News

....the chances of you being diagnosed with a serious medical condition before the age of 50 are much greater than you think. In 2013 New Ireland Assurance Co. paid out €27 million in serious illness claims of which 42% were for people under the age of 49. The trend continues with income protection insurance (an income is paid as opposed to a lump sum), where 65% of claimants were in the same age category. On the other hand this grouping accounted for only 14% of death benefit claims.

A recently published IBF/PwC Mortgage Market Profile report shows that Mortgage Lending draw-downs has had the first year on year increase for Quarter 1 (Q1) since 2006. Q1 2014 is up by 65.6% on draw-downs, and up by 71.6% in value, compared to Q1 2013, being at it's highest since 2010. This would leave us to safely conclude that sales activity is up compared with the last 12 months.

Here at BareNakedCover.ie we are very proud to announce our sponsorship of a very worthy fund-raising organisation -  Dip in the Nip. Dip in the Nip raise vital funds for Cancer Charities around Ireland. They do this by encouraging hundreds of people to take part in 'organised skinny dips', and by doing so the participants raise significant sums for cancer research, and other vital cancer services.

In J. M. Synge's play, The Playboy of the Western World Christy Mahon earns his reputation on his grand claim that he had slain Old Mahon, his tyrannical father. He outlines the circumstances of his deed to the wonderstruck villagers, to quote ;

CHRISTY: I did not then. I just riz the loy and let fall the edge of it

on the ridge of his skull, and he went down at my feet like an empty sack,

and never let a grunt or groan from of him at all 

Recently a fox visited our offices at 93 George's St, Lwr. Dunlaoghaire. Yes a fox, in the office. In a letter in The Irish Times I speculated that he may have called in relation to the Dublin Business Improvement Initiative. On second thoughts he was probably interested in our discounted Mortgage Protection and Life Assurance.

http://www.irishtimes.com/debate/letters/a-brush-with-a-fox-1.1604391

For the cynics among us who believe that it’s a one-way street with insurance companies – think again. The payments by New Ireland Assurance on protection policies to customers in 2012 are striking. While the headline figure of €94 million is impressive, what’s most interesting is not only the county by county breakdown but also the breakdown by age of claimants.

In these straightened times most of us are price conscious. One village I know in the midlands has two filling stations, one of which charges three cent more than the other for a litre of unleaded. No marks for guessing which one sells the most petrol. National price consciousness is also evident in the substantial inroads that food retailers such as Lidl and Aldi have made into the once dominant market share of Tesco.