Monthly Archives: April 2012

To recap (via yesterday’s Irish Independent):

TDs were on average managing to spend only two-thirds of their “unvouched” (that is they didn’t have to produce receipts) annual expenses of €25,700. The logical response from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to this situation should have been to cut the unvouched expenses allowance to the amount that TDs were actually spending.

Instead Mr Howlin has allowed TDs to spend the money they were unable to spend on unvouched expenses on hiring an extra secretaries and public relations consultants instead.

S.I. No. 37/2012 — Oireachtas (Allowances) (Amendment) Regulations 2012.

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Brendan McGuirk writes:

Took a few photos while in Achill [of Joe McNamara‘s monument to the Celtic Tiger] over the Easter weekend. The best of the lot in my opinion is the ‘Why don’t you clean up that mess in Keel’ referencing the unfinished cement shell of a hotel that ruins Keel village [McNamara had been developing a large hotel in Achill before the crash]. It’s a fair enough point to make as it’s a complete eyesore on the way through the village.
On the other hand there does seem to be some local support for the project [AchillHenge] and we weren’t the only visitors to follow the hand painted signs up a random bóthareen to take a look that day.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGEeDk2PtWQ

Brian Lloyd writes:

Just wanted to send you a link to a music video [Conor Ebbs singing The Garden Path] I directed in the hopes you might possibly post in on your totally fuck-awesome site. Have I also mentioned that you’re all stupidly good-looking? Because you are. You make George Clooney look like a drunken homeless. Yeah. I know. Ryan Gosling cries himself to sleep at night because he can’t be as devilishly handsome as you, etc.

Damn flaterrin’ hipster film guy.