News

Insurance cost rise continues

The cost of insurance for hospitality businesses continues to rise despite reductions in the value of certain personal injury awards introduced earlier this year, a new survey has restaurant0620 found.

The Alliance for Insurance Reform says recent insurance renewal costs for business and voluntary groups are up 15% on average, despite the changes made by the Judicial Council being put in place in April.

The organisation has been carrying out an ongoing survey of insurance costs since the new personal injury guidelines took effect, with over 380 businesses responding.

While respondents reported private motor insurance renewals fell on average by 10%, there were substantial increases in charges on commercial policies.

The results show that hospitality premiums are up 9%, even though many providers have been operating at reduced capacity or have been closed for much of the period.

City Litter at 10 year high

Litter in Ireland’s cities has worsened to levels “not seen in 10 years”, a new survey has found. litter1021

The first post-lockdown survey by Irish Business Against Litter has shown that while the majority of Ireland’s towns have been cleaned up over the past 12 months, litter in the main cities has worsened.

Dublin’s north inner city was branded a “litter blackspot” while Portlaoise emerged as the cleanest of 40 areas surveyed nationwide.

An Taisce, which carried out the survey on behalf of Irish Business Against Litter (IBAl), said only two out of 25 sites surveyed in Dublin’s north inner city were clean.

The lack of clean sites was “striking and helped make this among the worst results of any area since the establishment of the IBAL [litter] League 19 years ago”, its report said.

350 pubs closed during Covid

Nearly 350 pubs nationwide have closed since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, according to figures released on licence renewals by the Revenue Commissioners. pub0118

Both the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) and Licenced Vintners’ Association (LVA) said the 5% drop in pub licence renewals is a dramatic escalation in the crisis faced by pub owners, coming just before the government decides whether to remove all remaining Covid restrictions currently operated by the trade.

Just prior to the pandemic, there were 7,137 licenced pubs throughout the country. That has dropped to 6,788. The 349 pubs that have closed were in 25 counties.

Some 37 pubs shut in Cork, with the overall number declining from 910 to 873. In Dublin, 33 pubs closed, with the city and county now having 752 pubs, and in Kerry, the number dropped from 448 to 426. Donegal lost 33, decreasing from 367 to 334. By contrast, Co Monaghan, lost just two (99 to 97) and Co Sligo lost four going from 140 to 136.

Kerry Greenway ruling welcomed

The High Court decision to uphold its earlier ruling to allow planning permission for the South Kerry Greenway has been widely welcomed by local politicians. greenwaykerry

The proposed 27km route between Glenbeigh and Caherciveen will run mainly along the former disused Southern and Western Railway, which closed in 196Minister for Education, Norma Foley, who lives in Tralee, described the decision as an "enormous step forward" for the South Kerry Greenway.

"A project with huge potential not just for South Kerry but all of The Kingdom and beyond," she added.

Brendan Griffin, a Fine Gael TD for Kerry based in Castlemaine, welcomed the ruling as "great news" and "another big step" for the greenway.

Enniskillen marks Beckett connection

Enniskillen has been transformed into a giant art gallery and chess board as part of a new interactive tourism initiative highlighting the area’s link with Nobel laureate Samuel

Beckett.

The new public art installation will see a live game of chess played across the Co Fermanagh town throughout the year.

It is the next phase of a literary tourism project that aims to capitalise on Enniskillen’s association with Beckett and Oscar Wilde, who both attended Portora Royal School – now Enniskillen Royal Grammar School.

The Beckett Enniskillen Chess Set is a permanent work created by sculptor Alan Milligan comprising 32 1.5ft tall bronze chess pieces representing characters and motifs from the work of Samuel Beckett, and 64 1ft sq steel cubes as chess squares in bronze mounted on wood.