Other News In Brief

Cork N20 Collision Sees Woman Airlifted To Hospital

A woman has suffered serious injuries in a collision on the N20 Cork-Limerick road.

The crash occurred on Sunday 01 December at around 3.30pm at the turnoff for Dromahane, just 1km outside Mallow town.

Emergency services, including fire crews and paramedics, attended the scene.

The injured woman was later airlifted to Cork University Hospital by the Community Air Ambulance.

Public Warned Against Calling 1590 Revenue Number

Members of the public have been warned against calling a 1590 number to contact Revenue Commissioners.

Fianna Fáil TD for Laois Sean Fleming has urged Niall Cody, the Chairman of the Revenue Commission, to take steps to stop people from being conned by the scamming connection service.

According to Deputy Fleming, the 1590 number is run by a UK company and charges €30 for a ten minute phone call.

"This is outrageous and is completely taking advantage of people," Deputy Fleming said.

"If you search for a phone contact number for Revenue on google you will likely see a 1590 number. This is usually very high up, if not at the top, of a google search.

"I asked the Chairman of the Revenue Commission to work with his European counterparts and contact Google to ensure that they keep the correct Revenue phone number to the top of a google search.

"I also urged him to introduce a system whereby when a person phones Revenue through the connection service, they are told immediately on speaking to a Revenue representative that they have been connected through a third party which charges excessive amounts, and they should be given the direct phone line number and asked to hang up and call back on that number.

"More needs to be done to protect consumers from highly experienced and sophisticated scammers," Deputy Fleming concluded.

Taoiseach Criticised Over Housing Construction Comments

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has come under fire over comments suggesting a housing construction boom would plug the hole in the public finances that a falloff in corporation tax could leave.

Fianna Fáil representative Michael McGrath called his suggestions "extraordinary" and urged the government to stop its over reliance on corporation tax receipts.

Deputy McGrath explained: "The Government doesn't seem to understand that making permanent expenditure commitments on the back of receipts that could prove temporary is leaving us very exposed – that applies to stamp duty receipts as it does to corporation tax from multinationals.

"The Government have been warned time and time again against depending on corporation tax receipts as they are neither stable nor guaranteed for the future.

"This year alone we have witnessed massive overspends on projects like the National Children's Hospital and the National Broadband Plan. The Department of Health's budget been breached significantly.

"Fine Gael is adept at throwing accusations at Fianna Fáil. It is past time they had a good look in the mirror and recognised the risks they are taking with their approach to managing the public finances," concluded Deputy McGrath.



(JG/CM)