Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin this afternoon.
The Irish League of Credit Unions has today announced the launch of their annual GR8 Savers week. The initiative encourages parents and young people to focus on managing their money, in particular developing saving habit. GR8 Savers week will run from the Monday 6th – 12th May 2013 and will run in credit unions around the country.
A recent Teens & Money survey undertaken by the Irish League of Credit Unions in conjunction with Youth Work Ireland showed that 51% of teens receive pocket money on a regular weekly basis from their parents / guardians with 25% receiving between €20 and €25. Of those that received pocket money, 8% said they received €5 or less, 6% said between €6 - €9, 33% said between €10 - €15, 14% said between €15-€19, 25% said between €20 - €25, 2% said between €26 -€30 and 12% said €30 or more.
The fact that children are receiving pocket money, in some instances large amounts, underlines the important role that parents can play in assisting children to develop a savings habit.
Read more: http://bit.ly/18MeyVv
Check out our Facebook page later this week for another fabulous competition.
We'll be giving away four €50 gift cards for Woodie's DIY to get the summer started in style for the lucky winners.
Stay tuned.
Savour the sunshine and dry weather today because the rain is expected to return with the post-bank holiday blues this week.
Most of the country is enjoying a settled long weekend, with those in the midlands and east basking in temperatures of up to 18C.
The good weather has drawn huge crowds to a host of events taking place around the country.
And the Met Office is promising more of the same today – but make the most of it before the skies close in again.
The National Stigma Reduction Partnership and 70 partner organisations are rolling out the nationwide campaign to simply get people talking openly about mental health problems.
As part of the campaign See Change are asking people to wear the green ribbon and support a movement to spark a national conversation about mental health in the workplace, schools, college campuses, clubhouses, arts venues and even around kitchen tables throughout Ireland.
For more information visit- www.greenribbon.ie
Happy International Naked Gardening Day Everyone
What do you mean you haven’t been out in the garden in the nip with the strimmer or rake yet? Shame on you!
This was the scene in Rhode village in Co Offaly this evening as nearly 1,500 people turned out to “Rock the Boat”.
Despite the rain it was still an evening well spent, as the village now holds The Guinness World Record for its “Rock the Boat” dance.
People of Rhode village, we salute you!
Jordan Casey, a 13-year-old from Waterford who taught himself how to write code and who at 12 was one of the youngest entrepreneurs to publish an app in the App Store, is to speak at the prestigious 20th TiEcon conference in California where he will impart the lessons of a CEO to the CEOs of LinkedIn, Amazon, Netfix, PayPal and many others.
Fair play to him.
Happy friday everyone!
Possibly the sweetest Irish birthday card of all time?
As the sun sets, two boats compete in Dublin Bay on the first official day of summer during the opening series of the Poolbeg YC sailing season yesterday evening.
Tomorrow, Thursday 2nd May 2013, a new five Euro banknote comes into circulation in Eurozone in an effort to combat counterfeit bank notes and also partly to update the designs, what do you think of the new design?
ILCU and UCC launch 'Pathways'
The Irish League of Credit Unions and the Centre for Co-operative Studies and Adult Continuing Education, University College Cork have today announced the official launch of ‘Pathways’, a new suite of accredited education programmes for credit union officers. With significant regulatory and legislative changes within the sector - the new suite of programmes will address the evolving learning needs of credit union volunteers and staff.
‘Pathways’ delivers six qualifications, across Certificate, Diploma, Degree and Masters level, which support the development of credit union officers at all levels in key areas of governance and operations.
Read more: http://bit.ly/102CeRi
Salman Khan
Who remembers these from the early mobile phone days?
Joe Schmidt named as new Ireland head coach
The IRFU has confirmed that Joe Schmidt will be the head coach to lead Ireland towards the Rugby World Cup in 2015.
The double Heineken Cup-winning boss will face the media at 4pm this afternoon at the Aviva Stadium.
Credit Union Core Values
The fabulous Imelda May addressing delegates at the ILCU AGM 2013 this morning in University Concert Hall, Limerick.
The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan TD, added in his address to delegates: "The last twelve months have been exceptionally busy for those involved in the movement. Credit unions have shown a willingness to embrace change while staying true to their core values.
While much of the focus has been on legislation and regulatory changes, we should not lose sight of the destination. There is no doubt that credit unions are going through a major transformation. The Government remains fully committed to supporting the Credit Union movement throughout this process.
We want credit unions to emerge stronger so that you can continue to play an important role in local and national life in this country."
A new pilot project will see an Irish town experimenting with scrapping 1c and 2c coins.
The National Payments Plan, which was published yesterday by the Central Bank, recommends that a town should be chosen to run a pilot scheme where 1c and 2c coins would no longer be in use. The cash prices would be rounded to the nearest 5c.
The recommendation is that the scheme should be trialled in December of this year.
Similar schemes are already permanently in place in Finland and the Netherlands.
If Ireland did scrap 1c and 2c coins completely, some may welcome it as it would mean something as simple as carrying around less fiddly cash.
However, the fact that cash prices could be rounded up slightly could cause others to be concerned about the potential financial impact.
