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I'm in the business, down south so i cant speak for the north but increases in the republic are also substantial this year. main driver is increase in cost of building materials and rebuilding cost increases which sound like the same thing  but aren't,  but both contribute to the increase in premiums.
id say the average increase in the south is in the region of 30%.
are insurance companies robbing bastards? in some ways yes, but their main fault is that that they are by and large run by a combination of  grossly incompetent fools and spivs.

its happening in the  team my lad plays with U11. players drifting away. in our club its by and large the coaches fault. its a pity, in a good few cases its lads that have loads of potential just not there yet, now they might never be ''there'' but they have potential.
but as others have said its easy to criticize from the sidelines the reality is any of the coaches would  probably gladly hand me the whistle if i thought i could do better. in my defense i do coach with another team in the club, with my younger lad and at this stage the best i can hope to do is learn from the mistakes of this bunch.

firstly they each have a kid on the team and each seem to believe that their lad is the next cillian o connor. this is bad enough but the real problem is they are bizarrely obsessed with winning U11 games. this results in team selection that leaves loads of player out and piles huge  pressure on those who play.
at one game the ''A'' team had 3 subs whilst the ''B'' team had 11 subs.
now the result of this Cody like desire to win is that so far they have lost every game they have played ( GO games, so no one keeping score only themselves). and worse the other result is good lads/girls walking away (luckily the girls walk around the corner to the girls club).
now my lad would not be the greatest but not the worst either, incredibly enthusiastic absolutely LOVES football and  has a super attitude, never gives up, never complains. but after one recent match he was down in the dumps and upset for a week. i was so mad i was going to talk to them but he begged me not to.  instead he killed himself training for a week at home and when he went back things were  a bit better (only because 3/4 other players were away on holiday) but it will happen again next week, nothing surer and to be honest i will not  have him like that again,  ill sooner  pull him out, he plays soccer and rugby as well and while football is his first love they will have to do.

its a huge pity but the reality is the coaches have no interest in lads they dont think will be good enough  and they dont care if they go in fact i think they are happier. nothing is going to change this attitude and the longer my lads sticks it out the more knocks he going to have to take before he eventually gets the message and gives up.

What is the R number currently?

last week the R number was reported at between 1.4 and 1.8. however with case numbers so low the R number is now less relevant, the tyranny of small number as they say.

at present the best metric is the number of cases being admitted to firstly ICU and secondly to Hospital. at present both of these are very low.

remember ''flattening the curve''   the lock down ect was never about eliminating the virus, that would be impossible, but about protecting our hospital system.

the biggest threat now is not the virus per se but the dis-functionality of our health system.  yesterday for the first time since march there were people on trolleys in castlebar hospital, the same thing is now happening all over the country.
so soon we will be back to not being able to cope with ANY extra pressure on ICU.

Are they on trolleys due to Covid or have they been admitted with other problems?

With hospitals opening up now people may feel its time to head to A&E with conditions they felt needed looked at but during the pandemic felt its best to wait?

not covid related other stuff, there are no covid cases in castlebar. in fact i think mayo has only had 1 case (louisburg footballer?) in the last 3 weeks plus.

exactly so its just going back to what it was before except it will probably be worse than before as a lot of people will have put off stuff that now has to be dealt with.

What is the R number currently?

last week the R number was reported at between 1.4 and 1.8. however with case numbers so low the R number is now less relevant, the tyranny of small number as they say.

at present the best metric is the number of cases being admitted to firstly ICU and secondly to Hospital. at present both of these are very low.

remember ''flattening the curve''   the lock down ect was never about eliminating the virus, that would be impossible, but about protecting our hospital system.

the biggest threat now is not the virus per se but the dis-functionality of our health system.  yesterday for the first time since march there were people on trolleys in castlebar hospital, the same thing is now happening all over the country.
so soon we will be back to not being able to cope with ANY extra pressure on ICU.

they have been under reporting the crowds in mc hale park at league matches for years and its pretty  consistent always around the  3/4k mark.  i'm assuming that a percentage of tickets sold on the night which are of course  are cash transactions are not reported in the attendance.

The tickets should be sequentially numbered though to enable easy counting? That's why they have tickets in the first place. Season tickets, home supporters clubs and kids usually don't pay in and arent counted in the figure.

everyone who goes through the turnstiles is supposed to be counted and are''officially'' counted, that includes all kids, season ticket holders ect, so the attendance should reflect everyone who went through the turnstiles.
i have absolutely no proof of any miscounting but for those familiar with mc hale park it has seemed obvious enough for a good few years now that the figures are unreported.
the suspicion is that this is some way of avoiding declaring the money garnered from such tickets. season tickets are no good for this, nor are tickets sold on line or in supervalu. the only place those in charge have any control is on the tickets sold on the gate.
this is cash collected on the night, so i suppose in theory it would be possible to not declare these tickets and have perhaps one turnstile not ''wired up'' this is all pure speculation of course and i'm sure mayo gaa would never engage in such behavior.
the issue of tickets issued having number on them is irrelevant as children dont have any tickets at all so that muddies the water enough in that regard.

Big crowds last night. Mayo/Dublin 15000. Kerry/Galway 11000.

I'd hazard a guess nearer 20k at McHale Park last night . Stand holds ten , in no way possible was there a mere 5k in the rest of the ground , just doesn't add up .  Im going to actually count the people at the Kerry game in a few weeks time and prove they are telling lies 😆

they have been under reporting the crowds in mc hale park at league matches for years and its pretty  consistent always around the  3/4k mark.  i'm assuming that a percentage of tickets sold on the night which are of course  are cash transactions are not reported in the attendance.

munnelly would be a common name around killala and out to erris/belmullet.
there are colemans in the foxford/ballina area as well.

Meanwhile Bozo reverts to type talking about putting 31/12/20 cut off date into Legislation.
So "No deal" is back into play.

His is manipulaitng the markets to pay back favours to the moneymen

Crossed my mind too!

I can see BJ's thinking in doing this (focus minds at home and in the EU, appease the Brexiteers etc...) but it's an unnecessary barrel he's putting himself over and he can quite easily reserve it legislatively but with great loss of face.

His thinking is that he'll get his No Deal brexit, which is what he wanted all along. And he'll point the finger at the pesky Europeans and the Irish as the reason why they couldn't get a trade deal in 10 odd months and its all their fault. And there will be no choice but for a hard border in Ireland.
He'll just let the cards fall where they may with no care about the consequences for any of us.

once the WA agreement is singed by the UK and it will be by early january than there is no threat of a hard border in Ireland. the WA is an international treaty in its own right anything that does or does not happen thereafter will not affect the terms of the WA. so the front-stop the divorce bill and citizens rights are enshrined in law in the UK and the EU.

Farmers. f**k off. Parasites

Whats up?

Gridlocked the city for the craic. Mental demands, including random shite about refugees

these protests were not organized or supported by any of the farmer organizations. there is something suspicious about this.
i suspect the same small group who are going around stoking up trouble around refugees are behind this. they were the same people behind the various anti bank protests at evictions and they were also involved in various disturbances at courts back during the height of the recession.
i think they originated during the crash and since then have looked for anything to latch onto where they think they can disrupt the state basically.
they have been at this on their own behalf for years with no success so now they have changed tactic.
they will latch onto some issue where reasonable people have a ressonalble complaint, (beef prices, lack of consultation around direct provision sites) and attempt to radicalize the more hot headed members of the protest.
if it results in splitting a group all the better, they had limited success with the refugee issue because the people concerned were few in number and basically not particularly radical or angry they just wanted  more consultation and at the end of the day full blooded racists are actually pretty thin on the ground in Ireland.
disenfranchised farmers are another matter though, there are a lot of them, they are used to mobilizing in an organized way and they feel very marginalized with a nothing to lose attitude.
the IFA etc have to act to get this under control, they need to go and talk to all these guys and get them back into the fold before they are used for more nefarious purposes

its actually a bit higher its 7% now but most companies have so far absorbed the extra 2%.
thats only half the story though, the behavior of Quinn down the years went a long way to creating the dysfunctional insurance market we have at present. not the rest are much better. as someone involved in the industry i have always said that the insurance companies are by and large ran by spivs and chancres, but of course sean quinn raised the bar.

i brought a bag into the mayo dublin game no problem at all queue took about 20 seconds, have the bag off your back and open, quick glance in, gone through. i think they are just looking for cans, bottles.

Babies and Holidays - any one any do's or don'ts?

Myself and the wife are going to a friends wedding in 4 weeks to Italy - the usual Ryanair to and back (Dub - Milan) and renting a car from there. 7 nights.

The wee man will be 4 1/2 Months when we go. Wondering about bringing baby food powder etc? Prams? Car Seat?

bringing the pram on the plane is no problem, you can bring it up to the steps of the plane and they take it off you there. i think the car seat will have to go on as luggage. if you could rent a car seat with the car you might be better off.
its probably the easiest age to travel with a child. between one and 3 its a living nightmare and only gets slightly better as they get older.
not that it ever stopped us going abroad with them at every age but looking back i often wonder was it worth it.

word on the street is that D O Connor suffered a muscle injury and will be out for the foreseeable. unrelated to the wrist injury

i think  O Shea is ok it was just precautionary he was going around signing autographs with the boot on him saturday night after he game.

What's the latest on Keegan's injury?

keegans appears to be more serious and he will be out

i think  O Shea is ok it was just precautionary he was going around signing autographs with the boot on him saturday night after he game.