http://hdl.handle.net/10379/29 2017-10-30T00:14:48Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/5896 Implications of the UK HGV road user charge for Irish export freight transport stakeholders. A qualitative study Vega, Amaya; Evers, Natasha Road user charging in the European Union has evolved from a mechanism of financing the construction and maintenance of motorways to internalising the road user costs in line with the polluter pays principle. The United Kingdom introduced a HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicles) Road User Levy Act, 2013, which became effective from 1 April 2014. Given Ireland’s geographical location as a peripheral European nation, it has been historically dependent on the use of the British road network (UK land bridge) for exporting and importing goods to and from Europe. Irish exports are set to be the main growth driver for the Irish economy in real GDP and critical for economic revival. The UK's introduction of the new HGV road charge has raised serious concerns across the freight transport sector and policy-makers in the Republic of Ireland. Such concerns relate to who will be most exposed to the charge and the future aggregate economic impact on stakeholders of the export freight transport sector—notably, hauliers, freight forwarders and exporters. This research explores the potential implications of the newly introduced UK HGV road user charge for export freight transport stakeholders operating in the Republic of Ireland. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were carried out with key stakeholders with the aim of understanding the extent to which these are affected by the road charge and the perceived feasibility of alternatives currently available for exporters and transport providers. 2016-04-13T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3889 The ideology of population control in the UN draft plan for Cairo Grimes, Seamus This paper examines the influence of population control ideology on the draft plan for the UN Cairo Conference on Population and Development. It is argued that this draft plan can only be fully understood in the context of the recent history of the population control movement and of the empirical reality of population control in particular countries. The paper focuses on the origins of the ideology of population control in the eugenics movement initially, and more recently in organisations such as International Planned Parenthood Federation. The role of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in promoting an incremental approach towards the wider acceptance of popUlation control since the first intergovernmental conference on population in Bucharest in 1974, is outlined. Despite the serious loss of credibility for the UN, through the association of the UNFPA with the Chinese population control programme ¬the most coercive programme of its type in history -the UN in the draft plan for Cairo continues to promote the ideology of population control. This paper argues for the need to develop a more positive model of development, which acknowledges the complementarity between the lack of development of poorer countries and their potential for significant progress, and the overdevelopment of industrialised regions, whose future growth is increasingly based on intense competition for shrinking markets. Journal article 1994-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3849 How well are Europes rural businesses connected to the digital economy? Grimes, Seamus As economic activity becomes increasingly globalized, partly by means of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), one of the key expectations of European policy-makers was that businesses in rural regions, and particularly in peripheral rural regions, would overcome some of the disadvantages of their locational contexts, and become more effective participants in larger market areas. This paper examines the reality of ICT exploitation by rural business across Europe, based on a survey of 600 enterprises in 12 regions located in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Greece and Finland. Not surprisingly, a range of outcomes has been identified in terms of telecommunications infrastructure and ICT usage, which reflect considerable differences in access to reasonably priced broadband telecommunications, awareness of how the technologies can be exploited, and in levels of skills to translate that exploitation into a means of competitiveness. Journal article 2004-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3630 The Impact of Agile Practices on Trust in Software Project Teams McHugh, Orla; Conboy, Kieran; Lang, Michael Agile software development involves self-managing teams that are empowered and responsible for meeting project goals in whatever way they deem suitable. Managers must place more trust in such teams than they do in teams following more traditional development methodologies. The authors highlight how the use of agile practices can enhance trust amongst agile team members. They also present challenges that agile teams can face as a result of using agile practices. Their results are based on the findings from three case studies of agile software development teams. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z