WATER and BANKS
Surely there are no two words more contentious in the Irish lexicon.
Irish Water is carrying out a review of over 500 water tariffs currently in place for business users. Under Irish Water current proposals it is estimated that water bills will increase for 49% of business customers with decreases for the remaining 51%. Changes to tariffs are likely to come into effect in Q4 2019.
Businesses can use their latest water bill to fill out the Business Tariff Calculator at https://www.water.ie/for-business/billing-explained/business-tariff-calculator. This will indicate how your water bill will change under the new charges.
Now is the time to participate in the public consultation of these proposals with information available on https://www.cru.ie/document_group/establishing-irish-waters-non-domestic-tariff-framework
Banks
Companies seeking overdraft/loan facilities with banks have now become prey to a common practice amongst Banks which has come into being almost unnoticed. It is now common for Banks to seek undated letters of resignations from Company Directors in order to take up the facility offer from the Bank. Company shareholders/members appoint Directors to manage a company on their behalf. It seems incredible that an outside institution can intrude into the management of a company by forcing companies to provide undated letters of resignation. Is it any wonder so many companies are availing of the myriad of alternative funding solutions (crowd funding, venture capital, etc). Anything but the banks! How (or can) banks hope to re-engage with the business community whilst this sort of demand is deemed “standard practice”?