Yearly Archives: 2016

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Finance Minister Michael Noonan before the Oireachtas Budget Oversight Committee this morning

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is appearing before the Oireachtas Budget Oversight Committee this morning ahead of Budget Day on October 11.

From the meeting…

Noonan to phase out USC over five years (RTE)

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In the 1960s, realising that the surrealist Salvador Dali and the fantasist mathematician Lewis Carroll were quite possibly of a mind, publishers Random House commissioned Dali to create illustrations for a special limited edition of Alice In Wonderland, of which the artist signed every copy.

Long sought after by bibliophiles and making rare appearances at auction, the edition is something of a publishing legend.

For the 150th anniversary of Carroll’s 1865 surrealist masterpiece, Princeton University Press reprinted the original edition.

Above: Dali’s illustrations forThe Mock Turtle’s Story; The Caucus Race and A Long Tail; The Lobster’s Quadrille; The Queen’s Croquet Ground; Down The Rabbit Hole and Advice From A Caterpillar.

lostateminor

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A person sleeps behind the railings of the Custom House in Dublin

The Simon Community released its annual report for 2015 this morning.

The launch of this report followed an early-morning count of the number of people sleeping rough in Dublin.

168 people were counted.

The main findings of the Simon Community’s report are as follows:

10% of people moved out of emergency accommodation into a home

59% of people in emergency accommodation have been homeless for more than two years

32% increase in the numbers counted on Early Morning Rough Sleeping counts in the last year (not including the 60 without a bed in the Merchants Quay Ireland Night Café) 168 counted this morning

31% increase in those accessing Addiction Treatment Services

46% increase in housing capacity, through opening and acquiring 109 new properties in 2015.

59% increase in those accessing Emergency Accommodation

Dublin Simon Community Annual Report 2015 – Key Findings (Simon Community)

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

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People on the Right2Water rally against water charges in Dublin last Saturday

Diarmaid Ferriter misses the point about the movement against water charges. The key to understanding why hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets since 2014 lies not in a discussion about the abolition of rates during the 1970s but in the impact of austerity in this State since 2008.

The communities from which the water protests emerged were those who had suffered most from cutbacks under both Fianna Fáil and coalition governments. They were consistently told that there was no alternative to these policies. But the implementation of water charges was, for many, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The fact that, despite derision from commentators, the movement not only sustained itself but grew, makes it more likely that people will feel that protest over housing, child poverty and numerous other issues may also be successful.

Anyone who wants to see a “civic-minded Irish Republic” should therefore be applauding those who took part in the largest social movement in this country for decades.

Dr Brian Hanley,
Cabra,
Dublin 7.

Water charges and social protest (Irish Times letters page)

Previously: Torrential

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

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So Cow – new album Lisa Marie Airplane

What you may need to know…

01. So Cow is the nom-de-plume of Galwegian Brian Kelly, who rattles out a pretty nifty line of indie-inflected garage-rock.

02. Coming to life in 2005 as Kelly’s recording project while over in Seoul, South Korea (where in 2009, he briefly gained mainstream attention for naming a song after a local actress/model), the band eventually swelled to a three-piece over the course of four full-lengths and a rake of singles/splits.

03. Streaming above in its entirety is fifth album Lisa Marie Airplane Tour. Recorded solo in Kelly’s new home of Spiddal, Co. Galway, the album reflects heavily on the little malaises of rural life with a warm smirk.

04. It received possibly the best album launch in recent times. The following happened last Friday:

Between the hours of 6 and 9 p.m., I’m going to drive my increasingly dangerous and belovedly shitty ’02 Volkswagen Polo around Galway. I’m going to start at THE SMALL CRANE, right outside the Bell Book and Candle (should point out now that they are not official sponsors and should not be subject to any complaints from what may follow).

I’m gonna welcome 4 people who may wish to purchase the album into my car. SEATBELTS MUST BE WORN. I’ll be playing the album on cassette. I’ll drive ye out to Salthill and back. The drive should take 10 minutes. I’ll answer any questions you have about the album. I’ll drop you back at the Bell Book and Candle. You may purchase the album in whatever format if you are so moved. I shall then bring the next group off.

VERDICT: The sound of someone going not-so gently into that good night, but perhaps not wanting to cause a fuss either. Equal parts hilarious and presciently crafted.

So Cow

dundrum

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From top: Dundrum Town centre, part of portfolio of loans known by Nama as Project Jewel: NAMA board member Brian McEnery  British property giant Hammerson’s statement on Project Jewel, June 2016

Nama Wine Lake writes:

On Sunday last, Brian McEnrey a board member of NAMA was on the Marian Finucane show defending NAMA and badmouthing the Comptroller’s report [Into Project Eagle].

During the interview, Mr McEnry made this statement

“Project Jewel, Dundrum Shopping Centre held until we were at the very height of the market and sold for about a billion euros profit into Nama.”

It has some in the property and investment sectors scratching their heads as to how it could be true.

So what is Project Jewel?

This was a portfolio of loans linked to Joe O’Reilly, a NAMA Top 10 borrower. The loans had a par value of €2.57bn and were secured on collateral which included the Dundrum Town Centre shopping centre in south Dublin, Joe O’Reilly’s 50% stakes in the Ilac centre in Dublin city centre and the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords.

Other property collateral included an area around North O’Connell Street/Moore Street which has planning permission for a major new shopping centre.

How much did NAMA pay for Joe O’Reilly’s loans?

We don’t directly know. We do know the loans were acquired in two steps. Step #1 was in 2010 when NAMA acquired loans for the top developers from several Irish banks and building societies (Bank of Ireland, AIB, Anglo, EBS and Irish Nationwide)

Step #2 was unusual, and involved NAMA buying from Ulster Bank its €129m loans which were secured on the Dundrum Town Centre. NAMA paid Ulster Bank par value for the loans, in other words, it paid €129m.

We do know, in general, that NAMA acquired all of its €74bn loans from the banks in 2010-2012 for at an overall 44c in the euro. NAMA paid less for loans which had poor collateral. Dundrum Town Centre and the Ilac and Pavilions would have been considered good collateral.

How much did NAMA sell Project Jewel for?

€1.849bn was the price when NAMA sold the portfolio in early October 2015. The buyer was a venture between the British property giant Hammerson and the insurer Allianz.

Is it possible NAMA made a profit of €1bn on the sale of Project Jewel?

If the sale price was €1.849bn and NAMA made a profit of €1bn, that suggests the NAMA cost of the loans was €849m (€1.849bn minus €1bn). If NAMA paid €129m for the Ulster Bank loans, that suggests the cost of the other loans was €720m (€849m minus €129m).

Deducting the Ulster Bank loans from the par value of Project Jewel suggests the par value of the Step #1 NAMA loans was €2.44bn (€2.57bn minus €129m). That suggests the NAMA cost of €720m versus the par value of €2.44bn was 30c in the euro, which was worse than the average NAMA acquisition price.

The perceived wisdom would be the cost of Joe O’Reilly’s loans would have been greater than the average 44c in the euro because the collateral was so good.

It seems very unlikely to the point of incredibility that NAMA made a €1bn profit on Project Jewel, at least in the way it was presented by NAMA last Sunday.

There may be complicating factors such as the interest charged on the loans by NAMA in 2010-2015, and NAMA may be including that interest in its “profit”, but that would be disingenuous and at odds with how NAMA’s loss on Project Eagle was calculated.

Was October 2015 “the height of the market”?

No, according to the JLL Irish commercial property indices, prices have been increasing for all property, including retail up to June 2016, the latest period for which JLL has issued its indices.

Between Q3,2015 (the end of which NAMA sold Project Jewel) and Q2,2016, Irish commercial property overall has increased by 9.4%, whilst retail, which forms the greatest element of Project Jewel increased by 8.4%.

Q3,2015 was certainly not the “height of the market”.

Are the buyers now making a profit on Project Jewel?

Oh yes, at least on paper. Hammerson, one of the parties to the venture which bought Project Jewel, issued a statement in June 2016 which said:

“Project Jewel was accretive to 2016 EPS and with opportunities for valuation growth, the portfolio provides an attractive projected five year ungeared IRR of 7-8%, excluding development returns”.

Translated into basic finance, Hammerson expects its purchase from NAMA will make a €870m profit in five years, excluding financing costs, and also excluding any unforeseen profits from developing the properties including the property at Upper O’Connell Street.

Yesterday: Taking The Michael

Nama Wine Lake

Rollingnews

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More dirty hurling from anti-choice types?

This time in Cork.

Write ROSA:

A significant number of our lovely posters were taken down over the weekend. Help us fight back against those who are doing their best to silence our voices by sharing, liking and inviting our event entitled Rally for Repeal., and most importantly, to attend this Wednesday……at 8pm, at the Imperial Hotel in Cork cit where Ruth Coppinger TD will speak

ROSA – for Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity

Yesterday: Repellant