Monthly Archives: May 2012

Seriously.

Come on.

Allied Irish Banks will have to increase pay for hundreds of workers because senior executives received nearly €4m in secret bonuses allegedly designed to prevent them from abandoning the State-owned institution.

A human resources bank official told [a] tribunal that the secret bonuses, which included £426,000 paid to 24 senior managers at [AIB’s Northern ireland unit] First Trust in Northern Ireland, were “retention payments”.

...The payments were made last year and the recipients were warned not to tell anybody they’d received the cash.

 

AIB staff To Get Pay Hikes As ‘Secret Bonuses’ For Senior Chiefs Revealed (John Mulligan, irish Independent)

We don’t usually do this but.

David Knowles writes:

Can you help us out! My wife’s bike got nicked from our home [Grosvenor Square, Rathmines, Dublin] sometime early this morning. It’s a Pashley Princess.

It is about three years old and was a surprise birthday present after she saw one but thought it was too expensive. I just got a bike myself yesterday so we could cycle together over the summer.

 

Anyone?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U65bkyAglLc

Golden-throated songstress Carol Keogh (above singing Into The Blue on RTE Two’s  When Under Ether) is at Stag’s Head Raw (the new home of Irish music), upstairs at the Stag’s Head, Dame Court, Dublin, on Sunday night  Support from Jenny Mangan.

8pm. €10.

Carol Keogh

No cash, favours, etc., were given for this post

 

You may recall the disturbingly cosy text messages between IBRC (formerly Anglo) chief executive Mike Aynsley and property developer Paddy McKillen.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has now said he wrote to the bank’s chairman Alan Dukes seeking assurances in relation to the messages.

And In reply to a parliamentary question, Mr Noonan said that “in the opinion of the bank” the text messages were “an appropriate and necessary communication to confirm to the client the outcome of the board’s deliberation with regard to the future of his loans”.

He said he was told by the bank that text messaging is “a normal means of communicating with people quickly and efficiently in certain circumstances, in particular with clients who travel regularly and who do not have immediate access to email”.

And, you know, he’s cool with that.

Noonan hasn’t always had such faith in bankers..

In 2009: 

Fine Gael Limerick East TD Michael Noonan said the banks had misled the public, the Dail and their shareholders over an 18-month period by saying there was “no problem here, no toxic loans”. “If lying was an Olympic sport, we could put out a team of bankers and they would win gold for Ireland,” he told the Dail last night.

Bankers Lied To Public Over Extent Of Toxic Property Loans (Irish Independent, September 23, 2009)

And in 2010:

But on RTE’s ‘This Week’ programme, Mr Kenny increased the pressure on the Government to hold an inquiry into the causes of the banking crisis.He said he was prepared to nominate former party leader Michael Noonan to lead an all-party committee investigation.He said it was necessary to find out what went wrong in the banking sector. “This affects every single person. The Government are afraid to have an inquiry. Every minister says of course we’ll have an inquiry, but not yet,” he said.”A small few inside a golden circle — closely associated with the majority party in Government, Fianna Fail — have walked away with bulging pockets out of this, to the detriment of every other taxpayer in the country. That’s not the sense of values I have, and that’s why we need an inquiry now into why this happened,” he said.

Hopes Of Early Vote Unlikely Concedes Kenny (Irish Independent, January 11, 2010)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

Joe Collins at Nutmeg clothing writes:

I’ve created a Leinster tee that will go to print, only of they win. Leinster fans have for too long a ‘good’ rep, we want to readdress this. BTTB is not a pretty image of Jamie or a picture of the cup (if you want that, Elverys can be got at 1890 209 309), this is our hardrockbadboytee. Printed on 100% cotton soft no collar shirt. I’m turning preppy D4 heads into smelly rockers.

We have three tees to give away IF THEY WIN.

To enter just finish this sentence.

I deserve the Blue To The Bone Leinster Tee because…

Blue To The Bone Tee (Nutmeg)