Budget speculation continues to drive the news cycle. With just a few days to go, the predictions are that Budget 2025 will make put about €1000 in your pocket.

Elsewhere, the Irish Examiner reports that employers are "racing to stay ahead of the legal requirement for openness on on gender-pay-gap reporting since the EU Pay Transparency Directive came into effect in June 2023." 

After a spell of silence in the wake of his departure from the top job, former Taoiseach is once again driving news with reports that he's said that immigration numbers have risen too quickly in Ireland. There's also this interesting read about drugs on Irish university campuses.

Finally, Gerard Howlin continues to warn against profligate government spending (splurging again on “fair weather” taxes), while at the same time demanding a bit of ambition when it comes to infrastructure spending, and more honesty about the relationship between taxes and spending:

"Apart from the back-of-an-envelope suggestion for a new department of infrastructure there is little by way of new ideas on how we can do things better, as distinct from just spending more money. Lacking the political will to reform or invest scarce political capital in the tedium of doing it, public servants are the preferred whipping boys for failure. In turn politicians perform the same service for a disgruntled public, who understandably have no respect for leaders who give them what they want."

Zen

Your Zen this morning comes from a phenomenal woman whose 2018 live performance at Dublin's Academy left me reeling. Neneh Cherry is about to publish her memoir, so keep an eye out for her on the chat show circuit, because she is as charming as she is talented, and I don't doubt she has an interesting tale to tell. I always loved her interpretation of this Cole Porter tune, which she recorded for the Red,Hot & Blue project in 1990.

Also, you may have heard that my beloved Inchicore has been ranked 25th coolest neighbourhood in the world by Time Out magazine this week. Before I even had time to sip my frothy morning oatmilk matcha latte, the local Inchicore WhatsApp groups were going bananas. A split formed between those delighted by the recognition and those dreading the opening of yet another coffee & yoga outlet. A passive-aggressive civil war is expected to play out on the proxy fields of Instagram. The victors will claim a voucher for a Rascals pizza and a HotBox sauna. Runners up'll get a spicebag.

Have a great weekend.

Niall