First-time buyers of new homes will be entitled to an income tax rebate of up to €20,000 to fund their deposit under a new help-to-buy-scheme. The scheme will provide a rebate of income tax, paid over the four years prior to buying, to a maximum of 5 per cent of the purchase price of a new home valued at up to €400,000. Buyers of homes costing between €400,000 and €600,000 will also be entitled to the €20,000, though the percentage of the purchase price this equates to will be lower. No rebate will be available for homes costing more than €600,000. The rebate will apply to people buying homes newly built by developers and people building one-off houses, and no relief will be given to those buying second-hand houses. The scheme is also only available to people who are taking out a mortgage of least 80 per cent of the purchase price, or in the case of a self-build, 80 per cent of the valuation approved by the mortgage provider. It is a rebate of income tax paid in Ireland - so if a returning emigrant paid income tax here within the last four years, they may be eligible for a contribution towards their deposit. An individual also does not have to have been working consistently - any and all income tax paid in the last four years will be taken into account. The well-flagged incentive will be available to buyers who signed contacts to buy on or after July 19th. In the case of a self-build, applicants who drew down the first tranche of their mortgage on or after July 19th will also be eligible. The scheme will run until the end of 2019.

I am sure everyone reading this will agree that the fact that the ongoing Luas rail strike in Dublin is a total mystery. It is impossible to understand how both employers and employees can be so absolutely selfish in regards for the public generally. They have to understand that an agreement will have to be reached sooner rather than later and they have to understand that they have a duty to the public. I am firmly of the view and have stated this previously that the inconvenience to the public generally on strike days is a matter that needs to be urgently addressed. I cannot understand how the heads of both organisations haven’t been able to resolve this unfortunate dispute. They are both to blame. It is your joe public who suffer.

At the end of July I have decided to walk the first stage of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela walk in Northern Spain. This is the walk undertaken by ancient pilgrims over hundreds of years. You normally walk approximately 30k per day every day. I will do the first stage of the walk for ten days with my daughter Carrie. In preparation for a walk of this nature you need to undertake a marathon walk each weekend. I recently walked from Torc Waterfall over to Lord Brandon’s Cottage at the top of the Killarney Lakes, this took six hours and good training for the Camino. I hope to complete the remainder of the Camino walk next year. Time is scarce unfortunately. At the weekend I climbed Hungry Hill in West Cork near Casletown Berehaven which took a hard tough 4 hours. The weather was fantastic. The views were staggering of Bere Island and Kenmare Bay. It is good to be healthy and alive! (albeit tired!)

After the family home the next most valuable asset that most people own is their pension. In Divorce scenarios pensions are prioritised. Pension Adjustment Orders must be registered with the pension provider consented to by the opposing party and lodged in Court. It is an area that great care must be taken. The Courts normally grant permission to lodge a Pension Adjustment Order. It is an area that huge care needs to be taken to ensure that the Pension Adjustment Order is issued out of Court and lodged and registered with the pension provider.

The Legal Services Regulation Act makes sweeping changes to how Solicitors and Barristers are regulated. It will come into operation on days decided by the Minister for Justice. It is not yet enforced. These are vastly improved and wide ranging changes to cover the regulation of Solicitors and Barristers.

The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, 2015 governs the law in relation to adults who are experiencing difficulty with decision-making and it changes the definition of capacity. This is a very progressive and informing piece of legislation. It repeals the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act, 1871 which heretofore governed the law in this area. The difficulties with decision making relate to whether this is because of intellectual disabilities, acquired head-injuries or old-age. The definition of capacity was previously assessed on a status basis and can now be assessed on a functional basis. The act itself defines capacity in relation to decision making and explicitly sets out that it does not apply to capacity or consent required in relation to marriage, civil-partnership, judicial separation, divorce, the placing of a child for adoption, the making of an adoption order, guardianship, sexual relations, serving as a member of a jury or making a will. It is a very progressive and reforming piece of legislation which needs careful consideration.

Insurance Companies are taking very strong stands in cases where someone suffers an injury in an accident when there is little damage done to the vehicle they were either driving or in which they were a passenger. Unfortunately, the Insurance Companies do not take the view that if there is very serious damage to the car that there would be very serious injury. The assumption that the risk of injury relates to the amount of external vehicle damage in all types of crashes would appear to have very little basis in science. Insurance Companies need to be realistic in the matter and accept evidence of Doctors who give evidence in such cases.

There has been ongoing concern about the Setanta case and the application now by the Motor Insurance Bureau to seek leave of the Court of Appeal, to appeal the recent decision of the High Court. In the meantime, people are hugely disadvantaged and discommoded. Awards in certain cases have been made and these people who have awards made are awaiting payment and at the same time people with insurance with Setanta could well be subjected to enforcement action in the Courts to recover the sum due, notwithstanding they had insurance cover with Setanta. Someone needs to step in and take the common sense approach. People who are at a loss should be compensated and the issue of who will then be responsible be determined by the Courts later. It is unfair to both Plaintiffs and Defendants in Setanta cases that the matter hasn’t been resolved.

The increased popularity in respect of Hill Walking is a matter of concern for a lot of farmers and in particular whether or not they are protected by the “occupiers liability”. I am not surprised in all the circumstances that farmers do object to people walking across their lands as they don’t feel fully protected. There is a fine balancing act in this matter where hill-walkers feel they should have access to the Irish Countryside for recreational walking and hiking and on the other hand you have landowners and farmers concerned about their exposure to potential personal injury claims arising out of any accident that occur while the hill-walkers are on the land and obviously the risk of increased insurance premiums after any such claim arises. The matter is governed by the Occupiers Liability Act 1995 where the owner of the land has a duty of care to recreational users and trespassers that enter onto his/her land. They have an obligation not to injure the person or damage his/her property intentionally and not to act with reckless disregard. From my long experience in hill walking I think there should be some degree of reason on both sides of this argument and reason and common sense should prevail where possible.

It was sad to see the front of the Capital Cinema #Cork being demolished. I suppose this is the price of progress. There is great credit due to John Fleming Developer in putting this great project together. It will create a considerable number of new jobs in Cork City. I do hope the Cork City Council take some steps to assist the City Traders by having parking free days in the City Centre or parking free times in the City Centre. The City Council have a legal and moral obligation to help build up the City Centre Trade and there are certain steps they can do to assist in this regard, the first one of those steps would be free parking on either certain times of each day or alternatively at weekends. Let’s see the Cork City Council take the lead in this matter.

I was delighted to see Joanne O’Riordan @NolimbsNolimits from Millstreet heading up the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade @stpatricksfest. She is an inspiration to us all. When we are giving out about small little problems we should think about Joanne and how she gets on with her life and is doing so well. Go Joanne Go!

When does “harmless workplace banter” become sexual harassment? This was recently determined by the Court and what certain supervisors saw as young lads messing, turned out to be very serious matters and the Court held there was sexual harassment and awarded the employee compensation. There is an obligation on employers to properly and fully investigate and stop behavior which may be deemed as workplace banter but which in fact constitutes sexual harassment. If they don’t then they are liable to serious compensation being awarded again them.