MICHAEL Noonan is reconsidering an idea that he and other ministers rejected last October: people with money built up in a pension fund, but which they can’t access until they reach retirement age, should be allowed to take some of the money prematurely if it can be used to pay down debts that they cannot repay otherwise.
The length of time being taken on the Anglo Irish Bank investigation is deeply worrying. It is to be hoped that everything is being prepared properly to ensure that any prosecutions are warranted and, given the cost involved in the three-year investigation, then successful.
IT must have seemed like a good idea at the time, when a video using material from a dashboard camera in a taxi was uploaded to Facebook and YouTube showing a guy jumping out of his car without paying his fare.
JUNIOR minister Roísín Shortall should be congratulated on trying to stimulate a national debate on alcohol consumption, especially among young people.
YEARS ago one of my best friends told me that “all people are mad, it’s just a question of degree”. It has stuck with me ever since. What is “normal”? What is “mad”? Is one better or worse? Who decides?
POSSIBLY the most impressive book of last year — the best I read anyway — was about one of the most significant people to have died during 2011.
THE new year is likely to be horrible for the Government.
THE suggested sale of State assets is normally met with howls of indignation and opposition. Don’t sell the family silver, no matter how much the money is needed.
BACK in the late 1980s one of the most contentious fundraising decisions made by the then Fianna Fáil government was the introduction of charges for holding a fishing rod licence.
TWO men in the pub are discussing the issues of the day.
MANY businesses are struggling at present, but particular sympathy should be reserved for retailers, particularly smaller independent and domestic ones who can’t depend on the support from profitable multi-national owners to protect them from the ravages of recession.
THE country needs an editorially strong RTÉ but the self-inflicted wound caused by the dreadful libel against catholic priest Father Kevin Reynolds has the potential to seriously injury the station’s future ability to delivery strong and original current affairs material to suit the public interest.
MARY O’ROURKE was not happy with me and was not slow to tell me why.
KEVIN Cardiff faces public scrutiny before his position as the Irish representative at the European Court of Auditors is confirmed.
SOME people just put others to shame, their positive attitude towards dealing with — what for others would be an unthinkable burden — provides inspiration to all but the most mean-spirited. Mark Pollock is one such person.
TODAY we should find out who is our ninth president of Ireland. The opinion polls published last weekend suggested that Sean Gallagher, independent, would win comfortably.
THE man has approached me on the streets of Dublin on a number of occasions, looking for me to stop to chat.
FORMER US President Bill Clinton has identified a priority for the Irish economy that is not shared by the vast bulk of our elected politicians, or indeed many citizens of this State.
TWO years after its first outing, the Irish Global Economic Forum returns today, this time to Dublin Castle and not to Farmleigh, where it was held amid much fanfare in September 2009 by the previous government.
IT’S rare that the opening of a corporate office can be regarded as really good news.
The economy is a mess, the world is teetering on the verge of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929 and we’re arguing about who should be president. When are we going to get some sense?
HONESTLY now, how many people could remember fully and explain properly the circumstances in which Senator David Norris withdrew from his campaign to secure a nomination to contest next month’s Presidential election, before all of the returned publicity of recent days?
DERMOT McCARTHY is around long enough to know that this week’s controversy about the extraordinary pension and pay-off he received in July will pass.
CAN you imagine the ructions there would be now had our Government succeeded in getting the being deposed Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gadafi to invest in the rescue of our banks late last year?
A MAN I know who is well versed in financial matters, being a very senior and successful figure in Irish business, received a phone call recently from his bank, inquiring as to his financial well-being.
ON the first day of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s visit to Ireland they had lunch at Áras an Uachtarain, invited by President Mary McAleese as part of a small group that included Michael Ó Muircheartaigh, the GAA commentator.
IT’S hard to get excited about the increasingly odious English Premier League soccer competition that begins this weekend, rioting and police response permitting.
IN A less civilised country, Michael Fingleton might be “doing time”, but in lawful Ireland — where rights seem paramount compared to responsibilities — the former boss of the now defunct Irish Nationwide Building Society gets to watch time instead on a €11,000 time-piece presented to him as a going away present in 2009 by his fellow directors.
MY two friends are in the pub, sharing a couple of pints.
ENDA KENNY might have floated to Brussels yesterday instead of flying.
IF I run into Roscommon TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan in Roscommon next Sunday at the Connacht Senior Football Final he’ll find that I’ll be dressed in a suit, what might be called a “business suit”.
ONE of the most condescending putdowns I ever heard made by a lawyer about a colleague who had been appointed to the position of judge was that he “was the first to get a pay rise on the promotion”.
YOU wouldn’t put it past Michael Healy-Rae to try to turn events of recent days to his own advantage.
AS Rory McIlory walked from the 18th green on Sunday evening to the scoring room to present his card for the final round of his victorious US Open golf tournament somebody from the crowd threw a tricolour at him.
IT LOOKS like we never learn in this country, no matter what. What other country grants planning permission for a €460 million development that depends for its financial success on the inclusion of something that is not legal?
MANY people cheerfully and willfully ignored all the warnings about a financial and property bubble and the damage that their bursting would bring to the Irish and world economies.
WHO would ever have imagined at the time of her election that Mary McAleese would have turned out to be such a superb president?
IF EVER there has been a telling story of the Celtic Tiger era it is how a mess was made of organising the provision of a sensible taxi service throughout the country.
ONCE upon a time our political classes bowed to Rome. Now they do so to Brussels and Frankfurt.
WHEN an American lawyer who was one of the 10 members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in the US — which investigated the causes of that country’s massive banking crisis in a public inquiry that everyone of relevance was forced to attend and give testimony — offers a point of view on Ireland it is worth listening.
I FLEW back into Dublin on Monday after 10 days in the United States and my heart sank at coming home to Ireland, for the first time that I can remember. I normally look forward to returning, having enjoyed a break.
Nobody needs to bow or scrape, but it would be nice if all would be polite when an 85-year-old woman comes to visit, just as our President Mary McAleese has been welcomed with graciousness on many occasions to Britain ...
IT seems that British Queen Elizabeth is going to be able to indulge some of her own personal interests when she comes to Ireland next month.
THE crowd in the South Stand at the Aviva Stadium in Lansdowne Road last Saturday evening, with their cheering and singing, provided a noisy and lively atmosphere that made up for many of the empty seats at the European Championship qualifier with Macedonia.
DAVID Norris could have waited before formally declaring his candidature for the presidential election that will take place this autumn.
REMARKABLY little has been said or written about the financial crisis at one of Ireland’s most important companies: Eircom. The formerly State-owned company owes about €3.8 billion but does not look as if it can repay all of its debts.
A WEEK after election day here are some final thoughts on the conduct of the campaign and of the results.
A SURE sign that Tony O’Reilly is no longer in control of Independent News & Media was provided by the way the newspaper giant closed down its Sunday Tribune title.
If Fine Gael is to form a single-party government, for the first time, it is going to have to continue to grab even more undecided voters; yet it is possible that it will get its overall majority without matching the 41% first share of votes that left Fianna Fáil short of an overall majority last time around.
HERE are some of my random thoughts about the general election campaign to date. Significance is not indicated by their order:
THE general election campaign to date has created almost as much noise about who isn’t standing as it has about those who are seeking the endorsement of voters.
Do you seriously think that any of the party leaders is going to inspire us?
THE arrival of Shane Ross, journalist, author and senator, into the general election campaign, seeking a Dáil seat in George Lee’s old constituency of Dublin South, is not just significant in itself: it could lead to other similarly minded individuals pitching themselves to the electorate, offering themselves as new legislators to add to the public voices they already use.
IN justifying his decision in 2007 to enter government Green Party leader John Gormley cited advice given to him during coalition negotiations by Mary Harney, a woman who at that stage had been a senior minister for 10 years (and who had been a junior minister earlier in her career).
IVAN YATES is many things, “former politician” among the most pertinent of the descriptions, even if it is his failures in business that made the headlines this week.
TWO men sitting in a bar, each drinking a pint. The first man’s glass is half-full. The second man’s is half-empty. Here is their conversation.
GOVERNMENT minister Pat Carey believes that a person should tell his or her employer if they believe that a colleague’s lifestyle, health or work performance is unduly influenced by the excessive consumption of alcohol or any intake of illegal drugs.
THE latest disastrous MRBI opinion poll for Fianna Fáil has it just two points ahead of Sinn Féin when it comes to voter preferences now, just months ahead of the coming general election.
WHO next leads Fianna Fáil is no longer as important as it was once, but it remains very interesting nonetheless.
FEW tears were shed this week for Dermot Ahern and John Gormley as those government ministers contemplated life without power.
WHAT’S happening to Ireland at present reminds me of a true, but ugly, story of the near collapse of an Irish corporate icon nearly 20 years ago.
THERE is a financial crisis that gets far too little attention. It is not the one at the banks or in the public finances but the one affecting the ordinary homeowners of this country, or at least those who have mortgages that must be repaid.
ABOUT a year ago a viral video swept the internet, parodying Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s handling of the country.
FORMER Dáil deputy Jim McDaid once called those who committed suicide “selfish bastards” and this unfortunate phrase came to mind this week when he ended his own political career suddenly, dramatically and seemingly with little care for some of those left behind.
LAST Monday I set out to demonstrate to my kids the adage that there is no such thing as bad weather which should dissuade physical activity, merely unsuitable clothing.
AS the Government seeks to cut its own spending massively a question arises: should Irish money for overseas development aid and foreign disaster relief come from the coffers of the state or directly to charities and aid agencies from the pockets of private citizens without any involvement by the state?
THANKFULLY there is still time to save the people of this country from the serious mistake of building a new national children’s hospital in Dublin’s north-inner city on the grounds of the already crowded Mater Hospital complex.
ENDA Kenny should run for President instead of Taoiseach. That could solve a lot of problems for him, for his party and for his country.
IN any other country it would be obvious.
ADVANCED age or previous good character cannot be given as legitimate excuses for PJ Sheehan’s boneheaded drunken behaviour in the grounds of Dáil Eireann in early July, as revealed only last weekend.
IT’S confession time. I’m guilty of having once committed much the same sin as Brian Cowen did this week with his drinking/little sleep/subsequent interview routine, but it’s not going to stop me from throwing a few stones at the Taoiseach nonetheless.
THE sight of a handshake would have been hard enough to stomach, but the picture of beaming former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern being embraced in a bear-hug by NAMA resident property developer Johnny Ronan last Tuesday, at the opening of the Dublin Convention Centre, was nauseating.
THE fuss about Fine Gael TD Olwyn Enright’s announcement of her planned departure from politics has been justified because of how it illustrates the difficulties of time management faced by women who want an active political career, especially those with pre-school and schoolgoing children.
IT has been another bad week for the public perception of the Green Party’s behaviour in power. It must have been made worse for those in the party by the fact that the latest blow involved getting the blame for something it hadn’t actually done.
PROOF that politics is often about doing as little as possible, irrespective of whether times are good or bad, and then only when you absolutely have to do something, was provided this week by the Minister for Education, Mary Coughlan.
THE State is getting into the retail shopkeeping business, selling bras and knickers, shoes and shirts, beds, chairs and tables, pots and pans, televisions and games consoles, luggage and lots else too.
POLITICAL contacts can be bought very cheaply in this country. Always has been the case and always will be, it seems, no matter what happens at tribunals and the like in exposing the carry-on between politicians and wealthy business people.
SUPERMARKET giant Tesco’s announcement this week that it is expanding its Irish operations — and would create nearly 750 new jobs in the process of investing about €113 million — seemed like a shining light amid all the economic gloom.
IF ROY Keane ever gives up football management then a brilliant career as a controversial TV pundit beckons.
TIARNAN O’Mahoney’s decision to remain as chairman of the Irish Pensions Board is truly extraordinary.
GEORGE LEE might be forgiven had he indulged himself in a bit of “whatifery” on Monday evening as news of Richard Bruton’s sacking as deputy leader and finance spokesman of Fine Gael emerged. For example, what if Lee had remained in the Dáil rather than packing in political life last February for a quick return to the relative comforts of RTÉ?
I DON’T how President Mary McAleese did it. Last Friday she and her husband Martin entertained Ian Paisley and his wife Eileen at Áras an Uachtarán.
INADVERTENTLY, Senator Ivor Callely may have done the state a massive favour. By his selfish actions, in what some would describe as giving a false address to maximise the amount of expenses he could claim from the state, he has emphasised the expensive uselessness of Seanad Éireann.
ANDREW WAKEFIELD, now struck off the medical register in Britain because of his dangerous campaign falsely to link the MMR vaccine to autism, is a lucky man that being disbarred from practice is all that has happened to him. Why are there no laws in Britain to prosecute charlatans like him when their lies damage the public health and become common currency worldwide?
THE argument that the country needs 166 Dáil members is diminished somewhat by the tardiness of the Government’s approach to holding the three by-elections to fill vacant seats.
LAST Monday RTÉ 1 broadcast a documentary called Aftershock: Where to Now? in which four contributors were asked to offer suggestions as to what needs to be done to help this country out of the economic morass in which it finds itself.
WHAT time was it when you heard about Gerry Ryan’s death? It doesn’t really matter, does it, whether it was 2.30pm or 5pm last Friday, or even the following day?
WE’RE finding out just what Germany thinks of Greece and lest you think that such foreign stuff is of little interest to us, it is hugely relevant in so many very important ways, most especially to our standard of living.
DISSENTING voices can be very useful in a parliamentary democracy, shaking cosy consensus and provoking debate that might not otherwise take place.
THERE’S a saying in sport that goes along the lines “show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser”. This was the type of comment fans of Tiger Woods made in his defence last Sunday evening after he completed his fourth place finish in the US Masters at Augusta.
THE 5,500 employees of the Quinn Group are right to be fearful for the security of their jobs. Their demand for protection is entirely understandable and rational. Sympathy for them is plentiful.
IN an unpopular government, Brian Lenihan remains a relatively popular minister, so much so that the opposition seems to have decided he is not worth attacking personally, even over NAMA or Anglo Irish Bank, issues where he has not covered himself in glory, or the public sector pay cuts which he has forced through to much divided opinion.
THERE are some people who won’t be unhappy about rugby and soccer internationals returning from Croke Park to the lower capacity Lansdowne Road.
SO Martin McGuinness, senior IRA figure, now Sinn Féin’s deputy first minister in the Northern Assembly, felt confident enough on Tuesday to suggest Cardinal Seán Brady should be “considering his position”.
IN normal circumstances, Johnny Ronan’s lifestyle would be a personal matter. While most newspapers have ignored him, some, and not just the tabloids, have enjoyed chronicling details of the 52-year-old businessman’s relationship with 20-something model and TV presenter Glenda Gilson.
I WOULDN’T dream of ingesting any of the muck they sell in head shops, but 20 years ago I might have been tempted. Once, when younger and without fear (or real understanding) of the consequences of alcohol and drugs, as is the way with many young people, the availability of such things, without breaking any laws, might have proved attractive to me.
LAST Monday the Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey joined the small band of interviewees who have offered me a bet live on radio to emphasise his certainty of the point he was making.
BRIAN COWEN is facing an enormous test of his political pragmatism. Tribal to his core, the sacrifice of Willie O’Dea, one of his Fianna Fáil family, to satisfy the demands of his Green coalition partners must have been like a hammer blow to Cowen.
OUR schools are producing students whose maths and science capabilities are less than the international average. That’s what Craig Barrett believes and if his views are shared widely in American business circles then we are in trouble.
I LIKE my food just a little bit too much as anyone who has seen me recently will know.
THE Government has told us repeatedly over the past 18 months that a fully functioning banking system is essential to our economic wellbeing. This has been its justification for keeping what are in reality failed banks in existence.
FIANNA FÁIL was boxed into a corner by the demands for an investigation into the banking catastrophe but, experienced political survivor that it is, it has not thrown in the towel. Yes, it has granted the demanded inquiry but it has continued to feint and weave with much of its old skill, thereby staying on its feet.
SEÁN QUINN has a brass neck. The businessman would be central to any public investigation into the banking crisis that has crippled the country, yet he regularly opines publicly on what government and citizens need to do to rescue the country from a situation which he was involved in creating.
WATCHING live sport provides a welcome respite from the realities of life but examining the business models behind English soccer provides an opportunity to witness fantasy.
AT the start of both 2006 and 2008 I decided to give up drinking alcohol for six months and I intend to repeat the experiment from today, with one get-out clause which I will get to later. It will be hard not because of my own desire for alcohol, which is relatively limited and occasional, but because other people are likely to make it difficult for me.
THE trade union movement is in a very difficult place. Angry at the way its members have been treated by the budget it has to find a way to respond that protects their interests.
THE unofficial and undeclared contest to become the next leader of Fianna Fáil has taken more than a few twists and turns in recent weeks. There is no vacancy – as yet.
THERE was a time when people in Fianna Fáil regarded Brian Cowen as a brilliant public performer. From an early stage in his political career — having been made minister at a young age — he was used as a “warm-up” act for the party at árd-fheiseanna, rousing the delegates to a crescendo before the emergence of the leader for his annual address.
THERE’S so much talk of the economy contracting, of jobs being lost, of incomes falling and of taxes rising that I’ve decided to recall a positive story this morning. A story of a business being started 20 years ago that nobody said could succeed but which has created jobs for its employees, wealth for various owners and a product that has provided a useful service to the public.
RUGBY fans should well remember what Neil Back did to Munster in 2002. It was the closing minutes of the Heineken Cup final between the Irish team and his side, Leicester. The English side is winning by 15 points to 9, but Munster have a scrum in front of the Leicester posts, in a perfect position to launch a final assault on the Leicester line, to score a try that would have left Munster with a conversion to win the cup.
WHO really needs to buy a new car? Needs to buy one, as opposed to wanting to do so. This difference is one of the central dilemmas facing the beleaguered Irish new car sales sector at present as it seeks desperately to persuade people to buy.
ONE THOUSAND construction jobs for north Tipperary for three years, followed by 2,000 more jobs in the finished development sounds like a good deal that no government could object to, especially when no government financial assistance is being sought.
THERE’S a section in Donal Óg Cusack’s excellent autobiography where he details how the Cloyne senior hurling squad and its management held “truth meetings”.
THE Government is finding out that owning just 25% of a major commercial entity confers very little benefit but an awful lot of hassle.
HOW much money would you pay to the boss of an effective and efficient health service?
The Greens ascended onto Planet Bertie — a location that Gormley had said they would never inhabit — and breathed deeply of the noxious air. The Greens were brought in as lobby fodder... and to provide cover for the dirty work of introducing enforced recycling, carbon taxes and water metering
More men than women have lost their jobs during the downturn, particularly in the construction sector – and please let no one pretend that working on the sites in all weathers is somehow easier than cleaning the Dáil, especially when men are more likely to lose their lives at work and have lower life expectancy
IT seems Craig Barrett might be the man to give us a state of the nation address.
The car is going to be the next battleground, and with good reason. The car is an enclosed space, even with the windows open, and the dangers (as well as unpleasantness) posed by second-hand smoke are obvious to most... it is still not uncommon to see adults smoking while children (or others) are in their company
Should we follow the American model of requiring the president to sit regular medical tests and of releasing the results? The BBC’s Jeremy Paxman was vilified in 2002 for asking Charles Kennedy on Newsnight what were pertinent questions about his drinking
The predictions are subjective and, it could be said, designed to suit whatever side of the argument people were paid to be on. Some of those making them had been correct before and others wrong, but as the ads say, past performance is no indicator of future performance
This talk that the institution of marriage would be somehow devalued by making it available to gay people is ridiculous. Surely the value of a heterosexual couple’s marriage is defined by the effort and commitment that they put into it rather than by the mere fact of their being married?
This is going to be a big problem for customers, both personal and business, of many of the other foreign-owned banks, especially if they abandoned AIB and Bank of Ireland for seemingly better deals and now have to go back to their original bankers, tails between their legs. Will they be entertained?
U2 TAKE to the stage in Croke Park tonight basking in some good publicity arising from Monday’s announcement of its provision of €5 million towards the musical education of some of the nation’s children.
The ability of the system to cope with a large-scale outbreak of swine flu must be in serious doubt given the problems it has in coping with demand for normal health services. Doctors and nurses will be put under severe stress to cope and will have to protect themselves from contracting the illness as well, not just for their own sake but so they don’t spread it further.
The temptation for the Yes side, if it avoids attacking personalities on the No side, might be to tell its own lies to win public support. I’m sorry for any cynicism, but victory might come down to the side that tells its own lies most convincingly or which scares the voters more
The bad economic news is unrelenting and unforgiving, but the Government is fearful of taking action, even though our recession is the deepest in the developed world, our recovery is many years off and will be weak when it happens, and non-existent until the public finances are sorted
THE collapse of Setanta Sports in Britain probably means little to most people in this country, other than it is an Irish company that has taken a big blow.
Walsh made his offer to work for free during July when the results were announced. He has gone further now though by asking all staff to do the same. And that’s where he has come unstuck. He made the suggestion in the staff’s newsletter – it was not a formal request
Sinn Féin has hit a glass ceiling in Irish politics and this is one of the most interesting examples of how Irish voters do not like extremes. Sinn Féin should have made hay in these polls, given the collapse in Fianna Fáil’s support. Instead, it has lost its only European seat and has failed to add anything to its list of local councillors
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? People bring cans and bottles of drinks and wrapped foodstuffs in bags, so what’s wrong with putting the remains back in the same bags.
So if standards of journalism are to be maintained, then investment is required and that means end-users are going have to pay for it. The alternative is so-called citizen journalism which is great in theory but which has more flaws than merits because of the unprofessional approach often adopted by its users
I repeat that I witnessed assaults regularly. I saw some boys get pretty serious beatings, although not enough to require hospitalisation, thankfully. Sometimes it happened for the most trivial of offences, such as speaking out of turn, being late for class or for being unable to answer a question correctly
In slow motion, it looked like he was treating Cullen’s face like a bowling ball, looking for the holes where he would put his fingers. Even if it wasn’t deliberate – and we will never know what went through Quinlan’s mind in that split-second – it was still a dangerous thing to do.
The Government has told us there will be more tax increases in next December’s budget, that child benefit will be cut, that other social welfare benefits are under threat and that public spending will have to be cut. That is not a media construct
The key complicating factor in the ticket equation is the group to which I belong: the Munster exile living in Dublin. We’re taking many of the tickets allocated to Leinster fans for the simple reason that this is where it’s easier for us to get our hands on them. There are nowhere near as many Leinster-born people living in Munster to take the Munster tickets
In retrospect, Harney should have gone when McCreevy did. Ahern’s decision to move the government to a populist high spending position was one that must have been alien to her instincts. It also sowed the seeds of our economic destruction, as the government’s finances became overly reliant on the transitory construction boom
It would be extraordinary if busy gardaí decided to do something about the alleged “crimes” of incitement to hatred, indecency, and criminal damage, the reasons given for the questioning of Conor Casby, painter of the offending items
Can you imagine Cowen responding to Kenny or Gilmore with the dignity Kidney employed to dispense with Gatland’s barbs? Kidney refused to be riled and didn’t lose focus. Cowen regularly shouts and snarls when under pressure and fails to think clearly as a result
Fingleton’s pay package for 2008 totalled *2.34m. This was higher than his 2007 pay of *2.31m. He took the money although he must have known at that stage that the society’s profits for the year were collapsing and that the risks that much of the loans he had sanctioned will not be repaid.
SYMPATHY for the financial plight of others is something not easily found these days, even when it is deserved. Almost everyone seems to have their own worries.
THE old adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity is being tested in U2’s case.
HAVING walked out on Sunderland, Roy Keane feels ready to return to football management. Some club, desperate for success and seduced by his status as a man associated with success, is likely to be foolish enough to grant him his wish. Foolish because Keane does not appear to have the maturity to replicate the type of success as a manager that he achieved as an outstanding player.
GIVEN the extraordinary lack of popular support from which the Government now suffers — and Labour’s surpassing of Fianna Fáil in the opinion polls for the first time ever — it is remarkable how little clamour there has been for a general election to be called. Such is the cynicism about politics and politicians there seems to be little appetite to demand change.
The report quoted statistics from the Revenue Commissioners that show half of all income tax — e6.5 billion — is paid by the top 6.5% of taxpayers and that one-third of all income tax is paid by the top 2.5% of taxpayers, numbering just 60,000 out of the total 2.4 million income earners.
AS there’s a shortage of bread (money) in Ireland at present we may as well enjoy whatever circuses are presented to us. Let’s be thankful therefore for having the GAA.
THE “joke” has become a bit tiresome but it is so widespread that it cannot be avoided.
YESTERDAY’S announcement by the Government of its rejection of the Ryanair offer to buy and take control of Aer Lingus has been based largely on the belief that the creation of a monopoly would be anti- competitive and bad for consumers.
THE spectre of the bogeyman has re-entered Irish politics. The bogeyman is the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with which we were threatened last during the 1980s. The IMF is the lender of last resort, the place where a country goes for money when it can’t get it anywhere else.
PRAISE for Tony O’Reilly is in short supply in Waterford these days but the workers at the city’s near-doomed crystal manufacturer should be inclined to offer a word or two of thanks to their former chairman for his efforts to save the company.
IN AN ideal world every new year should start on an optimistic note. The change in the calendar offers a psychological opportunity for change, for betterment, for renewal. Whatever went before is past and all can be started afresh.
NOBODY does more to undermine the authority of the Dáil than the politicians employed there.
FIANNA FÁIL has enough problems facing it without the distraction of fighting a byelection in Dublin South to retain the seat made vacant by the untimely and premature death of the excellent Seamus Brennan.
THE Government is so desperate for cash it’s hard to see how it can reject Ryanair’s offer of €188 million for the state’s remaining shareholding in Aer Lingus, even if it is half the price it dismissed two years ago.
FEARS of racial and xenophobic tensions in the event of an economic downturn have not been realised, thankfully. This is another sign of the maturity shown by the Irish people when faced with a speedy influx of foreign workers unprecedented in any European country.
IF John Delaney, chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), achieves his target of selling 10,000 10-year corporate tickets for the new Lansdowne Road at prices ranging from €12,000 to €32,000, he should be brought into the Government immediately and asked to perform alchemy.
THE Irish version of The Apprentice on TV3 has proven to be wonderfully and unexpectedly entertaining viewing each Monday evening for all sorts of reasons, but most particularly the often hilarious use of language by the contestants who seek to win the prize to become Bill Cullen’s apprentice.
FINE GAEL intends hosting 30 so-called “town hall meetings” throughout the country between now and Christmas in an American-style appeal to the electorate.
Property developers named at the tribunal — such as the Bailey brothers, found guilty by Flood of a litany of tax evasions and obstructions, in addition to making corrupt payments — continued to bank tens of millions of euro in profits each year.
YOU may have less money available for going out to socialise but there may also be less worth watching on Irish television during the evenings you stay at home in the future, despite your paying €161 each year for the privilege of legally watching your TV.
THERE’S an old Chinese proverb about not breaking another man’s rice bowl. It should be applied in many cases to public demands for people to be removed from their jobs.
IF you want proof of how much Ireland has progressed as a country over the last 20 years you’ll find it in the achievements of the Celtic Tiger’s generation of sports stars.
AMID all the fuss about the potential cost to the State in rescuing banks, it is easy to forget what else is going on with everyone’s money.
I suspect the reason why the violence ebbed was because as the boys grew bigger, they hit back and, on more than one occasion, got the better of the teacher.
The idea that the media is responsible for the loss of consumer confidence that has undermined the economy is nonsense.
BANKS give you a free umbrella during the sunny days but take it back from you as soon as it starts to rain.
IF ever a corporate entity can be said to have put an Irish city or town on the map, then Waterford Crystal is that company.
THE legendary Scrap Saturday mocked the Flynnstones — Ireland’s leading stone age political family — but its clear that the Mayo clan is having the last laugh.
BERTIE AHERN had lost the public.
THE world is going nuclear, but not Ireland. As many as 40 countries are making preparations dramatically to reduce their fossil fuel dependency by introducing or greatly increasing their nuclear power generating capacity. They are doing so for two reasons: the finite capacity of oil reserves and the impact of burning fossil fuels on the production of carbon emissions which, in turn, increase global warming.
IN politics honesty is not necessarily the best policy. Just ask Samantha Power.
Cowen runs the risk of being seen by the public as the principal apologist for Ahern (with the obvious exception of Martin Mansergh) if he continues to defend the indefensible.
MUCH of Charles Haughey’s financial need was caused by the requirement to keep his mistress Terry Keane in the style to which she had become accustomed.
SOME powerful employers are behaving disgracefully in their treatment of a small number of weak workers.
Many people believe there is no smoke without fire and what he’s up to is one hell of a smokescreen.
We can hardly complain about the status of licences held by other nationalities when so many of our older generation were given the right to drive under a scandalous amnesty.
This is an internal matter of no real consequence to anyone other than those involved and those who support Cork hurling and football.
THE euro is one of the main causes of our current economic problems and has been for some years now.
The boss of eBay in Ireland, John McElligott, described broadband here as “a disgrace”...
What O’Connor really wanted to do was explore options for renewable energy sources...
There are too many vacant houses as it is and builders may sit on them for years rather than sell cheaply.
THE biggest ongoing political story of 2007 is set to dominate 2008 again: the investigation of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s previous financial affairs at the Mahon Tribunal. Many people can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing, both for Ahern and for the country. To tease out the issues I’ve set out a fictional conversation between two people, arguing both sides. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
THERE’S probably just one good thing that RTÉ can take from the controversy over the low editorial standards exposed in its now infamous High Society TV ‘documentary’ that purported to expose illegal narcotic consumption among the so-called elite of Irish society, a minister included.
THE decision by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to send his aide de camp (ADC) to Katy French’s funeral last Monday was a remarkable, ill conceived and most probably wrong.
HOW many Greens does it take to change the entire nation’s light bulbs? Just one. Minister for the Environment John Gormley is the man about to pull off that remarkable feat.
AS hundreds of thousands of people have come to live in this country, tens of thousands of Irish people have been leaving it. Emigration has not ended. It just gets missed in the net figures we’ve taken as one of the soundest indicators of our economic boom.
But the situation changes somewhat when Bono takes it upon himself to chastise the Government over the amount of foreign aid it devotes to Africa.
Ahern’s oft self-declared financial modesty is in tatters these days. This man of simple tastes — who wants nothing more than a few pints of Bass, a stroll through the (free-to-enter) Botanic Gardens and the occasional trip to Old Trafford — is far more interested in money than he ever let on.
MARY HANAFIN told me there’s no compulsion or obligation to pay the money and that anyone who doesn’t want to do so or cannot afford to do so should have no difficulty in saying no when asked for it.
CORK needs an ambassador in Dublin. This somewhat surprising suggestion was made last week by Dr Michael Murphy, the UCC president, at the annual conference of the Cork Chamber of Commerce.
UNFORTUNATELY, we’re unlikely ever to know what Bertie Ahern and John Delaney said to each other as they sat side-by-side in Croke Park last Wednesday week, watching Ireland’s dismal European championship performance against Cyprus in the game that sealed Steve Staunton’s fate as the soccer team’s manager.
THE Irish attitude towards the English is going to be tested tomorrow evening. Our nearest neighbours go into the rugby World Cup final to play against a country with whom we have very limited links, yet some people — possibly a large number — may cheer for South Africa simply on the basis that they’d prefer to see anyone but England win.
ON THE first Wednesday of December, Brian Cowen will deliver his fourth, and possibly last, budget as Minister for Finance. He appears closer than ever to taking over from Bertie Ahern as leader of Fianna Fáil, and then as taoiseach, and likely before this time next year.
I WOULD like to apologise to readers for my seriously inaccurate column that appeared on this page on the first Friday of September.
WHAT must the super-rich in Ireland make of Chuck Feeney? The American billionaire has put it up to them by giving away more than €1 billion to support worthy causes in this country and he wasn’t even born here.
BANKS get blamed for lots of things, but often not for what they do worst. What is considered excessive profiteering is attributed often to the fees and charges they demand for providing services, but where some banks — particularly smaller ones — are really culpable of damaging the economy and the lives of individuals is in their lending practices.
The current dilemma was experienced first at the inaugural World Cup in New Zealand 20 years ago. Suddenly on the night before the first game with Wales, it was realised that an anthem was needed.
ROY KEANE was mocked by many when he said Ireland could win soccer’s 2002 World Cup.
Irish Ferries may be upset by what happened to its Polish passenger, but if it is embarrassed then its condition was probably heightened to hear that rival Stena Line provides defibrillators on board all of its vessels, even though its regulator does not require it to do so.
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