Thrift.ie

The Best of Ireland’s Consumer Advice and News

Entries Tagged ‘Some Thoughts’

Finding Real Value – here’s the last update from Fine Gael website, Ripoff.ie

ValueIreland.com
While the old domain name ripoff.ie, as taken on by Fine Gael in 2003 now redirects to the main Fine Gael website, you can actually still read all of their old content here. As you can see on their 2009 update, detailing their “F…

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Have you ever wondered at the return on investment from the National Consumer Agency websites?

ValueIreland.com
Maybe I’m just a little bit geeky, or a little bit sad, but it’s crossed my mind a few times. This question, from Anthony Lawlor TD, or at least the answer to it if it wasn’t ducked by the Minister, would be the start…

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How much money is the National Consumer Agency costing us?

ValueIreland.com
Via a Dail question from Anthony Lawlor, TD for Kildare North (from the always excellent KildareStreet.com): Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) - Question 73: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the amount o…

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Some thoughts on the proposed Musgraves acquisition of Superquinn

ValueIreland.com
Yesterday I wrote a follow up to some tweets on Tuesday morning regarding the proposed acquisition of Superquinn by Musgraves. I think this is going to be an interesting proposition for the Competition Authority, and the government. It…

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New government, same old guff in the Dail

ValueIreland.com
I use the excellent KildareStreet.com to keep in touch with what’s being said in the Dail that’s related to the area of interest for this website – i.e. consumer affairs. (I’ve written about the site a few times…

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Can you lay your hands on €2,500 right now to cover an emergency bill?

There was a discussion recently on the excellent Freakonomics website (here, but apologies, I can’t find the direct link) regarding how people [...]

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The Consumers Association of Ireland to go social?

Back in February, Krishna De blogged about a digital marketing tender published by the Consumers Association of Ireland, The Consumers Association of [...]

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Why distressed property in Ireland is unlikey to ever change hands?

We’re seeing some amazing changes within the Irish property market – NAMA, bank nationalisations, bank bailouts, developers going bankrupt, builders being liquidated, [...]

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Are there any electoral laws that we can smack down on Anne Sweeney in Donegal South West

Let’s face it, Anne Sweeney was never serious about running for election in the Donegal South West by-election recently. She was taking [...]

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Why I’m calling the end of Irish consumer writing in Ireland

I wrote last week that I believed that we’d reached the end of Irish consumer writing and that unless businesses and service [...]

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Calling the end of consumer affairs writing in Ireland as we know it

I’m starting to come to the conclusion that writing about consumer affairs matters in Ireland has come to a sort of crossroads, [...]

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Maintaining independence and trust

I wrote a little last week how many well meaning organisations and campaigns can struggle between the need to maintain independence and [...]

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ThinkIrish.ie – an overdue follow up (part 3)

On Monday and Tuesday this week I published blogs here and here in follow up to my initial skepticism back in March [...]

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ThinkIrish.ie – an overdue follow up (part 2)

Yesterday I published an overdue right of reply from Alan Graham of ThinkIrish.ie to my original post on their campaign back in [...]

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ThinkIrish.ie – an overdue follow up (part 1)

Back in March, I wrote about the then new buy Irish campaign, ThinkIrish.ie. At that time, I reserved opinion on the campaign [...]

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ValueIreland.com – 7 years old today

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me. It’s 7 years ago this morning that ValueIreland.com was first published, right around about [...]

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Government discovers great way to silence its critics – Give them an expense account

Since his Bord Snip report was almost completely ignored by the government when it was launched a year ago, Colm McCarthy hasn’t [...]

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Yet again, the NCA is wasting their time, and our money

I really wish the NCA would do their job. The National Consumer Agency is a government quango set up, apparently according to their [...]

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Seth Godin, time watching TV and meeting your goals

A couple of weeks ago, I was struck by a blog post written by Seth Godin – But it’s better than tv. [...]

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Why we shouldn’t give the diaspora the vote

This post has been brewing for a while. A letter appeared in the Irish Independent some time ago that took a theme [...]

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What did your parents teach you about money?

I loved the angle of this recent article on the Get Rich Slowly blog – What did your parents teach you about [...]

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Understanding “the angles” when reading the newspaper

Recently, I’m becoming more and more aware of “the angles” or agendas of newspaper journalists when reading their published articles. Some would [...]

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Mapping the Golden Circle – excellent research from TASC

TASC, according to their website here is:
an independent think-tank dedicated to combating Ireland’s high level of economic inequality and ensuring that public [...]

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Can someone tell Dan White at the Herald that the NCA is going away?

Dan White of the Evening Herald wrote yesterday evening about the fact that Ann Fitzgerald has declined to accept her bonus, thought [...]

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The Irish Government – Lizard Brains

When writing about the current Your Country, Your Call idea generating campaign, I was particularly focused on the fact that out countries [...]

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