A cautionary tale about pressure and the responsibilities that life tends to throw your way.
A 2012 bachelor film project by David R. Christensen, Lasse H.N. Smith, Blake Overgaard, Jeppe Døcker, Kristoffer W. Mikkelsen, Malte Burup Jelshøj, Mark Kjærgaard at The Animation Workshop.
Previously: The Mighty Antlers
Responding to today’s story about Permanant TSB’s bad loan provision, Karl Deeter, of Irish Mortgage Brokers appeared on Newstalk at lunchtime with Jonathan Healy.
Jonathan Healy: “You mentioned Permanent TSB there. They made a loss of, was it €424 million that was announced today? But more significantly, in those figures, 12% of their mortgage book is more than 90 days in arrears. How much of a problem is that going to be for PTSB? Because with the way the market is at the moment and the way people’s pockets are at the moment, that’s not going to be going in the opposite direction any time soon?”
Karl Deeter: “No, it won’t. And as a matter of fact, a lot of the banks have said that, lately they’re seeing an advancement in the level of arrears and it’s being caused by people thinking that they might get some kind of debt deal that is being caused by changes that the Financial Regulator made and how often you can contact people. And I’ll be honest, those figures are going to come out.”
Healy: “Is this the moral hazard? Is this the moral hazard everyone was being warned about earlier on? That people are now sitting back thinking that they’re going to get a better deal? Because I don’t think that that’s what’s happening out there, Karl?”
Deeter: “No the banks aren’t doing deals. But people think that they might get one. And I’ll be honest with you Jonathan, those figures are going to come out soon because banks haven’t been measuring them but they’re starting to be asked for them. When people see the amount of mortgages that are in arrears that don’t need to be, I think it’ll be a couple of days’ headlines in that alone.”
Healy: “Are you honestly telling me that there are people out there who are chancing their arm at the moment, who can actually afford to pay their mortgage who are telling their bank, ‘I can’t’?”
Deeter: “Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s…”
Healy: “How many?”
Deeter: “The lowest estimate that we’ve heard from collection teams, and I’ll tell you why we started to look into this originally is because I have people coming to me for mortgage consultation who I’d say to them ‘I don’t..’, ‘I can’t seem to see what your problem is?’. And they say ‘well, you know I don’t want to have to give up X’. And what they’re doing is, effectively, strategically making the decision that they wanted to bet on their own case rather than for the banks. And typically you see landlords saying ‘look, if you had a business that was turning over €6,000 but costing you €10,000. What would you do? You’d shut it down.’ And it is certainly happening on the investment side, in a powerful sense. The lowest estimate we’ve heard is around 12% of the arrears.”
Healy: “The investment side is…”
Deeter: “No I’m talking about in general, when you generalise it…”
Healy: “12%?
Deeter: “Yeah. The lowest that we’ve heard. The highest that we’ve heard is that some collectors reckon that as many as 1 in 4 are..eh..don’t need to be in arrears.”
Healy: “OK. And basing that on relative good information and just putting it out there to make the situation for the banks look better?”
Deeter: “I’ll be honest, that is more than likely to appear in one of the papers tomorrow, I probably shouldn’t have covered it with you. But the thing is, it is based on conversations had with executives in banks, and I mean at board level. It has to do with going through conversations with collection teams in different companies. And it…no-one will go on the record with it. But what I am finding out, certainly, off the record, that those are the estimates. It’s a shocking number and I think that it’s a total finger in the eye to the people who are in genuine trouble, who aren’t in this situation by choice. And certainly with people who are strategically defaulting I think the banks should move in on them instantly. And instead focus any kind of resources or any kind of forbearance on people who have lost jobs and people who aren’t doing it because they want to.”
Listen here
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3AUtcr9NP4&list=UUNIAPnoEbYZD0oET6SqcRjQ&index=2&feature=plcp
Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane’s NSFW trailer for TED in which a foul-mouthed, weed-smoking teddy teaches Mark Wahlberg a thing or two about life.
Mmf.
Release date (Ireland): August 3.
When is a ministerial Merc not a ministerial Merc.
When it’s an office.
The claim form from the Department of Education specifies that all mileage must be carried out as part of official Ministerial duties.
Asked whether this type of claim was acceptable, particularly in light of Labour’s previously hard-line policy on expenses claimed by Ivor Callely and John O’Donoghue amongst others, one of Mr Quinn’s special advisers said he was working in the car during these journeys.
His spokeswoman said: ”All of Minister Quinn’s claims for expenses and mileage are strictly in accordance with the arrangements outlined by the government.The Minister is often required to interrupt his holidays to attend official functions and undertake government business. In order to carry out his considerable workload at the Department of Education and Skills, the Minister carries confidential official papers in the car and works while on route to his destinations. This is considered to be official travel.“
Do try this with your boss today.
Go on.
Previously: Call Us Old-Fashioned
Also: Small Business Minister Claimed €31,867 In Mileage Last Year
Lidl clown is not.
Rathmines, Dublin, yesterday.
Smithfield Horse Fair, Dublin, yesterday.
The awkward moment when a garda tries to check for an electronic tag on an impressively-endowed horse.
Pics by Mark Henderson.
Miriam Cotton writes:
Today – World Autism Awareness Day – we’re celebrating the brilliant, challenging, amazing and truly special people who have autism (including my son, Arthur, above).
Contrary to recent, startling assertions autism is not a condition caused by bad parenting, it is a neurological condition. It cannot be ‘fixed’ but with the right interventions and supports, particularly during the first five years of life, people with autism can learn strategies that greatly help them realise their full potential.
Funding for support like this was never adequate but now, what little there is, is increasingly under threat. There is also a need to improve general awareness of the condition to lessen the stigma and lack of understanding that can make life needlessly difficult for people with autism.
However, today is a day for celebration above all. The fun, genius and fantastic perspective which autistic people bring into the world needs to be better appreciated.
Perhaps people will share some of their experiences on this thread?
Miriam Cotton, April 2, 2012
Spotted on a lamp post outside O’Brien’s pub on Leeson Street, Dublin.
Thanks Chalkea2
Last week I was invited to attend a panel discussion on the new SOPAIreland Copyright Law, tomorrow in the Science Gallery [Dublin]. It was a small panel – Minister Sean Sherlock (above), Paul Durrant representing Ireland’s ISPs, Tom Murphy from Boards.ie representing intermediaries and me.
Last Thursday I got a lunchtime phone call from the event organiser. He told me he’d just got off the phone from speaking to the Minister’s office. The Minister had wanted him to know that unless I was uninvited, he would cancel. A diary clash would arise, was how it was put, I was told.
I agreed to be uninvited.
I have nothing but sympathy for the organiser, who is trying to do something valuable for his developer community. He had first said that the Minister was concerned the panel was too large and should be reduced by one. I said that I knew Tom Murphy wouldn’t mind stepping down. That was when he had to to explain that it had been made clear to him that I was the one who had to be trimmed.
The event is on tomorrow at lunch time (free tickets too) but in my eyes it will represent an opportunity lost. That’s because the Minister has only agreed to attend if everyone on the panel represents a commercial interest. That’s what the Department of Enterprise has long been comfortable with, and that is what the Minister has clearly decided he is comfortable with.
Both Minister Sherlock and his FF predecessors like to talk about copyright being a balancing act between “two sides”. They define those sides as two competing commercial interests – ISPs on the one hand and copyright controllers like EMI et al on the other. In this view, laws should be made to reflect deals done between those two interests.
There is no room for the public interest in that vision. For better or worse, I was on the panel representing the tens of thousands of Irish people who had lobbied the government over the SI as part of the StopSOPAIreland.com campaign. And the Minister didn’t want even one voice from that group to be heard.
There is currently a consultation on the overhaul of copyright law in Ireland running, chaired by TCD law academic Dr. Eoin O’Dell. It held a public meeting last Saturday. Dozens of paid lobbyists turned up on behalf of the National Newspapers of Ireland, the music labels and other rights holders.
When the time came for someone to speak up on behalf of copyright users, ie, everyone else in the country, there was silence.
Money talks, everyone knows that. It can even pay for people to talk for it. But copyright, at its heart, is a question that is more important than money. It effects our culture, our galleries and museums, our ability to discuss current issues and works of art and even how we express ourselves in creating new art. It is the law that says how our society is going to regulate and reward creativity of all sorts.
But how can we have a proper discussion when our Government Ministers decide in advance who they do and don’t want to hear from? And in what sense are they our Government when the people they don’t want to hear from are us?
Simon McGarr, April 2, 2012.
Update: Sean Sherlock responds:
I had stated to Sean Nicholls (organiser) that I wanted some balance on the podium. Mr. Murphy (boards.ie), Paul Durant (ISPAI) would act as panellists and John Kennedy (Silicon Republic) would moderate. McGarr’s name was also suggested as a panellist. I stated that I did not want to share a podium with someone who generated an online campaign that falsely compared the Statutory Instrument to the US SOPA legislation. I stated to Sean that I had an issue with sharing a podium with Mr McGarr and I would not attend if he was on the podium. I wish to make it clear that I expressly stated that I had no issue with Mr McGarr attending the event and I would be happy for him to do so.
More here
11pm Update: It’s Never Too Late For A U-Turn
Digital Rights Forum (Science Gallery)
Stop Sopa Ireland (McGarr Solicitors)
(James Horan/Photocall ireland)
