The year-on-year Consumer Price Index fell for the 18th month in succession. The 0.9% drop in May was the lowest since it peaked at 6.6% last October and continues the steady downward trend since then. The monthly decrease in the rate of inflation was 0.1% and that was primarily the result of a fall in the prices of clothing, footwear and road fuels. http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/prices/current/cpi.pdf

These figures came from the Central Statistics Office which also reported yesterday that the Retail Sales Index increased by 3.5% in volume term in May. The monthly increase was 0.1%. Making the most impact was the motor trade, which was up 21.9%, and clothing, footwear and textiles which rose by 13.2%.
http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/services/current/rsi.pdf

Dáil adjourns for summer

The Dáil adjourned yesterday until September 29 after TDs had their usual end of term acrimonious argument about the length of the forthcoming break. While the media portrays the adjournment as a 12-week holiday, Government TDs point to the various committees that  will meet throughout July and September, breaking just for August. They also make the point that TDs are continuously stretched keeping on top of local constituency business.

Prior to the adjournment the Dáil passed the controversial Dog Breeding Bill which had been the subject of a number of changes to keep a few Fianna Fáil and Independent TDs on board.

In the Seanad the Civil Partnership legislation was passed by 48 votes to four.

New jobs being created in Cork and Shannon

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O'Keeffe today announced that pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is to create 100 new finance jobs in Cork over the next 12 months. The Indianapolis-headquartered group, which has had a manufacturing operation in Kinsale since 1981, is to begin recruiting immediately for the new positions in a European financial services centre in Cork city. Most of the new jobs will be filled by next spring.

Also today the Minister announced that Genworth Financial will create 117 jobs at its Shannon Free Zone office over the next three years. The US-based financial security firm established operations in Shannon in 1997 and now employs 345 full-time staff.

The new jobs will be in the operations division of the lifestyle protection business which helps clients to meet repayment obligations on loans, mortgages and other credit products should they be unable to pay due to accident, illness, involuntary unemployment, disability or death.

Questions over FÁS spend of €126m

The Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment yesterday published a report which listed a series of shortcomings in the management of a FÁS training scheme over a period of five years from 2003 to 2006. The fact that the report took five years to prepare suggested to members of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee that the Department was as dysfunctional as FÁS.

More than 100,000 people took part in the programme which was established to upskill workers already in employment at a time when there was essentially a job for everyone who wanted one. The review of the programme found that only about half the courses , which were run by external agencies, were monitored, no records were kept of the effectiveness of the initiative in helping participants to move to better jobs, and the number who received certification is unknown.

McGurk's Bar report withheld

The North's police Ombudsman has postponed publication of his report into the 1971 bombing of McGurk's Bar in Belfast which claimed the lives of 15 people. Al Hutchinson had planned to publish his report today but has responded to the concerns of the relatives of those who died. They are unhappy with the report which absolves the RUC from complicity in the explosion although it acknowledges that police were aware that the bomb had been planted by the UVF and was not an IRA "own goal". At the time the official line was that the IRA had been preparing the device when it exploded prematurely.

Mr Hutchinson will now meet with the relatives who claim that the report contains factual inaccuracies.

Kidnapped penguin returned to Dublin Zoo

A ten-year-old penguin, known as Kelli, which was stolen from Dublin Zoo yesterday morning was later found wandering on Lower Rutland Street in Dublin's north inner city. Three men scaled the perimeter fence at 8:30am, before the zoo opened to the public, and took the penguin away in a sack. The three then hailed a taxi near the zoo and were dropped off in the north inner city. No one has been arrested and the motive for the theft is unclear.

Today's papers

The newspapers all go their own way with their lead stories this morning.

The Irish Times has "Government shelves property tax proposal for next budget" and the Irish Independent runs with "FitzPatrick kept Anglo off family with oil deal".

The Irish Examiner headline is "Ireland hit by hikes in food prices", a story based on the latest Consumer Price Index data from the Central Statistics Office, although that was not how I interpreted the CSO report.

Up North the Irish News claims "Half of health agency staff sick of their jobs".

The weather in Dublin

It has been a calm, mild, dry, overcast morning. Temperature 19C

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