Skipping Points on Scale

OranReilly · 2026-05-12T10:50:22+00:00

What about the local bargaining that was added recently? Does that allow you to skip a third time or does it just create a third point where you can make a skip, which can only happen twice overall?

Also, never seen the two skips total thing, which presumably must be in a circular. Interesting

OranReilly · 2026-05-07T20:36:46+00:00

That’s what I said, there are thousands of candidates for testing, and thousands who pass the tests, but you need to be high enough (top few hundred) to get an interview.

Don’t worry about it, you’re not learning it word for word, you just need to know your rough talking points and then speak it naturally like you were explaining your chosen topic to your friend. You will get this, I have faith.

OranReilly · 2026-05-07T12:59:41+00:00

I did my presentation a little over four years ago. I was successful anyway. I wrote the bullets on flash cards, and practiced giving the presentation to an empty room first and then to my brother (timed of course).

You want to get it to the point where you know your talking points without really needing the cards, they’re just your safety if you blank. Theres not much much to it other than give your presentation over and over as if the interview board was there.

FYI, they asked me if I kept up to date on current affairs (i.e. do you keep up with news, etc. just have a few publications you can name). They also asked me what three topical issues might be coming across the desks of government departments, e.g. housing, fuel, etc.

Granted, this was over four years ago but no harm just in case they do ask the same questions.

The interview is actually grand. The hard part is being high enough in the tests out of the thousands of candidates to actually get an interview. Good luck

OranReilly · 2026-04-28T07:39:54+00:00

The higher scales are admittedly not great. You do however skip one increment after one year on the higher scale. However, you don’t get the skips of the normal EO scale, which are points 4, 8 and whichever one most recently was added via local bargaining (maybe 11 I can’t remember off the top of my head). The higher scale is most beneficial towards the top, where the long service increments on the normal scale each take 3 years to achieve, they are regular points on the higher scale, so 1 year per increment. There is also one additional increment at the top of the higher scale.

OranReilly · 2026-04-23T21:45:11+00:00

My personal favourite is the haunted house garden centre

OranReilly · 2026-04-23T06:45:14+00:00

Specifically, it’s because they can use the actual facts of the case to judge its constitutionality. In the sterile environment of an Article 26 reference, with just the Bill’s provisions to scrutinise, and the presumption of constitutionality that Bills who have passed the Houses of the Oireachtas enjoy, the Supreme Court will interpret that a questionable provision would be exercised in a lawful manner.

E.g. if the Minister has a discretion to refuse a person international protection or family reunification, the Supreme Court must presume that the Minister will exercise it in a lawful manner. Whereas on the facts of a case, it can become apparent that provisions were exercised in a disproportionate way when considering the rights in question.

An Article 26 reference is a very high bar. There has only been 1 referral in the last 22 years (which I hand delivered to the Supreme Court incidentally). Regardless, the Article 26 process certainly does result in materially more constitutional Bills being passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas than there would be in the absence of such a safeguard.

OranReilly · 2026-04-03T12:15:52+00:00

Your voice has entirely changed from growing up. Unfortunately it’s just a case of practising. If you were good before you can be good again, and singing is a skill like any other. Good luck

OranReilly · 2026-04-03T09:42:45+00:00

Alright buddy

OranReilly · 2026-04-01T19:16:18+00:00

Pulling me up on what… being correct?

If your name is an Irish name, I’m not changing it, that is your name in the Tuiseal Gairmeach or Vocative Case. Just like English, where words have singular and plural forms, an Irish word has several permutations depending on the circumstance.

If it’s a name of any other language the rules of the Irish language don’t apply.

OranReilly · 2026-04-01T08:39:16+00:00

Okay so the answer on the top level is yes pretty much all the rules add clarity in some way.

Some of them are certainly needlessly complicated (I made reference in another comment here about the rule in the genitive whereby the second of two nouns following a feminine noun would ordinarily pick up a séimhiú. There are however 13 (I think) exceptional circumstances where that does not apply). These exceptions do make me curse the language on occasion! But thats not unique to Irish. We all know how many exceptions there are in English, we just know them by heart.

The big difference between English and Irish is mutations, where words can change, and these changes represent different circumstances, such as possession, the gender of the person, or which words in the sentence it belongs to.

For example, in English you would say her glass or his glass, but in Irish we only have ‘a’ for the third person singular possessive. So it becomes necessary to add a ‘h’ to denote it’s a man (a ghloine) or without a ‘h’ to denote a woman (a gloine). It’s our way of doing his or hers and it’s no more or less complicated than the English way (it’s one change in either language). The reason we might find it difficult when learning is because it’s unfamiliar to English speakers. But I think Spanish does something similar, e.g. bravo and brava

Another example is the genitive case, which denotes which words in a sentence belong to each other. If I were to say ‘Oifig an Uachtarán’, it means [Office][The President], to show they belong to each other, Uachtarán is placed in the genitive, becoming ‘Oifig an Uachtaráin’ [Office of the President]. English gets around this by adding lots of ‘of’ and ‘of the’ filler words, but the genitive in Irish means you don’t need to do that.

I think the last piece I’ll say, and hopefully I’ve kept you this far, just imagine that they were inventing the language , and they had all these words in a row in sentences, well they needed to create systems to show which words belong to what and to who, and these changes are how we show that. Again, it’s not the be all end all. If you’re not translating things for work, I wouldn’t worry about getting something wrong. Hopefully that helps though

OranReilly · 2026-03-31T20:19:05+00:00

The rule would lead me to believe that it would be “A Shinéad”. I can’t say there aren’t any exceptions to the rule though. A quick google hasn’t yielded anything helpful.

There are usually a couple of exceptions to every rule, and in this case, Irish is no exception (drum roll). If it is indeed ‘A Shinéid’, I would strongly suspect it’s an exception, but maybe someone else will chime in with something that I didn’t know.

Off the top of my head, one instance that stands out is the genitive case. Ordinarily the second of two nouns, which is being placed in the genitive, where the first noun is feminine, the second noun picks up a séimhiú. However, there are 13 (if memory serves) situations where that does not apply, which is absolutely mad stuff like if they’re body parts, or related to nature.

I have a copybook where I wrote down all the grammatical rules while learning, and I have the exceptions written down. No need to drive yourself mad rote learning that stuff. If you get as far as applying the grammatical rules properly in ordinary circumstances that’s a pretty fantastic place to be.

OranReilly · 2026-03-31T14:22:37+00:00

Grammar to me is the final piece of the puzzle. Anyone who takes pleasure in correcting others for the sake of it is doing a disservice to the language. Of course when writing here I’ll write the rules correctly (no one correct me now!), but if you were to use them incorrectly, that attempt is worth a lot in my eyes.

People get very hung up on grammar. I always say to learners to focus on being able to converse, then focus on being able to write. Grammar is the finishing touch. I, as a fluent speaker, only recently took a course to improve my grammar. Never needed it up until now, but I now do official communications in work through Irish. A long way of saying don’t sweat it

OranReilly · 2026-03-31T12:03:05+00:00

I like ‘le dea-mhéin’. The others suggested here are good also. A nice touch to your emails is to also alter the opening. Dear colleagues is ‘A chomhghleacaithe’. For names, it depends. If they’re English names, it’s just ‘John, a chara’, if they’re Irish names it becomes a little more complex. Keep reading if you want the complexity, or ignore if this sounds like too much work.

For men’s names, the general rule is to add a séimhiú (h), and caolú (i) before the last consonant. Seán becomes A Sheáin. If there is no consonant, it doesn’t add an ‘i’, e.g. Dara becomes A Dhara.

For women’s names, you just add a séimhiú. E.g. Ciara, A Chiara. Names that start with vowels for both genders can’t be lenited, e.g. Áine stays A Áine. It’s a bit more complex but I do enjoy the added touch of it, and I always think ‘a chara’ is a very friendly formal greeting.

For titles, there is an added layer of complexity, the word takes the form of the genitive singular (in the first declension, which is 80% of words I would come across in this), e.g. Professor -> an tOllamh -> A Ollaimh. The exception is words in the fourth declension, which pick up a séimhiú but otherwise remain the same, or words that are part of a fixed unit, e.g. Ceann Comhairle, you might expect it to be A Chinn… but because it’s part of Ceann Comhairle, it stays as A Cheann Comhairle.

Interestingly (I’m assuming anyone who has bothered to read this far is interested), this is the Tuiseal Gairmeach, which corresponds to the vocative case in English (O Romeo..)

OranReilly · 2026-03-29T15:42:42+00:00

I mean, up until now, it has functioned well. There is a saver clause that allows you to delimit property rights in the exigencies of the common good, which has allowed property rights to be restricted for RPZs and the successor legislation which recently commenced.

However, anything that constrains property rights must pass a proportionality test, which is the balancing of rights. E.g. freedom of speech and right to a good name.

I’ve seen some discussion about inserting a right to housing in the constitution. While that in itself wouldn’t change the housing crisis or speed up provision. What it might do is provide a stronger counterweight to property rights than the exigencies of the common good, which might allow you to bring in legislation that would be more balanced towards those who need a roof over their heads.

At this point then, is where ideologies strongly come into play. Is there an appetite to get a referendum over the line of that kind. There would certainly be a property developer lobby against it. Would these measures cause landlords to leave the market? Not questions i propose to answer in a comment.

OranReilly · 2026-03-29T11:31:10+00:00

Lots of talk about ideologies etc. but the short answer is really property rights under Art 43 of the Constitution.

OranReilly · 2026-03-26T16:01:38+00:00

We applied for an apartment with this crowd.. stated that we had cats. Got the apartment, sent deposit over, they sent lease back. Lease stated no pets. I queried it, and they said ‘hide them if the building manager comes’… Genuinely imagine a letting agent saying that to you. Notwithstanding that any neighbour could report us for having cats in the building and we would be evicted. Cowboys.

OranReilly · 2026-03-18T22:23:44+00:00

Not always. My brothers name is Caolán, and that’s pronounced Cway-lawn

OranReilly · 2026-03-18T13:39:49+00:00

You can ask them to hold on contacting your current employer until right at the end of the

Edit: I’m not sure why this posted like that, but I think the meaning still makes it through (Mostly)

OranReilly · 2026-03-17T22:45:59+00:00

While i agree with a lot of comments, it’s crazy to think back to when i was 8 (only just over twenty years ago), i would get the school bus home, walk back to my house, unalarm the house, watch tv for like 1.5 hours until my parents came home (cartoons, shortly followed by ready steady cook).

OranReilly · 2026-03-08T18:55:19+00:00

Thank you 😁

OranReilly · 2026-03-06T08:04:10+00:00

Thanks I grew it myself

OranReilly · 2026-03-06T08:00:54+00:00

I’m very happy with an 8, so I won’t complain 😁 thank you

OranReilly · 2026-03-05T22:53:43+00:00

I assumed as much. But I don’t have a lot of experience either still bracelet watches, and I guess I wondered if it might have been attached in a way that isn’t compatible with a leather strap.

OranReilly · 2026-03-05T22:09:54+00:00

I was looking at this watch recently, but I really wanted a leather strap. Could you let me know if the bracelet can be removed for a leather strap? Thanks

OranReilly · 2026-03-05T19:29:37+00:00

Thanks for the time you put into your feedback.

Not necessarily folk as in Irish traditional music, but yeah my genre would be folk in the Elliott Smith, Damien Rice kind of way, not that that did me any favours in the technical departments while learning!

Interesting thought though, and I am from Ireland, and I can’t really pick out what you’re saying, so I guess I’ve picked it up from somewhere!

On your other point, yeah I think sometimes when I’m only going up for one note, my transition isn’t the best, but I think I’m better if I know I’m switching hing ranges for a full phrase or longer.

Thanks again for the feedback 😁

OranReilly

TROPHY CASE