Way to sort things out, in Ireland versus Germany

Two purely hypothetical scenarios.

One: I own a multi-million dollar making film franchise and decide to shoot a few seconds of my next blockbuster on a heritage site.

The state that owns and manages the site for the people makes sure to hire additional staff to look after the site while I shoot my film, at their own expense.

I pay them nothing for the privilege of using the site.

I save a fortune on location fees, but this does allow me to make a donation to the local voluntary lifeboat association, who, despite doing a wonderful yet dangerous job, receive no state funding.

Two: I own a German car and an apartment in Dublin.

I discover that there are some problems with both.

In the first case, the head of the car maker resigns in disgrace, millions are lost from their shares, and they spend many millions more making reparations and recalling the faulty product, at their own expense.

And all to fix a ‘fault’ which turns out to be a few lines of code in the onboard computer that won’t make a damn bit of difference to the car.

The apartment, it turns out, was not built correctly.

Somebody broke the regulations, and someone else never checked the work.

I am told to I need to fork out thousands to fix a potentially dangerous problem that was not of my own making.

And no-one else will have to pay; certainly not those that should be liable.

So what’s wrong with this picture?

I’m not sure, but if someone knocks on your door in the coming months, you might ask them.

See if they can ‘fix the reception’.

Unless of course the local authority has already removed your satellite dish...

Declan Kenny

Mill Lane

Leixlip

Co. Kildare