This morning.
Lad Lane (fnarr), Dublin 2.
Telly’s Jennifer Zamparelli, reigning ambassador for Durex’s #OrgasmsForAll campaign with fellow “frustrated” women at the launch of a movement to end bedroom inequality.
According to a Durex survey just 15% of women orgasm every time they have sex, compared to 56% of men and this campaign “aims to shine a light on the issue and get couples talking in order to bridge the pleasure gap”.
Clampers Outside must never see this.
Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
Forms in Space… by Light (in Time) by Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans – a convoluted kilometre and a half of neon lighting suspended from the ceiling of London’s Tate Gallery.
The swooping, abstracted forms were inspired by Japanese Noh Theatre (sure that’s noh theatre at all, etc.) and choreology, wherein dance is expressed as notational form.
Noh for yeh.
Angela Kerins before the Public Accounts Committee in 2014
The Public Accounts Committee will have to pay two thirds of former Rehab boss Angela Kerins’ legal costs after her failed High Court action.
Ms Kerins lost her personal injury claim against PAC [concerning two days of grilling about payments to the charity] after the court said it could not make any judgment on utterances made inside the oireachtas (see REDACTED for details).
So…why are ‘we’ lumbered with the bill?
Legal Coffee Drinker writes:
Order 99 Rule 1(1) of the Rules of the Superior Courts provides that the
“costs of and incidental to every proceeding in the Superior Courts shall be in the discretion of those courts respectively…”.
Order 99 Rule 1(4), further provides:
“…the costs of every issue of fact or law raised upon a claim or counterclaim, shall, unless otherwise ordered, follow the event…”.
This gives the courts a wide discretion in relation to costs which has been limited by rules laid down in case law.
The leading case is the decision of the Supreme Court in Dunne v Minister for the Environment [2008] 2 IR 775. The issue under appeal was whether or not an individual who had brought an unsuccessful legal challenge to the construction of a motorway near a site of archaeological interest should be entitled to their costs.
The Supreme Court held that that the normal rule was that the costs of every proceeding followed the event but that the courts always retained discretion in relation thereto.
There was no fixed rule or principle determining the ambit of that discretion and, in particular, no overriding principle which determined that it had to be exercised in favour of an unsuccessful plaintiff in specified circumstances or in a particular class of case.
The fact that a plaintiff was not seeking a private personal advantage and that the issues raised were of special and general public importance were factors which could be taken into account along with all other circumstances of the case in deciding whether there was sufficient reason to exercise a discretion to depart from the general rule that costs followed the event.
However, the two principles, in themselves, were not the determining factors in any category of cases which could be described as public interest litigation.
In that case the Supreme Court overturned an order awarding the unsuccessful applicant his costs, saying that:
“undoubtedly the fact that a plaintiff is not seeking a private personal advantage and that the issues raised are of special and general public importance are factors which may be taken into account, along with all other circumstances of the case, in deciding whether there is sufficient reason to exercise a discretion to depart from the general rule that costs follow the event.
However, insofar as the learned High Court Judge may have considered that the two principles to which she referred are in themselves the determining factors in a category of cases which may be described as public interest litigation, I do not find that the authorities cited support such an approach…”.
Recently United Left TD Joan Collins was awarded 75% of her legal costs in her unsuccessful challenge to the promissory notes issued by the Minister for Finance in favour of Anglo Irish Bank and the Educational Building Society.
The three-judge divisional High Court ruled that it was an exceptional case which merited a departure from the normal rule regarding costs. Given the exceptional nature of the litigation, it awarded her 75%.
In that case, Joan Collins had no ‘private personal advantage’ in the success of her legal claim. The Kerins case is different in this respect.
However the decision in Dunne, while acknowledging that lack of private personal advantage might be a factor to be taken into account in deciding on costs, did not absolutely rule out an award of costs in such a case.
The test which is applied in deciding on costs is ‘exceptionality’ – something which still leaves a lot of discretion to the trial judge.
In the Kerins case, the court appears to have regarded the issue involved as of sufficient public importance to override the fact that the case was of private personal advantage.
FIGHT!
PAC must pay two-thirds of Kerins’ legal costs (RTÉ)
Pic: Oireachtas.ie
‘sup?
Not while Lindt are around!
Lia Stokes writes:
Now celebrating their 10-year partnership – the team at Lindt Chocolate Ireland are planning to Make Easter Sweet for Temple Street yet again, by bringing the magic of Easter to Dundrum Town Centre with their Lindt Gold Bunny Personalisation Pop-up.
From this Friday to Saturday, Dundrum Town Centre customers will be given the opportunity to personalise their very own Lindt Gold Bunny 200g for just €6, with funds raised going to Temple Street Children’s University Hospital.
To help launch the campaign, we’ve got FIVE 1KG bunnies to give away. Five!
To enter, please complete this rhyming couplet:
‘Roses are red,
Lindt bunnies are gold,
_________________
__________________’
Lines MUST close at 5.45pm MIDNIGHT
Brake Free – an autonomous LED brake light that attaches to the back of a biker’s helmet, activating when internal sensors detect deceleration.
Currently funding (and available to pre-order) on Indiegogo.
From top: Water funding committee; Kildare County Council independent Councillor Brendan Young
The Oireachtas Committee on the Funding of Water is embroiled in last minute disagreements over recommendations for its final report which will be voted in the Dáil on April 14.
A situation former Environment Minister and irish Water enthusiast Alan Kelly described as “farcical” this morning.
So what are the sticking points?
Right2Water activist Brendan Young explains:
I have seen the recommendations for funding water. The Committee has rejected the domestic water charge regime proposed by Fine Gael and Labour.
But Fine Gael also wants a domestic water tax – clauses 1.4 and 1.5 of the recommendations to the Oireachtas Committee show this.
The Committee yesterday voted against Fine Gael and changed clause 1.4 a. to say funding should be “dedicated from within existing general taxation” – rather than allow a “dedicated” water tax.
While the Committee majority also voted to change the first sentence of Clause 1.5 to say “The Committee recommends that domestic water use should be funded through general taxation”, that clause still says “such funding must be clearly identifiable within existing taxation”.
This opens the door to an “identifiable” water tax to replace the charges. It opens the possibility of a water tax for PAYE workers…
…The Committee also voted to delete the proposal in clause 1.5 that the State should be a customer of the utility: if the State was to pay IW as its ‘customer’, it could be compelled under EU Competition law to allow other operators to compete to provide the service.
The recommendations also include metering of all new-build housing and apartment blocks, supposedly to tackle “wasteful use”.This is a Trojan Horse for future charges: Welsh Water told the Oireachtas Committee that the only function for domestic meters is to charge people. They said district meters are the best way to deal with leaks and big users, with which the Committee agrees.”
Something about anniversaries that just makes for a great hook for a story, isn’t there? Hit Parade knew this when they reconvened last year for a tenth-anniversary show, but in filming a new video for founder Conor O’Malley’s tune Shake of Hands (The Heart), the band has created a little something more.
They write:
Last year (we) reunited for a 10 year anniversary where we performed a charity gig at Dublin’s Workman’s Club, recorded a new song, and filmed an accompanying short film.
Shot in black and white, the new video for “Shake of Hands (The Heart)” finds band members starring in their own urban tale. The setting is contemporary Dublin, and as the song’s plaintive lyrics and Rickenbackers ring out, an intense chess game unfolds, intercut with street shots and religious imagery.
The short film is directed by Hit Parade members Conor Purcell and Conor O’Malley, screenplayed by Conor Purcell, and filmed and edited by award winning videographer Daniel Dalton. Music and lyrics were written by Conor Purcell, performed by Hit Parade, and recorded and mixed by Daniel Doherty at Darklands Audio, Dublin.
They won’t save your bacon.
But you might get a hug.
Michali Hyams writes:
Just wanted to share this lovely random act of kindness on Friday. I stopped my car for three minutes on the Rathmines Road (Dublin 6) to run into the Post Office. As there was a bus stoppage and the bus stop was not in use, I thought that this wouldn’t cause a problem.
Anyway, the clampers got me and the lovely people in Pot Bellied Pig came over and gave me a brownie (above) to help me turn my day around. I was also given a lovely hug and offered some tea. What lovely lovely people!
Needless to say, the brownie was delicious.
FIGHT!
Crash Ensemble – contemporary Dublin ensemble
What you may need to know…
01. Crash Ensemble was formed in 1997 by composer Donnacha Dennehy, and are dedicated to bringing the contemporary to the classical sphere, in particular the commission and performance of work by new artists.
02. They’ve worked with a range of leading lights in new music, numbering among them: Steve Reich, Gavin Friday, Dawn Upshaw, Terry Riley, David Lang, Íarla Ó Lionáird, Julie Feeney, Gerald Barry, Gavin Bryars, Michael Gordon, David Lang and Louis Andriessen. They’ve also received 5-star reviews from the like of the Guardian.
03. Streaming above is their performance, led by Katie Kim, of Kim’s Wide Hand, as part of Salt Interventions, their collaborative live reinterpretation of Kim’s Choice-nominated album Salt.
04. You can witness this collaboration for yourself live on Saturday night, as Salt Interventions takes in a Dublin date at the Grand Social, as part of the MusicTown programme of events.
Thoughts: Approaching their twentieth anniversary, Crash Ensemble remain at the forefront of music in Ireland.
