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Sherry Fitz gloats over house price inflation: It's a little early for gongs, but Sherry FitzGerald has already provided an outstanding contender for crass remark of the year. Flush with optimism after the Christmas festivities, the estate agent sent out a press release last Tuesday to gloat about 2005 as an "outstanding year" for price inflation in the second-hand home market.

Have these people no sensitivity at all? Sky-high house prices are very good for the auctioneers and bankers, but they are nothing but an endless nightmare for everyone else. With mortgage rates on the way up this month, repayments are rising too.

But Sherry FitzGerald sees cause for celebration in the fact that prices rose by a national average of 17 per cent last year and by 23 per cent in Dublin. This comes on top of crazy increases in previous years. It is a given that the rate of wage increase lags well behind, meaning that the task of buying a home becomes ever-more difficult.

With young people all but priced out of the market, it's nice to see that Sherry FitzGerald is doing all it can to talk up prices. Why wouldn't they?

B of I online banking impedes smart planning

Online banking is a good thing, saving the customer from having to queue and allowing the bank to spend less money employing tellers. Everyone wins.

But for some, of course, enough is never enough. Bank of Ireland's online service informs its customers what the overdraft limit is on their current account, and tells them the maximum size of overdraft which they can apply for online. A few taps on the keyboard and bob's your uncle.

Current Account this week decided to impose some order on its finances and logged on with the intention of profiting from the fact that, for once, its current account was in the black.

Tap, tap, tap . . . a reduced overdraft facility was applied for and the return key pressed. A small information notice then appeared pointing out that the limit being applied for was less than the one that already existed. The fact was duly noted and an attempt made to continue the application. However, the service would go no further.

Could this be an innocent mistake on the bank's part or could it be that the bank, heaven forbid, consciously decided to make it difficult for its valued customers to reduce their expensive overdraft limits?

Brian Goggin should be told!

 Infinite transport plan

A group of futurologists working for telecoms group BT has compiled an interesting chart of what the future holds for both humans and technology between now and 2050.

For example, between now and 2010, we can expect the development of emotionally responsive toys, the end of VHS videos and an artificial intelligence pop group in the Top 10 (a top 10 group with any intelligence at all would be a change).

In the next decade we can look forward to an artificial intelligence entity passing its leaving cert, full voice interaction with PCs and helium mining on the moon. From 2020, we can expect every sci-fi addict's dream - android gladiators - and commercial factories in space.

It goes on like this all the way up to 2050, when we can expect to finally meet ET and own genetically-engineered teddy bears.

But there was one particularly wild prediction that the BT futurologists did not dare to make - the completion date for the Government's National Transport Plan.

Kentucky ponies up

Now that there's a sunset provision on the tax exemption for stud fee profits, Irish racehorse breeders will be looking anxiously at other racing and bloodstock jurisdictions to see if they're going to come up with new incentives for their industries.

They won't have been too happy to see that just days after Christmas, Kentucky passed emergency legislation that will pave the way for a $12 million-a-year fund to provide the industry there with an extra boost.

So while Irish racing fans were digesting turkey at Leopardstown, Kentucky's legislature decided to allocate the sales tax raised from stud fees to a fund that will reward breeders and owners of Kentucky-bred racehorses.