Budget 2010:Going for broke
Friday, July 9th, 2010With the emergency Budget looking to cut the deficit, Owen McQuade looks at the risks of such deep cuts in stalling the economic recovery. The UK’s emergency Budget of 22 June aims to deliver a severe fiscal retrenchment equal to 6.3 per cent of GDP by 2014-2015. Three-quarters of the adjustment will come from spending cuts and the balance from raising taxes, with £113 billion per year knocked off the deficit by 2014-2015. Government spending will fall from 47 per cent of GDP in 2009-2010 to under 41 per cent and borrowing will fall from 11 per cent to 2 per cent. The cyclically adjusted...[full story]
Skills:A right to training
Friday, July 9th, 2010A new Assembly law aims to make training for employees easier but plans are on hold until the economic pressure on business eases. Northern Ireland’s employees will have the right to ask for time off for training or study, when the economy improves. The proposal is contained in the technically- named Employment (No.2) Bill, which was introduced to the Assembly on 7 June and passed its second stage on 21 June. The Bill’s main thrust is to update the law on workplace disputes and speed up how they are resolved. On training and study, the overall aim is to make employees more aware,...[full story]
Workplace well-being:Roundtable discussion
Friday, July 9th, 2010With the rise in mental health difficulties and stress problems in the workplace, HSENI brings together key professionals in occupational health to discuss how managers should respond. As well as its intrinsic benefit, improving staff well-being is good for customer service and will become increasingly important in the public sector as spending cuts add pressure to staff. Why is workplace mental health becoming increasingly important? Bryan In the traditional areas of health and safety, the logic of our involvement has evolv ed over the last eight to nine years from an emphasis on hard...[full story]
Workplace well-being:In practice
Friday, July 9th, 2010As part of its well-being report, agendaNi looks at workplace initiatives taken across the UK to protect employees’ mental health. Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, self- harm and dementia are some of the mental health problems that can affect people at any time in their life, and which employers must increasingly be prepared to deal with. Stress is also a rising problem, and has the potential to develop into a more serious risk for employee and employer if it is ignored. The 2009 CIPD employee outlook survey, conducted by YouGov (which interviewed a sample of 2,000 people), showed...[full story]
Budget 2010:Businesses on the Budget
Friday, July 9th, 2010Businesses have been largely welcoming of George Osborne’s Budget, particularly the paper into rebalancing Northern Ireland’s economy. The reduction of corporation tax to 24 per cent over the next three years is a positive element of the Budget, but should go further according to local business. “Even after the four years of reduction, our corporation tax will be 6.5 per cent higher than the Republic; a position that is simply not sustainable and any paper which fails to address this point will have little or no impact,” commented Francis Martin, President of the Northern Ireland...[full story]
Budget 2010:Esmond Birnie Q&A
Friday, July 9th, 2010How hard were the hard choices? On 22 June 2010, just 90 days after Alistair Darling warned in his final Budget speech that “there are tough choices ahead”, his successor, George Osborne, told a packed House of Commons: “I will not hide hard choices”, and he didn’t. Esmond Birnie, Chief Economist with PricewaterhouseCoopers, reads the Budget tea-leaves to see just how hard those choices really were. George Osborne described it as the “unavoidable Budget”. Was it? Not exactly – this was a Budget of choice, but it wasn’t much of a choice. Osborne had to send a message...[full story]
Business:A modest recovery
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010Economic recovery will be “sluggish by historic standards”, according to Ian McCafferty. Speaking at the annual CBI economic briefing, McCafferty reminded delegates that recovery induced by a financial crisis tends to be “twice as deep and lasts longer” than a recovery that is brought about through government policy or decisions. Economies across the world are currently showing “upbeat signals”, he said. “It was only a year ago we were talking about a free-fall in the global economy.” However, inter-bank rates have normalised, falling to rates “not seen since before...[full story]
Business:Quinn cuts
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010Over 900 redundancies have been announced at Quinn Insurance following three months of turmoil at the company. Meadhbh Monahan reports. After it was taken out of control of the wider Quinn Group and placed into administration following “serious and persistent breaches” of the solvency rules in March, Quinn Insurance Ltd (QIL) was ordered to stop writing policies in the UK. They have since been allowed to re-open to all private motor drivers in the UK, but on 30 April the company announced the redundancies saying: “although regrettable and painful for the employees and their families,...[full story]
