your fuel bill is nearly seven and a half thousand a year. 48:13 Yeah, yeah. 48:14 Seven and a half grand just to get to and from your work locations. 48:19 Yeah. And then obviously on top of that, you have your insurance. And obviously with me being 22, my insurance is pretty high because I am a young driver. 48:27 How much is it? My insurance is about, you're talking 1400 a year. I have a full driver's license. I'm driving since I'm 17 and I have no penalty points. 48:38 Okay. So you're paying nearly nine grand a year in fuel and car insurance. 48:43 Yeah. Yeah. Now, luckily enough, my car is kind of not that old where my tax isn't expensive. So luckily enough, that's manageable. Like I said, I don't own a house, but I do have salon rent and obviously I have stock and everything like that. So it is like I have my step-mom and my dad. My dad is also self-employed. My brother, he's severely autistic. Some days it's impossible to get him to go to school and my step-mom still has to work. On top of that, it's very like, it's ridiculous. 49:16 So you're trying to cope really more than anything else, aren't you? 49:20 Yeah, yeah. It's very like... Like, I mean, as a 22-year-old, I thought because I dropped out of college when I was 18, it just didn't suit me at all. Like, I thought, obviously, my dad being self-employed, he's obviously a great mentor and things. But, like, I thought that I was going to have freedom. And I do have that. But, to be honest, I would rather know that I have a promised income coming in every week. Because there is weeks where I'm like... God, do I have to go and get another job? 49:50 Do I have to get a part time job because of that promised income coming in? So being self-employed, like I said, I can only imagine what it is like if I did have a mortgage on top of that. 50:04 You would like to have your own house, though. I mean, the whole idea is to be able to get your own home, right? 50:11 Oh, like, ideally, like, I would love to move out by this time next year, like, but that's, with the way things are going, that's not happening, like, at all. 50:20 Not with the price of property? 50:22 Absolutely not. 50:23 No, absolutely not. You'd need to be, like, you'd need £100,000 anyway just to get in the door of a bank, wouldn't you? 50:32 You would, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think then we received a leaflet. I don't know if you were talking about this. It said, be ready or something on the leaflet. We received that at home. And I was kind of thinking to myself, like, what is this about? Like, is something coming up? And COVID is obviously rampant again. 50:48 Oh, you're talking about in the case of an emergency, have food and water in the house and medicines and perishable foods and stuff. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of alarming, isn't it? 50:57 Kind of, yeah. Because I'm kind of just thinking of myself, obviously, like I said, If I'm out of work, like I can't afford to hire someone and obviously hiring someone isn't an option at the moment. So I'm just thinking if something does happen, again, I'm not able to pay myself. 51:12 Do you really believe, as you said in your text, you'd be better off on the dole? 51:17 I probably would be. Yeah, I would probably be better off like probably having a child. and probably waiting a couple of months to a year, I would probably be given a house or I would probably have better off, like, because you're promised money every week. I'm not promised money every week. 51:32 And do you know of people who do that, have children, get a council house, get promised money? 51:40 Like, I don't know, but I do know, like, of people that do have children that have, been given council houses in situations where they shouldn't have gotten one basically um and the house is just sitting there now and it's you know it's not fair because there's so many houses out there that are boarded up and then you have houses that are being made in this in the case of like eight nine months like here in caratool we have houses that have been literally made in a year less than a year they're going to be falling down in a couple of years like 52:15 Okay, let me get some texts and calls on the air. Look after yourself. Just listening to the story of the lady having her widow's pension taxed. That's atrocious. Also, with inheritance tax, you get penalised for having no children. If you leave a niece or a nephew or a sibling any inheritance, the tax fees are very high. Yet if you win the lotto, it's all tax-free. You've already paid tax on inheritance, yet winning the lotto just goes down to being lucky. Where's the fairness in that? The treatment of pensioners is awful, says Mary. €7.50 increase on the pension. A child gets more than that in pocket money. 52:47 €12 was promised on the programme for government, and it was €10 last year. It's even worse this year, says Mary. Des said he received calls from his constituents for tree trimming. Did any councillor receive calls for the trees to be cut down altogether in Knockpogue to make room for cycle lanes? What a farce, says Jason. Shame on the lot of them. Morning, Neil. I have a council house which is well looked after and I do pay a tax as part of my rent. Well, I don't know what tax that is, but I can tell you it's not a local property tax because council tenants, be it tenants, City or county do not pay local property tax. 53:25 You should all stop paying everything, every one of us. And it's so awful for young people now. They can't rent, they can't buy, they're sleeping in cars or sleeping in box rooms. They can't afford the petrol. How do they think that people are going to afford all of the different rises? 53:40 Everything is going up every week. I'm not sure how families are surviving at all. It's awful, really, says Marie. I'd say the extra local property tax is being used for the extra wide footpaths around the city and county. Please don't poke that bear. Don't get me going on the width of the footpaths and the cycle lanes, please. That guy voted to increase property tax to repair roads and footpaths. What are we paying road tax for? We're being fleeced left, right and centre of this country. Love the show, says John. Keep it up. Text 0868 104 106. 54:11 Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. We've got more after the break. 54:15 Get on to Prenderville now. 54:17 0818 104 106. The Neil Prenderville Show. 54:22 All righty, what are we paying property tax for? I rang the councillors to cut the grass in our area. Bellafihan got zero response. Morning, a flat-out joiner here in Manan Bridge. What a load of crap these councillors go on about. My local school in Tracton is waiting for a footpath for over 30 years. 54:38 In an estate in Lehen Amour since 2004, no council has taken it over in all those years. No grass cutting, no trees, no road sweepers, nothing. Sean says, this so-called advertising needs to be clarified by the CEO. The place it was advertised needs to be seen. Otherwise, the CEO is guilty of misleading the council and the public. Des is completely out of touch with reality, as is every councillor who voted to increase local property tax. Lisa, good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning. Good morning. You're fuming, it says. 55:09 Why? 55:10 I am. I'm fuming. I'm going to throw some figures at you firstly. And I'm nervous. 55:17 You're grand. It's just you and me. 55:18 Go for it. A basic salary for a TD is 119,467 euros. 55:30 They also get expenses for running their local offices. They get security. They get a car. They get so much that obviously I'm not going to go into everything. For local elected officials, they earn €79,000 a year. 55:51 Now, they're saying... 55:52 Okay, okay. Where'd you get the 79 grand? Do you mind me asking? 55:56 I'm telling you, I've done a little bit of Googling, just a little bit before I came on. Now, they said an average person here in Ireland earns 52,000 a year. That's the poll that you should do. 56:12 instead of asking people have their savings, ask what their average earnings are per year. 56:19 I can do that. And thank you for the suggestion. I can't guarantee the people will tell me, but we can make it a double. No, because the reason I was asking about savings is, In an ideal world, no, actually, in just a normal world, you would work, you would pay all of your bills, you would have money left over, you'd keep some for a rainy day, you'd have savings, and you'd, you know, that's just the normal way of running life. 56:43 Completely agree with you. 56:44 But I'm thinking, I'm hearing now people are not saving and they're dipping into savings just to keep things afloat. Absolutely. Okay. 56:52 Absolutely. It's recommended that you have a three-month emergency funds. So if someone is earning 52,000 euro a year, they should be able to save three months that if anything happens, anything went wrong, they have an emergency fund to keep them going for three months. 57:11 But on top of that, I'm talking about a credit union, a weekly plan. You're putting money away every week. You might need it for holidays or for Christmas. I'm just wondering, are people still managing to save now? 57:25 I'd say not many, to be completely honest. Anyway, to get back to what I was saying. 57:29 But your figure on council, give me that council figure again, the local council. 57:33 79,000 euro a year. 57:35 Because I have to say, I don't think that's right. 57:40 Okay, then obviously I'm open to correction. I was nervous coming on. 57:43 No, don't be nervous, but I'd love to know where you got the figure from because I just need to be fair. 57:50 Well, maybe ask. 57:53 It's more likely to be 35 to 40 grand, I would say, Lisa. I'm just saying, you know. Okay, okay, okay. Anyway, go ahead, go ahead. 58:03 I'm going to go ahead. Now, in the last budget, It was brought in that there would be a PRSI increase. That increase is taking effect as of tomorrow. Now, a previous caller to your show talked about the cost of food. 58:21 The cost of food is gone through the roof, even with the government saying that they're not going to take back the tax on or increase the tax on fuel. Fuel is gone through the roof. 58:35 I don't have the figures for inflation. 58:38 Another of your caller mentioned the leaflet that came in the drawer, be prepared. A lot of people are living week to week just about to cover their bills, their food, their fuel, and they don't have the extra to be prepared. 58:57 And obviously they don't have the extra to save. 59:03 How much do those booklets cost, I wonder? That's a good question. Telling people to keep a good supply of batteries in the house and keep lots of bottled water and have non-perishable foods in the case of an emergency. 59:18 And most of those went into the bin. And again, you're putting rubbish into your bin, which is costing you extra again. 59:27 You know, most things now are paid by weight. The cost of living is gone through the roof. And I think they're so out of touch with the normal person. 59:39 They are so, so I know they're saying it's only 30 euro a year. 59:44 But that's still a lot of money to a lot of people. 59:46 But everybody that puts up prices says that. It could be an energy supplier. It could be a supermarket. It could be VHI. It could be the Aussie. Well, it's tiny amounts now and you're getting great. But when you add all of it together, you're talking about, I believe the correct figure is one that Ema got me this morning. So far this year, people are having to find €2,141 extra that they didn't have to find in January. That's mortgage repayments, energy costs, home heating, I'm not including private health insurance. I'm not including school cost increases. 60:18 Just those basic, if you like, they're kind of like energy related costs, fuel, home heating oil. 60:24 And I'm throwing in the mortgage as well. 60:26 Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, speaking of energy costs, I was watching on the news recently about data centres and how much electricity the data centres use. Okay, they use what they use, but instead of putting up the costs for the regular, ordinary, struggling, working-class person... Why don't they hit the data centres with the increased cost? 60:51 You know that the huge, big, mega, massive companies get a much better rate. 100%. And you know that the data centres get a very, very cheap rate. And you know that you're supplementing that then? You're paying for it? 61:04 100%. Yeah. And that's all of these things that are wrong with this country. It's the ordinary working class person that's been hit the hardest. Verdue to that girl at 22 years of age with her own business. Oh my God, she's to be admired. 61:23 Yes, but she's worried all the time. 61:25 She's nervous and stressed all the time. Absolutely horrible. A girl of 22 years of age who should be looking forward to her future is worried if she'll be able to buy a property. 61:37 or meet her bills. So, like, this increase in local property tax, again, hitting the ordinary working class person the hardest. 61:47 Okay, thank you for that. You made great points, Lisa. They are so out of touch. Well done, well done. 61:51 They are so, so out of touch. I appreciate you coming on. Thanks for taking my call. 61:53 It's not easy. Well done. I appreciate it. You made a lot of sense. And, of course, if you're a member of the business community, wait till they have a snap at you when the commercial rates go up again. Is it any wonder, of course, that we're seeing so much vacancy inside in the city and many people migrating out to the suburbs or to the bigger shopping malls, the likes of Bishopstown or indeed, you know, you see Mahon Point is absolutely rocking and places like that. I'm a retailer in the city. Could I ask why there is no dedicated spaces save, for instance, for tour buses? 62:24 We saw it during the summer. Footfall way down. If you can recall before the summer, there was a discussion about this. Tour operators were on, explained that Cork City was taken off the route as buses had nowhere to park. That was on this here show. That was tour operators saying to me. They were mad keen to come into the city, but they couldn't do it. But then I saw them starting to park outside City Hall. So I said, well, at least that's happening, assuming the tourists spend money. Another operator couldn't drive past St. Finbar's Cathedral because some bright spark decided to narrow the road. How much did they spend on the Peace Park? 62:57 Well, if you're referencing Bishop Lucy Park, which isn't the Peace Park, that's a separate park closer to the Mall. If it's Bishop Lucy Park, 17 million. The city is dying a death. People are afraid to go into the city. Buildings look derelict. This is all from a retailer in the city now. Our city is dying. People are afraid to go into the city. Buildings look derelict. The price of parking is increases. How much money Cork City Council are spending on properties to cater for all the undocumented migrants coming into the city? This on top of all the other increases, tax, fuel, etc. 63:29 And that, I suppose, is not just from a citizen's perspective, but also from a retailer in Cork City. Keep them coming. Text 0868 104 106. Mickey, good morning. 63:40 Morning, Neil. Okay, so that's the property tax. I didn't even touch on the universal social charge. Maybe that's for another day. That was the temporary tax that was never to be temporary in the first place. But anyway, go ahead. I know that. 63:53 I actually have that down here on my North USC. 63:55 All right, go ahead. 63:57 I was in bed last night, Neil, and I was looking at the phone and this popped up and I couldn't sleep for hours. I was absolutely fuming. 64:07 What popped up, the property tax increase, is it? 64:10 Yes, the property tax. It's a disgrace. Now, I have to be honest with you. I've never agreed with it because I worked all my life, the best part of 50 years, 41 years in unpost, working sometimes, not exaggerating, 12, 14 hours a day. And that could go on for months. It was all overtime because you had to do it to pay your mortgage. It was very hard work, long hours. 64:33 And then I see this. with these clubs below in City Hall, who are getting, you were right, but you said after that lady earlier, they're getting down between $20,000 and $25,000 a year plus expenses. 64:47 But if there's a pact in there where Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Greens and Labour all have to agree together in advance, do you know that they keep the mayoral pact going, whereas, you know, like an independent now or say a SOC Dem or say, for instance, independent Ireland, they'll never be a mayor, you know, because the lads have it all kind of ring-fenced. 65:09 I know that. Now, I know you probably wouldn't agree with me here, but I don't know too much about the councillors. I did know one or two of them during my lifetime. And I'm not saying anything about them personally. I don't think they do much, to be honest with you, except draw maybe big money like the crowd above in Dahlia. Michael Martin is on the boat in a cab and taxing his buddies with him. He's flying all over the world in a private jet. And they're telling the ordinary work commandant used to be worried about carbon tax. So they couldn't. 65:39 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that. I've seen that jet. Have you seen that jet? If you think that's a Learjet or a small jet, it's not. It's massive. 65:48 Oh, I know that. It's massive. They're properising the ordinary work commandant, Neil. 65:53 And how are you coping now? You work 40 years and on post. You paid your house. Did you pay it off and everything? Mortgage done? 65:58 I did. I paid my own mortgage myself and my wife. Fair play. 66:03 I didn't get any council housing. That's another bug there with me. If the council tenants aren't paying property tax, is my tax that I'm paying still on my pension, which I'm retired now, is that going towards the council's payment of the property tax? 66:19 Well, all I know is the council tenants are exempt because they don't own their own property. 66:24 Yeah, but that means that my PAYE and my USC and yours and everybody else's is going towards their property tax, which the council is paying. Now, can they give us a breakdown of what they do with the money? Because as your previous caller said, there's roads in a terrible state. I can see nothing that they did. And this CEO below in City Hall, I read what she said last night, and I just couldn't sleep after reading this. 66:52 She tried to make out that they're doing fierce work altogether. 66:55 But why isn't there PAYE and USC money put towards all that? I paid tax all my life. 67:02 I couldn't escape it. If I could, I would have, to be honest. 67:05 How are you coping on a pension now? 67:09 How are you coping on a pension now? Sorry, did you say last week there that we gave something like a billion to Ukraine, a war that we are not involved in and we shouldn't be involved in? 67:22 Yeah, and unfortunately, one of the worries about that is if it's like 800 or 900 million heading for a billion, how much of it has been spent on armaments or towards war? 67:32 Of course, it's spent on armaments and they could have spent that on building houses for people here, couldn't they? 67:39 We have an awful lot of people coming into the country who seem to be getting houses very quick and they're not probably paying property tax because they're usually council houses. 67:49 Don't know. I'm waiting on a... Listen, just for people to know, and I can read out the questions if you wish, but we have a Freedom of Information request in with Cork City Council and Cork County Council to give us a complete breakdown with regards to housing lists, housing allocations, and countries of origin. So I'm expecting a response to that at some stage. Now, we'll have to see what they say. 68:10 Yeah, I heard you last week. Very good. Now, just one last thing, Neil, the cost of living, as you know, we all know, And I hear that lady there talking to you about the fuel we own is astronomical. 68:25 And then you have everything else on top of it. Somebody mentioned house insurance. We have all that, trying to maintain your house. 68:35 But how are you coping? How are you coping on a pension, Mickey? How are you coping? 68:40 I'm okay. I have a pension from one post. I haven't. I haven't, by the way, I haven't an old age pension because we didn't qualify. We didn't pay the stamp. We paid the stamp, but we didn't pay any stamp, which would qualify you for the old age pension. So I just have an occupational pension from one post. 68:57 Okay. 68:57 I haven't two pensions. 68:59 Why haven't you got a non-contributory pension then? 69:05 It's an occupational pension. No, I won't get an uncontributory. My pension is probably a bit too high for that. 69:12 Okay, okay, okay. 69:14 If I could get it, I'd take it. 69:15 Well, you'd be entitled to it. You'd pay tax all your life. Everything you get, you're entitled to. 40 years working. That's a fact. 69:21 Yeah, but they're screwing us with tax, Neil. All our life, they're screwing us with tax. 69:25 Okay, have a listen to this. 69:26 Thanks, Mickey. One quick story. I was in a pub one eight years ago. That's closed now. And I was talking to two friends. And I said to one of my friends... that I paid 10,000 tax last year, and he didn't believe me. Now, there was a lot of overtime involved, right? But 10,000 is a lot of tax for an ordinary working man paying for a house. I brought in my P60 the following week, and I assured him he couldn't believe it. 69:52 Why wouldn't he believe you? 69:52 He'd been screwed left, right and centre. 69:55 Was he not a working man, the guy you showed it to? 69:57 He was. He was an electrician. 69:59 Yeah. 70:00 He was paying his way, was he? 70:01 He had a lot of overtime in our job. But you had to do it because wages weren't great. 70:05 Yeah. Yeah. 70:07 And you had to do it when you bought a house. I'd love to have got a house off the council for nothing. I'd be delighted. But I went and bought my own house with my wife. 70:16 Well, I hope with the young, I know it's very difficult for the younger generation to contemplate ever being able to afford a mortgage because it's 500, 550, 600 now in many of the suburbs of Cork for a three bedroom, four bedroom house kind of thing. But just, you know, and I get that, I understand that, but I'm hoping that they realise that the generations that went before worked incredibly every single hour, took every single job, never turned down jobs, never turned down overtime, did everything that were asked to make extra money. 70:47 Now, I accept quality of life as work-life balance and all this kind of stuff. I just think it's a bit over the top, to be honest. But I hope that they realise that you have to work really, really hard. But To be honest with you, even if they do believe in working very, very hard, they still have one hand behind their back. I can remember the first house that I got. It was two and a half times my wages at the time. 71:10 I think it cost me 49 grand. 71:13 Now, I'm talking about years ago. I'm talking about the 80s. They had just come back from Canada. Could you imagine getting a house now for two and a half times your salary? One salary. Yeah. 71:26 I know, you wouldn't have hope. No, it's 10 to 12 times salary now. 71:32 And on top of that, I just remember there, I was reading there last year in some paper where we had millionaires in this country. 71:42 And I don't begrudge millionaires their money, by the way. I don't begrudge anybody who had money and who made money, fair play to them. But they don't pay any tax because the system is used to avoid this. 71:54 Well, yeah, I mean, in what way? 71:59 Somebody who's a millionaire, a multimillionaire, must have had to work damn hard to become that millionaire. 72:04 And I don't begrudging that I'm saying that, but still, if the ordinary worker man has to pay 30-40% in tax, why isn't the multimillionaire tax the same? 72:18 Yeah. 72:20 What avenues has he to get out of paying tax avoidance? 72:24 Is that what they call it, I think? Well, the idea is that you would have a company, right? And you would earn whatever money you earn and put it into your company and then draw whatever salary you need from it and pay the same rates of tax as everybody else. But the rest of the money, the big pile of it, stays in the company and you pay corporation tax on it, which is like 12%. So you're right there. 72:49 Yeah. It sits there and pays a lot less tax. Yeah. Okay. 72:53 All right. I just said they're throwing good money out to buy these governments and then Martin and the rest of them. 72:59 But does anybody believe that really that first priority has to be Ireland? And I get that we need to be somewhat generous sometimes in case of famine or destitution or whatever. But we seem to mind an awful lot of other countries' business, don't we? 73:16 We're full of goody two-shoes, Neil. And I agree with what you say. Famine and what have you, fair enough. Right now, let's call a spade a spade. There's an awful lot of people coming in here and they're far from hungry. 73:29 All you have to do is look, Alan. 73:30 Yeah, okay. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it. Thanks, Mickey. Here's an interesting thing just after the break, right? Actually, you know that, you know, your two and a half times salary by a house for 35, 40, 45 grand, say in the back end of the 80s. You wouldn't pay that. You'd pay that now in estate agent fees and solicitor's fees and stamp and all sorts of things, wouldn't you? 73:49 It's really changed. And I get that things have to increase and that's the way the money works, but not in the way that it has, not in the speed that it has, particularly in the last... 10 years or so. But after the break, I want to pay a piece of audio, right? It's the barrister, Tracey O'Mahony. I don't know, you might follow her on Instagram. She made some very interesting points and I have the audio for it. It's about why are TDs so out of touch with the ordinary man or woman? After the break. 74:14 The Neil Prendival Show on Red FM. 74:17 Conversation that matters. 74:20 Do you know how much TDs are paid in Ireland to represent you? I'll give you a second to guess, but I guarantee you're going to get it wrong. So let's start with the CAMCORLA, Verona Murphy, who is the chairperson of the Dáil. So Verona Murphy has paid a regular TD salary of £119,000 plus an additional allowance of £149,000 for being the CAMCORLA plus an overnight allowance of £14,000 plus a public representative allowance of £20,000. That's more than €300,000. The Taoiseach Micheál Martin has paid a regular TD salary of £119,000 plus an additional allowance of £136,000 for being the Taoiseach plus a public representative allowance of £16,000. 74:54 That's more than €270,000. The Taunishta Simon Harris has paid a regular TD salary of €119,000, plus an additional allowance of €117,000 for being the Taunishta, plus a public representative allowance of €16,000. That's more than €250,000. A cabinet minister like Helen McEntee has paid a regular TD salary of €119,000, plus an additional allowance of €97,000 for being a cabinet minister, plus a public representative allowance of €16,000. That's more than €230,000. 75:22 Now compare that to the salary of an average worker in this country who's on in or above 55,000. The politicians I just mentioned are costing you, the taxpayer, about five times the average salary and none of these figures include the following. 75:36 One, the cost of setting up their constituency office which they get 8,000 euro towards. Two, the cost of increasing security in their homes like building walls higher which they get another 25,000 euro towards. Three, Their use of state vehicles, which also comes with a driver, which cost the taxpayer 8 million euro last year. And four, the cost of their staff, which, for example, includes two paid assistants for every TD, costing another 120,000 per TD per year. Or in the case of a cabinet minister, they get up to 10 staff members, including two special advisors who alone cost the taxpayer another 260,000 per year per cabinet minister. 76:13 Then comes the pensions. So let's do a comparison with a nurse. A nurse on an average public sector wage bills about €440 of occupational pension in a year. 76:23 Now, that's not what they put in, that's what they billed. A cabinet minister bills around €8,000 in that same period. After 10 years, that's roughly €4,400 for a nurse versus €79,000 for a politician. So the politician's pension accrues about 18 times faster than that of a nurse using that calculation. So when you're wondering why these politicians are so out of touch with the ordinary man or woman, maybe it's because they earn five times your salary, 18 times your pension, have a staff of 10 people doing their jobs while they're being chauffeured around the country, and all the while telling you that they want nothing to do with a backward-looking idea of sovereignty. 77:00 I could be wrong. It's just a thought. 77:03 OK, that's fairly powerful, isn't it? That's Tracey O'Mahony on Instagram. There's a lot to take out of that, actually, you know, and many of those figures actually didn't include expenses and travels for a minister or for indeed even a Taoiseach or, you know, a Tawnish. The most highly paid person in the entire Dáil happens to be the Count Corlea. But one of the figures there is very interesting. She used a nurse, the average salary of a nurse. But if you take anybody's salary as being anywhere between, say, 45 or 55 grand, and some will be shouting at me, if you're lucky, then whatever pension contributions that are made, the TD's pension grows 18 times faster. 77:43 A TD's pension grows 18 times faster than a worker's pension. 18 times. Now, why is that acceptable? Why would they even think that... Why wouldn't somebody even within, say, our political structure say, that's wrong, that is not fair, that's not equitable to the people that we represent, that our pension should grow 18 times faster than a working man or woman? Anyway, listen, it's great to get a cross-section of calls this morning. It's even better, actually, that I'm getting many, many calls from a cross-section of age groups because you look at the 20-somethings that are listening or calling or, you know, trying to head off in their life because they've got a long life ahead of them. 78:20 It's great to get things from their perspective. Frankie, Amy, and now Adam. Adam, good morning. 78:26 Good morning. Okay, just pick up on the chat this morning as a 25-year-old. Yeah, so... 78:34 To be fair, I normally don't have about two pence and these kind of things, but I was listening to Smarnham work, and to hear the lad that was on my nose to agree with up into property taxes is ridiculous, first and foremost. I'm 25 with three kids, and I obviously did... I'll be young to have three kids, but at the same time, it's a struggle every day as it is. I'm lucky enough. I have a good job, but to take another two and a half grand a year on property tax is crazy, especially when I'm over the... 79:03 It's not on the property tax. What I'm saying is... 79:07 When you look at petrol or diesel or energy in a typical house or somebody paying a typical mortgage, right, and I'm not including all of the other payments and all of the other charges, just those alone since the start of the year, you now have to find about €2,200 extra. Now, that's before you even go into a supermarket. 79:30 Yeah, but even if you put that in perspective of what you get from work and to make that after tax, you're definitely over three and a half grand, three, two, to make two and a half grand extra, which you're not going to... 79:40 Correct, that's a net figure. So you have to earn about three and a half grand to make that figure work because you've paid tax on the... Yeah, you're spot on. But you're absolutely right in that regard. To be fair, I bought... 79:53 Lucky enough, when I was 21, going back three and a half years ago now, and I remember moving, even for shopping, it was 100 to 120 max. I've been 180 to 200 now every week for shopping. My mortgage has gone up because my three-year fixed term was up. So I'd be honest, if it wasn't for the kids, I'd be abroad working. It's not worth your wild working here. There's no money to be made. It's hard to... 80:16 save and try to do good in the future, even for the kids whilst they're struggling with this crap going on in the back, you know. 80:25 I mean, you've achieved so much at that young age though, Adam, haven't you? 80:27 In fairness, you know, you... To be fair, there's a lot of people that I went to school with that were older, younger, in the same situation and they can't get a house because when I bought, I was lucky enough that I was kind of just at the start of... the housing price going up but they're at a stage where they can't buy and they're too much for a council house and they're paying double what I'd pay in mortgage on rent yeah yeah yeah so you're stuck in the hearts when I see a lot of them that have friends just waiting to buy out their time because they can't afford it and they're all going to go away okay so they would be serving their time on the different trades and they plan and the plan is to qualify and just go Correct. 81:06 Correct. Even going back to my own trade, when I was first and second year, the money wasn't great. I remember walking in Apache delivering pizza and walking in the bar in the local club just so you could get a few quid every week to save up for the mortgage because I knew what was coming down to rent. 81:19 I'm so glad to hear that in one way is that the etiquette to work hard and not refuse work and do as much as you can hasn't gone. You know, I mean, you get it like, but what is your trade? 81:30 I'm a spark electrician. So you would absolutely, you would fly overseas, wouldn't you? 81:38 Definitely. Definitely. As I said, if I didn't have the kids, I have no doubt that myself and herself would be gone. 81:43 Okay. 81:44 No doubt. It's not, it's not, it doesn't make numbers meet her, you know, it doesn't make sense. Okay. 81:48 But just looking at it though, do you worry about your children if you do stay here though? 81:55 Definitely, because the way I look at that at the moment, it's out of the question to even save up to get a house in the future, to retire on, or even have a house for them when they grow up. Going by the looks of it now, they're going to be home until they're 30 or 40, easily. I can only imagine what the price of houses are going to be in 15, 20 years' time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are they ever going to come down, and then there's a budget coming out next week? What are they going to try to take off the working man next week? That's another problem, you know? 82:21 Well, the only times that they ever come down is when there's an absolute pure and utter economic collapse, right? And that happened. We know of that around about 2010. But they just climb again afterwards. They recover always. So you're never going to have a reset in the property market. Sure not. It's just going to go wild. 82:40 No, but even in my opinion, as you were saying with USC, once they introduce something and it's passed and there's not a fuss kicked up about it, it's going to stay there. There's no too much about it. I've only seen this last night myself on social media and I was kind of infuriated about it. My father actually called up and I had to chat with him. My father is retired. He's on pension and now he has to find somewhere where he has to get an extra two and a half grand a year. 83:05 You know? He'd want to be very careful about that because they'll tax his pension if they get wind of that. 83:10 Well, he's already getting taken out of his pension regardless, so it's all done, you know. He's getting his property tax taken out of it every month. 83:17 Yeah, but like if your dad's on a pension and he's going to struggle on the pension at, say, 300 a week, right, and he decides to get some extra work, they'll reduce his pension. 83:28 Yeah, and it's like... Where's he going to put an extra two and a half, three grand a year? 83:33 But they shouldn't be allowed to reduce his pension because that's his money. He spent 45 years earning that money. He should get his pension. 83:41 He gets nearly half his pension a month taken off him for property tax. And property tax, that's probably back there, to be fair. But at the same time, that's half a week, a month gone on property tax. 83:53 Do you think there's a lot of waste? I know in your text you saw all of this money that they're charging people and extra taxes is taking food off their kids' place. 84:00 I can't remember what his name is, but the lad that was on with Noel was saying that he's getting eight roads a year now after opening the tax... 84:08 Like, for instance, on Knockpock Avenue and Farron Ferris and stuff, they put in a cycle lane where there wasn't enough parking for schools as it was done by the Leatherworld. They put in cycle lanes where there wasn't parking as it was for the amenities that were there. It's unbelievable. 84:21 They're wasting money. 84:22 I'll be honest with you, I don't really see that many people driving bikes up the north. So why they're putting cycle lanes in where the roads aren't even up to scratch is beyond the job. 84:30 100%, I agree. Well done. Mind yourself, Adam. 84:32 If you're putting it somewhere else, you wouldn't be too angry about it, but for cycle lanes and roads that... aren't even being fixed properly is a nightmare. 84:41 Can't disagree with any of that, my friend. Thank you for taking the call. That's Adam. Appreciate it. Text 0868 104 106. Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. Yes, I knew that. When I brought up a figure of 45 to 55 grand, if you wanted to look at an average wage, texters already coming on board saying, I'd like to know how many people take home 55 grand a year. I'd say a lot of people don't earn it. Never mind. Take it home. Good point. Well made. Back after 11. Text 0868 104 106. 85:14 Be part of the conversation, the Neil Prendival Show with Elevate Credit Union, with tickets for the Saw Doctors to give away every day this week. And I'm just mentioning it again now, sometime between now and midday, I'll be opening the phone lines. I'll just be playing a little piece of audio, unannounced. Caller 9 wins two tickets for the Virgin Media Park gig for the Saw Doctors and the stunning... on July 3rd. So you're listening out for a little clip of a band that are going through a real resurgence at the moment. 40 years doing the business now and touring and gigging and still going strong. 85:45 We're the Joyce Country, Calevan. 85:52 Lovely, lovely part of the country, isn't it? Up around Joyce country. Meanwhile, speaking of people's names, a huge hello to Paul Desmond out in Musgrave, a state in Bellancolic. Delighted to hear that you tune into the show most mornings. Paul, welcome aboard. Thanks for your loyalty. Greetings to you and yours. Cheers for the years, as they say. Text 0868 104 106. We're still paying the universal social charge, which was originally a temporary emergency tax. For crying out loud, we're still paying VRT on cars. The VRT is a rebranding of a tariff that was originally brought in to protect the Irish car industry, an industry that no longer exists in Ireland. 86:31 We have no manufacturing of vehicles in Ireland that I know of, yet the tax remains, says Ritchie in Toker. Thank you for that. 86:40 Would you like me to... give you a list of taxes that we actually pay in this country. I'm happy to do that before quitting time. I mean, we stopped counting at 40, seriously, 40 different taxes. And some of them actually are ones that are blindingly obvious, but perhaps you've forgotten about. So more on that. Text 0868 104 106. Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. Remember... 87:06 Remember as COVID was in full flow, or as we say in Cork, Jimber when COVID was in full flow and the government kept proclaiming the country was flooded with savings and the people were holding lots of money. Well, they are doing a great job and pulling it back from us now. Years ago, my theory is years ago, a regular construction worker could afford a certain standard of house and your doctors and politicians could buy houses in more sought after locations. Well, since the Celtic Tiger and the boom in construction, it turns out that the average plumber or carpenter could buy a house next to a doctor or a politician. 87:39 And I think they are trying to create that gap between us yet again. Just my theory. Well, it's your theory. You're entitled to it. I've said it before, boy. I said it before. For a lot of people who are going to college doing all sorts of types of degrees and diplomas and masters. You got to ask yourself the question, is there a well-paid job at the end of it? If not, why are you doing it? 88:03 Look at the trades. And now... 88:06 except in the case of, you know, chatting with the lad there, he's 25, he's got three, I think he's a two, perhaps three young children, his own mortgage, that would have been Adam. So he's pinned to his collar, but he's got a young family. 88:17 But for many who say wouldn't have that type of commitment on board at that age, the world's their oyster with the trade, really and truly. And right up there, Right up there, but not exclusively. Electricians. Talking about young people, I'm an apprentice on €6.80 an hour. On top of my apprenticeship, I'm working two extra jobs. I'm working 80 hours a week, earning less than €600. So I'm not being lazy. It's the system that's against us. The government just doesn't care about young people. No, I would never call somebody who's working like you are lazy. 88:51 You're making... crap money now because you're an apprentice but i'm assuming you're looking forward to the time when you won't be and you can add a couple of zeros to whatever it is you're earning now of that you can be sure but i love the fact that the work ethic is there you're working two extra jobs you're working every hour you're turning down no work that's a great incentive and that's a great work ethic and it'll stand you in time believe me there are reams of more texts which i'll come back to throughout the course of the morning i'm Conscious of cause as well. So let's jump in. And Amaris is standing by Michael, Trish, Anthony, all of them. 89:23 First up, Aidan, good morning. 89:25 Good morning, Neil. OK, I'm good. So I'm going to plough through calls. 89:28 So off you go. You have points to make. 89:31 I was making a point that when you retire, you know, when you reduce your money anyway, because you've left the workforce, that between 65 and 66, which is the old age pension, you have to qualify for, with stamps so if you actually retire earlier if you get that lucky to get that opportunity the time over that you have to acquire stamps now if you go on and get social welfare which again for nine months which you would qualify for after that then they could be sending letters to go for a job so your retirement is gone 90:03 Hang on a second. My understanding was between 65 and 66, when you get nada, you can sign on the Dole for the year and get Dole until the pension kicks in. 90:15 Yes, but you have to qualify with stamps. 90:19 You don't have to go for a job between 65 and 66. You just get a payment. 90:24 But I'm thinking now as time goes on... 90:26 But most people who've worked all their lives, right, in fairness, would have the required amount of stamps. 90:33 up to including. Do you know the way you qualify for stamps if you have two years in the previous two years? I don't know what it is these ways. It's something like that. But on that one, if you retired at 62, there's a three-year period there that you have to acquire stamps. Yeah, that's different. If you're retiring early. 90:51 Yeah. You want to be careful doing that, though, with regards to getting value for money on your pension. You know, maybe people have a reason that they might want to retire early. Would it be health-related or whatever? 91:05 It could be. 91:06 But another thing, Neil, is there are a lot of people in the crash that would be coming available for for their pensions. They would have lost a lot of their pensions during that time. And I don't know what kind of funds they would have built up in the meantime, but that would be... taken into account as well. A gap. 91:25 Yeah, a gap. You know on the revenues website, you can get a print-off and a complete report on every single PRSI contribution you ever made. There's a particular number you have to hit, isn't there? That's correct. Is it 2,000 or 2,400? I don't know what it is. 91:42 Like that either, 2,000, yeah. 91:43 Yeah, so do you know that? Did you ever get that report? 91:47 Oh, I did. Yeah, and it goes right back to the first day you earned a first wage packet. 91:53 Yes, but the thing is, Neil, the catch in it is that if it was so many stamps, we said 2,300, and you have 2,000, it's reduced, then your old age pension is reduced by that margin, whatever the percentage would be. 92:07 Yeah, it is, it is, it is. 92:08 So you could be working hard for 35 years, not acquiring enough stamps, and then your pension would be reduced. So you were saying about people that might have worked all the time of their lives? 92:23 and still get the 288. 92:26 But that is means tested, right? But also, the thing is that the person that's They are entitled to that. So you can earn outside of that. That's actually yours. 92:40 No, I mean, maybe I wasn't making the point clearly enough. I'm not saying that somebody who has never worked a day in their life shouldn't get a payment. They starve otherwise. 92:51 No, I'm not saying you are. 92:52 What I'm saying is, no, I know that. But what I'm saying is the gap between them should be much, much wider in the sense that if somebody's worked 45 years, 93:01 of tax they shouldn't only get 10 euro more than if they'd never worked at all that's the point I was making I agree with you that's not fair like on a working man or woman you know but qualifications then Neil outside of that you know like your favourite the TV licence we say you have to wear that in over 70 before you're removed from that I think and then you have things like medical care if you still have family in the house it comes under means test So if your kids are going to be waiting to get a house and they're still with you, That's taken into account as well, so if you don't qualify. 93:37 All right. Thanks for that. Thanks, Hayden. Here's the list, right? These are the taxes, and we kind of stopped at 40. Car tax, car insurance, government levy, property tax, household charge, USC, PRSI, POIE, carbon tax, pension levy, household insurance, government levy, utility bill, government levy, NCT charge, plastic bag levy. Incidentally, I was charged 90 cent for a plastic bag, and Aldi, the weekend, I nearly collapsed. 90 cent for a plastic bag. 94:04 Credit card levy, VAT, customs tax on alcohol, customs tax on cigarettes, broadcasting charges, septic tank charges, toll charges, bin charges, 70% tax on excise on petrol and diesel, inheritance tax, deposit interest retention tax, dirt on money you worked hard to save, hospital admission charges. They send the bailiffs after you. If you don't pay it, it's €100 if you go to the A&E. Passport charge, fire brigade charge for a call out, school charges, third level registration fees, health insurance levy, VRT. I don't get started on that one. 94:36 Driving license charges, voluntary in inverted commas, school contributions for free education, stamp duty, airport tax, junior cert, leaving cert charges, back to education, government levies. I'm quite sure I've missed a lot there, but there's 40 for you to be getting on with all day long. Yeah, there are two different plastic bags there. One is 90 and the other is 70 for a plastic bag. 70. Now, a plastic bag is about maybe a cent to manufacture, right? How much does the government take from the likes of Aldi and Lidl with regards to the environment charge on that plastic bag? 95:15 Is it 5 cent? 95:16 Is it 20 cent? 95:18 OK, so why? OK, so it'd be good to know the figure on the plastic bag that goes to the state because a regular bag, which isn't a whole lot of messages, is 70 cent. 95:30 Yeah. 95:31 I mean, what's that about? 95:32 It's crazy. And especially if you're someone like me who has 7,000 bags for life at home and keeps forgetting. Yeah, but... Oh, you're my husband. It's so annoying. 95:41 We all have cupboards under the stair full of plastic bags, but we don't always have one. 95:45 They really are bags for life. LAUGHTER Stay with me. You need a big bag of them in your car. I'm yet to find out, though. Do Dunn's charge for the paper bags? Because I go to the self-service checkout and I take a bag and I'm not sure whether I'm actually loving it. No, they don't. 96:02 They don't. Why do shops, retail shops, charge you to put a shirt into a brown paper bag? 96:09 I know. 15 cents in Zara. 96:12 Why? 96:13 Because they all started doing it and we allowed it to happen. 96:17 It's biodegradable. 96:18 Yeah, I actually saw a guy going out of, what shop was it, Bershka, during the week. And he had whatever he bought still on the hanger. It was like a coat or something. 96:27 No bag or anything. He just walked out. 96:29 But the girl in the shop ran after him. I should have stayed for a nose as to why. But she wasn't happy with the fact that he'd obviously paid for it, walked out. It did look funny already. He had a big trench coat on a hanger walking out of the shop. 96:40 It's mad stuff. OK, let me find out what the actual levy to the state is with regards to the cost on that plastic bag. And we'll come back to it in a few minutes. Trish, good morning. 96:51 You're very good for holding. Now, usually I'd be talking to you from your residence in the United Kingdom. 96:58 That's another story for another day. I hear you're all mad keen to rejoin Brexit, according to your new prime minister. We'll be welcoming you all back. 97:08 Don't get me started on him, OK? Because I'm in holiday mode. 97:13 Where are you? Are you on the island of Menorca? 97:16 We are, yeah. We are. It's fabulous. It's so hot. And there's people, there's three people in the pool. And it's the type of place, there's no fight for sunbeds. Everyone's got their own patio and you just walk out into the pool. 97:33 You don't have to get up at six in the morning to put down a towel or anything, no? 97:38 Sorry? 97:39 You're not getting up at six in the morning then to put down a towel? 97:43 No, no, it's not one of those places. No, no, no, no, no. 97:46 So I'm glad you're enjoying it, but thank you for listening while you're there. But talk to me about our conversations this morning with direct and hidden taxation. 97:56 Yeah, I just made the point that you... What did they say? The increase per annum is going up to €700 a year for property tax. Is that right? No. 98:07 I mean, I'm giving an average cost on a property in Ireland being anywhere between... An average three bedrooms. Yeah, I mean, you could say 450 to 600,000. Do you know what I mean? 98:19 Yeah, 2,600 we pay. 98:22 Okay, that's mad. I know. 98:25 And don't ask me what we... Okay, we get our bins and... 98:30 If you have like social care comes under that. What's that mean? So say somebody needs to be cared for at home and they need adaptations to your house, you know, rails and maybe the bathroom change and stuff like that. That all comes on. Nappies. We get nappies for our daughter. 98:53 Stuff that you need to care for somebody at home, say a motorized bed and stuff. That sort of thing. So that's social care. That's the big one. And then the mayor, he increases his portion every year because, you know, he needs a new car. 99:12 So an average Londoner then would have the equivalent of a local property tax of 2,600 a year. 99:22 Does anybody kick up about that? 99:25 No, because we've always paid it. We've always paid it. It's just it goes up every year because they put it down to social care. And I understand people do need, you know, caring for in their home and things doing in their home. And it's better if somebody is at home. And that's a great thing. But it's not. And it's not going on fixing the craters that are in the road or things. You know, cleaning the streets, you know, the man that goes around. The only time you see a street sweeper is when local elections are on. 99:57 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 99:59 You know, it's that sort of thing. They take the pee and... You'd get the bailiffs if you didn't pay it. You know, you'd be on can't pay, take it away. 100:07 Yeah. It's an interesting stat, actually, at the weekend. And maybe this is accentuating Ireland from a positive perspective sometimes, because I know students here want to get rid of all fees for a third level education. You know what I'm saying? Like it's I think it's forgive me now. I need to get these these numbers right. I think it's is it is it is it 1500 twice a year? I think is what's paid. Whereas I saw a report in the UK saying an average student in the UK has to pay 20,000 sterling per year towards their college education and take out a loan to do it. 100:43 I thought it was nine. I thought it was nine. So it's obviously gone up because when my niece went to Winchester, is that nine twice a year? 100:54 No, nine overall. I know she paid. 100:57 She was at Winchester. But then you do have to take out a student loan. But then there's a ceiling that you have to... 101:07 If you start earning 60 grand or more, then you start paying it back. Otherwise, there's some rule to it or something. I'm not a million percent certain on it. But I do know that if you've got... unemployed parents, not people who are on disability or any other thing, but mum and dad or dad or mum or mum and mum, dad and dad, who can't be bothered to get out of bed in the morning and have children, Andy Burnham will pay those parents four grand a year for their son or daughter to start an apprenticeship. 101:42 Is that not a good thing? 101:45 Really? So you give up everything, sit on your ass all day, do nothing, you get four grand? 101:51 No, it's the parents that have been sitting on their ass. 101:53 Yeah, they're the ones. No, they get the four grand, not the kid. 101:58 They get the four grand to go towards an apprentice. 102:01 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. To reward them for having a child and pushing that child to do an apprenticeship so they don't end up like him. 102:10 Okay, so they have to pay them to force their children to do something with their life. 102:15 Yeah. Yeah, so they don't end up like the parents. They don't end up like the parents. But, you know, we'll have another election, won't we? And we'll back to one again, you know. 102:26 All right. 102:27 Will I go back to my sunbed now? 102:28 And your sun cream. And stay hydrated. 102:32 Oh, definitely. Plenty of ice water. 102:37 Enjoy Menorca. Trish in the UK. Text 0868104106. The bags for life, right? Ireland charges a 22 cent environmental levy on most plastic shopping bags at retail points of sale. So 22 cent is the charge to the shop. 102:54 Now, I am assuming at this stage that all supermarket chains are actually paying that levy. There was a time when some were holding out. I'm assuming they're all paying it. So why then would, say, for instance, a fairly regular plastic bag in Aldi be charged, well, people be charged 70 cents for that plastic bag when they're only returning 22 cents of it to the state as an environmental levy? I don't know. There's just been another crash this morning. It's been a bad one this morning with regards to traffic and crashes and also to carry on. 103:26 It's been a crash on the Kinsale Road roundabout. A truck just crashed into the side of a car. Avoid the area. Much of the time there. has to do, I think, with people not understanding what the lanes in a roundabout are always, what are about. And I mean, I don't know that this is the case here, but usually it has to do with lane movement or people jumping lanes or finding that they're in the wrong lane. Text 0868104106. You are wrong about council houses not paying local property tax. The people living in them don't pay it, but the local authorities foot the bill for these houses. 103:57 So realistically, people who have mortgages and are trying to purchase their homes will be forever paying their LPT and a bit extra for social housing. It's unfair. That's what's happening. We all want people to get housed, but we've been asked to pay for this as well. 104:11 Yeah, well, I mean, the taxpayer will have to pay it if people in local council houses don't. I'm not wrong about council houses not paying LPT. People in a council house, a tenant of a council house doesn't pay LPT. 104:25 But you are right when you say others then who pay and have mortgages and pay LPT are also paying the LPT for those that don't. Regarding the property tax increase, social housing residents will have to pay, will not have to pay tax on a substantially discounted rent. Yet retired pensioners who've worked all their lives to pay for a roof over their head must pay. Doesn't make sense. Pensioners and retired citizens should not be paying this tax full stop. And then you've got a lot of different, if the country's If a country as small as Ireland can send billions to Ukraine or anywhere else for that matter, we're paying way too much tax, says John in Skibbereen. 105:03 Well, the country is awash with money and the tax take and the tax returns year in, year out surprise even the politicians. 105:12 And maybe they just get so much, they get into a panic and they spend it all wrong. Text 0868-104-106 after the break. 105:19 Get on to Prenderville. 105:21 Text or WhatsApp Neil now. 0868 104 106. 105:26 The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM. 105:29 There's been a point that was made this morning with regards to tour buses across the city and not being able to stop in Corks and Overtham Park or what have you. Can sail as the beginning or the first stop on the Wild Atlantic Way, right? 105:39 Yeah. 105:40 Any time I was in town over the summer in Kinsale, there were so many tour buses parked down the pier and the lower road. So many of them. These were all of the tour buses that couldn't stop in Cork City because they had no dedicated parking. The only buses that can park on the quays in the city were West Cork Connect and all of the bus airing coaches. You're absolutely right. And it's interesting to know where many of them went when they couldn't stop in Cork City. They went down to Kinsale. Keep them coming. Text 0868 104 106. Anthony, good morning. 106:08 Good morning, Neil. OK, so just on all of the things that we get for our money with regards to Cork City Council or indeed Cork County Council. And a lot of it, they say, is providing services and getting things done. Go ahead. 106:23 Are you still with me? Yeah, go ahead. 106:25 Getting services done. 106:28 I have a carer there for a lady there. And her bathroom upstairs is leaking. She kept... 106:36 phoning them, and all she's getting off them is, oh, we log it there, we pass on the call, we pass on the call, no, this lady's in a wheelchair, and what do you call it? 106:49 They're actually doing nothing to the houses. 106:53 Like, I rang in there about my own place there for wheelchair spaces there. 106:58 Oh, you have adequate spaces there, there's two spaces there, but only one car can park inside and there's two wheelchair spaces. 107:06 So they're not doing anything about that either. 107:09 Well, listen, I'm not picking up on much here, apart from that there are two wheelchair spaces, which would be extra wide, surely, no? 107:18 No, these two spaces are squeezed into one space. 107:21 Ah, well, that's not a wheelchair space then. No, I'd have been onto numerous TDEs and what have you, and they just said, oh, we'll start it off, yeah. 107:30 Okay, so the elderly person has got, is in a council house, is it? 107:34 But she's not elderly, she's only 47. 107:37 Okay, okay, you're a carer, yeah, okay. 107:41 And she's a tenant of city council? 107:43 Exactly. 107:44 No, she's after reporting this for the last four months. 107:48 And all she's getting when she rings in, yeah, we take your name and your phone number there and we log it in there. 107:54 And we get someone onto this. Yeah. Four months later, it's still there. She was only on the phone there again the other day. And she got the same thing. Yeah, we log that there. 108:04 And does she say, but actually, no, I've called numerous times and you keep on logging it and nothing has done? Yeah. 108:10 Okay. The woman on the phone actually turned around and said, yeah, we can see it there, that you're ringing there all the time about us. 108:17 You know there's a work to rule now at Cork City Council staff. We're on a work to rule. Starting from today, it means that they only do... 108:26 I was going to say the minimum, but they don't do anything extra. They work strictly to the hours that they're rostered, and they won't do any overtime now, and they won't cover other people's jobs or their duties. You know what work to rule is? 108:39 Yeah, well, they do little. 108:44 Well, that's a generalisation, you know. 108:48 Yeah, so I rang another day there. The sewer pipe out the rack was blocked. It meant that she couldn't flush the toilet or anything. It was coming up out in the back. And the lads came up, looked at it. Oh, that's not our department at all, he says. We're running for outside the gate, he says. 109:08 We can't do nothing with that. I had to ring the fire brigade. But they could have done the work, though, could they? They could. These fellas were running for out on the means, on the street. I had to ring the fire brigade. The fire brigade management, the coordinator, and the coordinator sent out other lads. 109:25 And they said more or less the same thing. 109:28 That we can't do that at all. 109:31 We can't use our equipment on that at all. They'll probably get that said. 109:35 Which is probably right, right? 109:38 Okay. They do nothing. Well, that's one example of you caring for a person and nothing gets done. So you could multiply that up by lots of others where nothing gets done either, I suppose. 109:49 Oh, yes. If you've got on to any of the care assistants, they're They like to be there or they hate to see home health care. 109:59 They tell their stories. They're about hostels. They're about to shock you. 110:04 The council aren't doing anything about it. 110:06 Which they're obliged to do because they're the landlords. Yeah, absolutely. Exactly. Okay. All right. Thanks, Anthony. John, good morning. 110:12 Morning, Neil. There's 18 pages here in front of me on a site called publicpurse.ie of which Cork City Council have contracted payments to. 18 pages of private companies that are contracted to do the work for Cork City Council. And it runs to many, many, many tens of millions on an annual basis. 110:31 But anyway, go ahead. 110:32 Go ahead. 110:32 Go ahead. 110:33 Well, the most viral word that we're hearing at every radio station, particularly here in Cot, is tax. It's only got three letters, but it certainly sounds like a four-letter word, you know? Yeah, well put. So... 110:47 So we have a situation where people... I brought this up with you before. People are paying property tax on properties that they don't own. They're owned by the banks and they're owned by the lending institutions. Why doesn't somebody challenge that then in a high... Yeah, well, this is what I want to get on to about because... In the climate that we're in now, with the wages that they've gone stagnant, people are not going to be able to pay their mortgages. And you have barristers going in on behalf of the lending organizations and saying, George, we have the right to take back this is our property. 111:22 So if they're admitting in court that they're taking back the property because there's deals, why isn't there property when there's a bill on it? Yeah, yeah. 111:30 Well, you're right, really. And I think it would be one if it were challenged, because if you are in a home that you're paying a mortgage that the banks say they own, then you're only a tenant until you've paid it all off, right? 111:44 Absolutely correct. 111:45 If you're in a home that's owned by Cork City Council, you are also a tenant, right? Right. 111:51 That's correct. 111:51 And Cork City Council paid the LPT, which means that logic dictates that the bank should pay it. 111:57 Yeah, but the city council and the county council, they are using the money that they gathered up from the taxpayers through central funding that you've paid because you're paying for your property. 112:08 I mean, do we all agree that we have to pay tax? That's fine. That's absolutely fine. If you felt that you got value for money or if you felt that everything that you needed in your life was provided for, but nothing actually is. Name one thing that you get from paying your taxation that's a benefit to you personally. 112:26 Well, I'd never got a letter from the Red News saying, thanks very much, John. 112:32 You'd get a letter if you didn't pay them, though. 112:36 Oh, you would. Oh, absolutely. And there'd be a lot of red on it as well. 112:40 No, we have a situation. 112:41 I suppose the only thing that we can say because people fought that isn't charged for right now is water. 112:50 yeah we came out of the staff then we put our foot down but you see that was always getting paid through general taxation no but like if you go to a hospital 113:01 you have to pay, right? Go to the A&E with your arm hanging off or whatever the case may be, they look for €100, they send the debt collector. So if you send a child to school, you have to pay, right? If you want... So we don't have a public health system that works, so people might have private health insurance. Not that it's a whole lot better. So you have to pay for that. 113:21 Sorry, but you have a situation out at the moment there... that you just read out about the council workers are working to rule because of overtime. But you see, there is no incentive for anybody to work overtime if you're paying their tax through the councils on it. There should be a ceiling on it that you should be earned, left earned maybe about 10,000 euros before you pay any tax on it. The same as Trump done in America. He's encouraged people to work overtime and stay on their job in the evening and whatever and the weekends and whatever. 113:54 We need something like that here. Now, the government don't give me anything for nothing because you've actually worked for the money. It's your money, but you're not paying taxes up to 10,000. 114:04 Do you know that a minister's pension grows 18 times faster than a private worker's? 114:09 I'm well in doubt about it. Listen, you could get a nosebleed in thinking what they are up to with the money that they're drawing. 114:18 Anyway, so there's a city council that got on to me. He says, I work with Cork City Council. The management are no good for the working man. They are taking all overtime and allowances off us. And from today, we are on a work to rule. 114:31 Yeah, but you see, we have a situation in the country where everybody needs to down tools. I know it's an awful thing to do. 114:38 But we have to call hard sometimes. 114:41 And it must be known while we are holding the presidents of the EU so that the crowd in Brussels can turn around and be told, listen, we need a reduction on the price of the gas and the fuels and the whole lot of things, because according to Simon Harris, they can't do it because Brussels won't let them. 115:00 They're saying if they messed around with carbon tax and all the kind of things, Ursa von der Leyen would fine us millions and millions of euros every day. 115:10 Yes, but the Lisbon Treaty says that we can do it. 115:16 We're going back to the Lisbon Treaty to see that people, including Charlie McCreeby, the time he was the minister, he said he couldn't read it because it was too long and he wouldn't understand it. 115:28 Don't be exasperating me. They'll get more calls on if you don't mind. Thanks for that, John. Text 0868-104-106. Unfortunately, there is another text, actually, that isn't all that kind to council staff. Tell your callers that Cork City Council would also have excess funds if they didn't waste the money on fake trees, allowing staff to walk around dossing all day and wasting it on that old cabin down at City Hall, For 400 or 500 grand. You're obviously talking about the fireman's hut on that one. 116:01 Keep them coming. Text 0868 104 106. Pick up the phone on 0818 104 106. Stay with calls. Anthony, good morning. 116:10 Good morning, Neil. How are you? 116:11 Okay, go ahead. 116:13 I was just up there at the meeting. We were looking for an update on the meeting there on Sunday evening in Moat with the cost of living. 116:21 Yeah, we're talking a lot about cost of living this morning here on Leeside, I can tell you. 116:26 Yeah, well, it's absolutely disgraceful, Neil, what people are going through just to survive and not even able to survive in a lot of cases. 116:34 Were you in Meath? 116:36 Yeah, I was, yeah. I went up on Sunday evening, Neil. I left home at about half past 12 midday um and it was near enough 12 o'clock last uh sunday night i got home okay were you glad you went oh definitely definitely definitely it was well worth going to um there was a lot of different issues discussed between carbon tax between uh increases in electricity uh vrt uh electricity as again as i said uh data centers um Sustainable supplements for the working men and women, middle-income people that are suffering and struggling. 117:14 Just try and put a... 117:15 with food on the table. 117:17 You see, everything's out of control and a lot of organisations have been allowed to run roughshod over everybody and that includes the energy providers and lots more besides private health insurance, throw them all in there. The utility bills, they're just gone mad. Supermarkets, everybody, their profits are massive and we see it year in, year out. You look at any of the big multinationals, huge profits all in the back of people who are trying to keep money and trying to keep the lights on at home. So, you think anything will come out of that meeting? 117:46 Well, at the end of the day, our welfare now is in the hands of Simon Harris to Micheál Martin and the lads above in Dáil Éireann. There was a good few politicians and senators and stuff showed up to the meeting on Sunday. There was a few from independent Ireland. There was one or two from Sinn Féin. A&T showed up. Funnily enough, no one from Fianna Fáil. We had one or two... 118:13 people that are senators from Fine Gael. Now, they did get a tough time and all credit to them for actually standing up and speaking. And just like one or two of them just actually said that, look, we are here. We're here to listen. We're not here to talk. We're not here to talk, don't you? We're here to listen. But funnily enough, in that motion that Independent Ireland put forward and did all there yesterday or the day before was defeated by the government. And the two lads that were down in... moat on Sunday evening, voted for the government. 118:43 Okay, okay, okay. But was the general consensus that they have no idea how much people are suffering? 118:52 Not a clue, not a clue. So look, even down to students, Neil, and it's something that we haven't mentioned all along, and it's something we've actually overlooked and we should have mentioned. 119:02 Students can't get accommodation, a lot of them. There's a lot of them sleeping in their cars. 119:09 A lot of them can't afford to eat. They might go home one night a week if they're living within a reasonable distance. And they do have a car that they're able to afford. But the other side of that thing is people, including the lads, they cannot afford to put fuel in the car. So they're caught on both sides. So look, a lot of the stuff mentioned on Sunday evening was to do with carbon tax. It needs to be gone. They're on about cutting it. That's not good enough. It needs to go. 119:40 VRT, which is another illegal tax that we're paying on. It's easier now for the government to charge VRT to us and pay the fines coming from Europe because they're making more out of it than what they actually shouldn't be charging it in the first place. 119:53 Yeah, I know. I mean, I know. People are absolutely screwed. They really and truly are. You're waiting for... We are all waiting for responses to what the government are going to do to help the public cope. If that doesn't happen, are we still looking possibly at some kind of a protest nationally? 120:12 Oh, definitely. Definitely. Like, Simon Harris came out yesterday morning and he said that... They couldn't touch the taxes because Europe won't allow them. That we'd end up paying millions and millions to Europe. We're already doing that. We're sending more money out of the country than what people have here. 120:29 And it's not going noticed by a lot of the people because they don't know what's going on. But it has to stop. We have to look after our own people first here in Ireland now. Like as they always say, if you're on an airplane, Neil, and I'm sure you've been on a few planes, you the first thing you do if there is an emergency, you look after yourself first. You put on your own mask. It's the same idea here. We have to look after our own people first before we send any more money out of the country. 120:58 You know, it's very, very simple. Like, give it, for instance, now electricity, Neil. That's going up 8% on the 5th or the 6th or the 7th of next month. We're calling for energy credits for people, which will have to be given out because people, there's so many people in arrears now that it's not sustainable anymore, and that's only going to go one way. People can't afford coming into the winter with the price of fuel, the price of electricity, heating, everything. Like, you have the data centres, Neil, that are charging, are being charged 14 cents a unit for electricity. 121:31 Okay, so that 14... 121:32 Hang on, that's interesting. That 14 cent per unit electricity for a data centre, right, is their rate, whereas you and I are more likely to be paying about 38 cent, 34, 38 cent kind of thing. Isn't that right? 121:49 That's 100%. There needs to be levies put on data. 121:52 So if their electricity units are... 121:56 a third, two thirds cheaper than ours, right? We're three times dearer. 122:01 Yeah. Are we supplementing the ESB and all of the different providers for the cheap electricity for a data center? 122:09 100% we are. 100% we are. 122:12 So you're saying they're 14 cent a unit, whereas we would be anywhere between 34 and 38. The difference there is paid for by the residential private user. 122:24 It is, yes. Yeah, 100%. 122:26 Okay. 122:27 Like, they're multinational companies, Neil, that can well afford to take a hit. The same is the issue. 122:32 Why do we give them, to track them into the country, is it? 122:36 I think so. 122:36 Okay. 122:37 I think so, but that's, people aren't going to take that anymore. Like, people are actually waking up now and they're actually educating themselves more through the likes of myself and many other people, not just myself, but we're trying to actually show people what's being spent and what we're not getting, what we should be getting, and they're just walking all over us. 122:58 Okay, keep it up. 123:00 The data centres, they're on about, I'm going to say it there now, they're on about hose bends during the summer there for Cork and Kerry and Kildare. These data centres are taking more water every day of the week than what we would use in 12 months. 123:14 Okay, they would have been deemed as essential. What do they need water for? Cooling equipment, is it? 123:19 Cooling equipment, yeah. Cooling equipment. Like, there's so much water flowing through their systems and they add coolant to cool it down. But at the end of the day, where is that coolant going to end up? There is some of it going to end up in the rivers. 123:30 I don't care how good... And would the big, huge, massive multinationals, the American multinationals, are they getting electricity at 14 cent a unit? 123:41 I'm not 100% sure on you. I couldn't say whether the likes of Apple or anyone of them are getting it or Pfizer's or anyone of them. Okay. 123:48 Yeah, I don't know. I couldn't comment on what they're getting or what they're not getting because I actually don't know. That's awful. 123:53 That's terrible. That's just terrible. All right. I've got to go, Anthony. Do stay in touch, though. Appreciate taking the call. Don't be a stranger. Come back anytime soon. Text 0868 104 106. 124:03 Get on to Prenderville. 124:05 Text or WhatsApp Neil now. 0868 104 106. 124:09 The Neil Prenderville Show on Red FM. 124:13 Yeah, I saw a texter there, and this is important also, the amount of wage increases in the past year alone for the top CEOs in public companies. You see that from time to time coming up, salary increases, pension increases, eye-watering amounts of money in public sector CEO positions. Meanwhile, remember I was talking about this Be Ready brochure that we all got, which I thought, oh my God almighty, what is this about? Trying to put the fear of God in people. A lot of it was common sense anyway. What to do in the event of emergency? I mean, talk about frightening people. How much did it cost? 124:44 How many of those were printed? Taxpayers' money again. Got a text from somebody who was actually part of an online focus group discussing that campaign. Hi Neil, I was part of an online focus group discussing the Be Emergency Ready campaign and the majority of the group in the focus group said it shouldn't go ahead. We said that people know what to do themselves and also that it was a waste of unnecessary taxpayers' money. The government doesn't listen to the ordinary people because they went along anyway and printed and distributed the brochure. 125:17 P.S. There were seven of us in the focus group and we were paid 60 euro each for one hour. Well, indeed, indeed, they're very good at spending other people's money. And one of the points Anthony was made there was regard to aid overseas. And you wouldn't be able to put an actual quantifiable figure on Ukraine aid because you have to include also Ukrainian accommodation costs since 2022. But it certainly is billions. All right. So we're certainly talking about billions. 125:47 billions when you add it all together just for ukraine alone but in 2025 because people were asking we send 42 million to ethiopia 37 million to palestine 27 million to mozambique 25 million to tanzania 25 million to malawi 22 million to uganda 20 million to sierra leone 12 million to south sudan 11 million to the other part of sudan 11 million to zimbabwe 10 million to somalia 10 million to zambia to zambia 9 million to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 8 million to Syria, 7 million to Myanmar, 7 million to Kenya, 7 million to Liberia, 6 million to Yemen, 6 million to Afghanistan, 6 million to the Central African Republic, 5 million to Lebanon, 5 million to Brazil, 5 million, nearly 6 million to Colombia. 126:33 4 million to Vietnam, nearly 4 million to Haiti, 3.5 million to Bangladesh, 3 million to Jordan, 3 million to Senegal and another 3 million to Honduras. We send 37 million to Palestine. 126:47 We are very, very generous people all the same, aren't we? We really and truly are. We must look absolutely great on the world stage. With regards to council workers, I have to agree that there are problems in city council, but I can say my husband works in the cleansing department and he's very hard and a damn good worker. There are lots of hardworking people in council. I don't mean to patronise you, but I 100% agree. I think the work that's done actually by the cleansing department, when you look at the state that people leave it in after a weekend night and the work that's done to clean it up is incredible. 127:20 Keir Evans is here from midday with a €200 go anywhere gift card to be worn and lots more besides. You all have a good day. 127:27 Oh, hang on a second. Thank you. Yeah, it's old age, lads. It's old age. 127:31 I wear the joyous country in Calevans. 127:39 Have a good day. I'll see you tomorrow.