Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.
Comparing the cost of living
Is there a formula available to calculate the cost of living in Dublin as compared with other cities in Ireland, specifically with Limerick? I'm enquiring as I am thinking of relocating to Dublin from Limerick and wonder how much more expensive Dublin would be to live in, apart from the cost of houses.
Ms U.C., e-mail
In terms of official - i.e. State sources - the simple answer is that there is no formula to provide for comparisons between the cost of living in different parts of the State. Some guidance might, however, emerge from the household budget survey which is carried out every five years or so. The survey looks at consumer spending patterns and provides a breakdown by region, though not by city, with the exception, I believe, of Dublin.
Unfortunately, the most recent survey published covers the years 1994/95. Given the economy's progress in the intervening years, it is unlikely that the figures in this survey will provide more than a rough guide. Another such survey is currently being carried out but may not be published in time for your purposes.
Your best bet may be to rely on word of mouth. When you say you are interested in the cost of living excluding the cost of houses, you cannot entirely ignore the surge in housing price rises as there has been a considerable knock-on effect on private renting costs and, indeed, availability even for those not seeking to buy property.
On the off-chance, you could contact the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which conducts a wide range of economic studies of the economy and its various parts and may have some relevant information. Another source would be the major market research houses although any formula they might use would, if it existed at all, be closely guarded.
Online stock quotations
Now that more than half a million people have invested in the stock exchange, is there any source of information on the Internet which would be able to give us up to date news of Irish stock price changes? Looking at the Irish Stock Exchange pages at www.ise.ie, I find no such service available. I would imagine that any site providing such a service would receive thousands of hits per day.
Mr D.M.O'G., e-mail
Providing a list of Internet pages addresses on any such query is leaving oneself a hostage to fortune as there is so much information out there, that it is difficult to provide an exhaustive list. In addition, my experience is that some sources fail to live up to the claims they make for the accuracy of their information. However, there are certainly some places you can look for the information you require although none, so far as I know, provides a live up-to-the minute quotation of Irish share prices.
Among the better ones are NCB Stockbrokers' NCB Direct service at www.ncb.ie, which provides prices with a 15-minute delay and BCP stockbrokers' Sharewatch (www.bcp.ie).
Davy's (www.davy.ie) also promises market updates with a 15-minute delay.
Goodbody's intra-day service (www.goodbody.ie) provides hourly updates, presumably again with some time lag.
Campbell O'Connor's site (www.camocon.ie) says all price quotes are "at least 20 minutes delayed" but I have to say that, in the past, I have found the prices are often delayed for considerably longer periods - so much so that they were pretty useless. The remaining brokers do not yet appear to have an Internet presence.
As you have discovered the Irish Stock Exchange site provides price updates four times a day at present, although this may improve as the site is really only getting its act together.
There is huge competition between the various brokers on the Internet and services appear to be improving all the time. Certainly the claims they make for their services get more impressive and, in a price sensitive area like equity trading, one can only assume that companies making assertions to which they subsequently fail to live up will simply lose customers very fast.
As you say, the one that gets it right can look forward to record usage and, as a consequence, plentiful opportunities to earn profit from their Internet operations through advertising and dealing.
Dealing with DIRT
Could you please tell me who pays DIRT? Is there a level of income which is not liable for DIRT?
Ms I.B., Tipperary
Being facetious, one might say that it depends on whom you bank with, but that is hardly very helpful.
DIRT or Deposit Interest Retention Tax is levied at the standard rate - currently 24 per cent - on the interest earned on all bank deposits in the State by people who are resident in the State. Certain accounts, such as special savings accounts, pay DIRT at the slightly lower rate of 20 per cent.
People who have savings accounts in the State but reside outside it in the eyes of the tax authorities do not pay DIRT. The abuse of this latter exemption is at the heart of the recent inquiry by TDs. They are due to report next month.
There are other exemptions. Specifically, people whose income falls below certain thresholds are not considered liable. At the moment, the income exemption figure for most people is £5,000 (€6,349) and double that for married couples. In general, the figure rises in each Budget but it did not do so this year.
However, the income exemption limits for pensioners did rise. For this year (1999/2000), the relevant thresholds are £6,500 for single or widowed individuals and £13,000 for married couples.
People whose income only marginally exceeds the limits may be entitled to a partial DIRT refund. In the case of joint accounts, it is the age of the older party which is considered when assessing whether a refund of/non-liability to DIRT arises.
