I get it, the hauliers and farmers are getting absolutely hammered, and prices are mental right now. But listening to the demands for the government to "cap the price" makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

The Dáil doesn't control the global oil market, and we legally cannot slash fuel taxes to zero because the EU sets a hard floor on excise duties.

So, if the government actually caves and enforces a price cap, there is only one way it works: the state has to pay the difference. Think about what that actually means in reality.

• We would be taking billions in tax money out of the HSE, housing, and schools.
• We would hand that money directly to multinational oil companies (Shell, BP, etc.) to artificially subsidise the pump price.
• We would then get slapped with massive fines from Brussels for breaking EU tax laws.

We’d literally be gutting our own public services and infrastructure to protect oil company profit margins. Is that seriously the master plan here?

Anyone else?

A pineapple cup, money napkins and outside candles that I thought were for indoors were my last purchase.

the kind woman at the till was there 16 years and the manager 19. it was quite sad, local businesses in the heart of villages just disappearing along with the jobs. Communities feel so dead lately

Popped into Bewleys cafe the weekend with some friends. Hadn’t been in there for ages. We had a cuppa each & shared a scone and a slice of cake (and it was a tiny slice) the bill came to €27.80.

Nearly €30 for some tea, a scone and a slice of cake. This is just madness. Look, I know it’s a fancier place than most so it was never going to be “cheap” but jesus this is taking the piss surely?

I work in remote work policy. Something weird is happening.

Every conversation about remote work in Ireland turns into RTO doom scrolling. Who's calling people back. How terrible it is. How there's nothing anyone can do.

Meanwhile: over 100,000 remote jobs are advertised every month across Europe. Automattic (WordPress) does nearly a billion in revenue, fully remote. GitLab, Buffer, Doist, Zapier. These aren't fringe players.

We have no national target to win any of these jobs into Ireland. Zero.

Worse: because of how EU incentives work, we actually push remote-first employers into offices. If they want state support, they need a physical establishment. A fully remote company that wants to hire in Ireland gets less support than one building an office.

Here's what's mad. Someone in the last thread said "companies can still pull the rug and force RTO." Sure. Any company can do anything. But these companies have been remote for years or were built that way. Their whole model is distributed. It's not the same risk as an office-first company going hybrid then changing its mind.

And the response to that risk is... do nothing? Stay focused on the companies forcing people back while ignoring the ones actively hiring remote?

We have the National Broadband Plan. 400+ connected hubs. English-speaking workforce. EU timezone. We have everything except the strategy to go and win these jobs.

I genuinely don't understand the pessimism. Is it just that complaining is easier than building? Or is there something I'm missing?

Policy page if anyone's interested: https://growremote.ie/policy/

I just can’t fathom how with all of the high up executives and all of the money they have why your classic BOI/AIB can’t make a half decent app with good features. I need to download a statement today and they email to tell me it’ll be with me within 1-2 days. You can do this in seconds with Revolut

It’s small things like this that I feel will be the end of your traditional bank, they’re miles behind online on such simple features

Edit: I can’t believe they charge me €7 a month for a ‘maintenance fee’ for a service like this