Current Account: News that consumers are finally to be offered some level of protection from "cold calling" by direct marketing firms will be welcomed by anyone that has struggled to get a pushy insurance salesman off the telephone.
From next week, firms seeking to market their services to consumers over the phone will be banned from phoning customers that have opted out of receiving cold calls or face a €3,000 fine.
This will be bad news for firms that rely on cold calling to drum up business, particularly in the telecoms and financial sector, and should stop annoying calls urging you to switch firms.
Current Account notes the new rules introduced by ComReg and the data protection commissioner run contrary to the guidelines proposed in the consumer protection code by the financial regulator, Ifsra, which gets 50 per cent of its funding from the finance industry.
Ifsra is proposing to keep cold calling as an option for the insurance industry, where it sees a lack of competition, but the new regulations will override Ifsra guidelines.
It's time to target tech savvy airport spenders
As the summer exodus begins, retailers at Dublin airport will be rubbing their hands with glee. The importance of June, July and August to airport retailers cannot be underestimated.
However, the long queing times could have a drastic impact on sales. A report recently warned that increased time at check-in desks and security machines means less time to browse in the shops.
Until new terminal and pier facilities are added, this problem is unlikely to be solved, but maybe there are other things the Dublin Airport Authority can do in the meantime.
According to a report by consultants Alan Stratford and Associates, the key question for the authority in future could be the nationality of the shoppers passing through the airport.
Put crudely, European and Irish shoppers are a little tightfisted, but American shoppers are more likely to put their hands in their pockets.
With the number of American passengers passing through Dublin airport now at over one million a year, this is good news for the airport.
However, the report makes it clear that visitors to the airport are becoming less and less interested in Oirish-type products and more interested hi-tech gadgets such as iPods and digital cameras. So maybe it's time for a shift in strategy?
Forget the crystal pieces and the Aran sweaters, maybe Gary McGann should decorate the airside shopping corridor - known as the Street - with the "stars and stripes" this July 4th and fill the shelves with iPods?
Don't bank on largesse
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service is dotting the Is and crossing the Ts in the final draft of its report on its investigation into bank charges and interest rates.
One idea it came close to recommending was that banks set aside some funds to loan to people on the affordable housing scheme at wholesale rates. No doubt those public-minded people who run the country's banks would greet this proposal with enthusiasm.
However, they will not get this opportunity to display their generosity yet, as the committee decided yesterday to drop the recommendation from the report, to be published on Wednesday, because the idea needs more research.
But the financial services community should not despair of getting the chance to scatter a bit of largesse: committee chairman Seán Fleming TD indicated that the body would explore the proposal in a later inquiry into the industry.
Publicans bar new law
A gathering force of Fianna Fáil TDs is lining up to block Michael McDowell's plans to reform the licensing laws by introducing café bars.
The party defended publicans in the campaign to block the smoking ban and the only difference now is that the TDs are making making the anti-café bar case on health grounds.
Current Account has little sympathy. In the past, publicans charged what they liked and had little regard for public health. Now demand is falling,the fear of losing business is what motivates publicans to run to their TDs.
