35 thoughts on “De Friday Papers

  1. eoin

    Italian Competition Authority publishes English-language version of its decision to impose anti-cartel fines on companies including the Italian arm of Smurfit.

    https://en.agcm.it/en/media/press-releases/2019/8/ICA-corrugated-cardboard,-fines-of-over-€287-million-for-the-main-manufacturing-companies

    Smurfit deny wrong doing but they’ve stumped up €147 million.

    When was the last time the Irish competition authority imposed a fine on a company for anti-competitive behaviour?

  2. eoin

    Congratulations to all at Broadsheet for overtaking Maximum Media/Niall McGarry’s Joe.ie in Ireland in the website league table [Broadsheet at #262, Joe at #270], and of course Broadsheet.ie leaves Maximum’s Her.ie in the dust.

    https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/broadsheet.ie

    [“next year” has arrived darlings, even if it’s just on paper]

  3. eoin

    Irish Times publishes encomium to glorified knackeryman Larry Goodman whose wealth quadrupled last year to €2.4 billion.

    At the same time, beef farmers are at the pin of their collars and protesting outside beef processing plants across the country.

  4. eoin

    A non-for-profit organisation on the front page of the Examiner which is certainly in the running for the most useless collective in Ireland [and that is saying something]

    Did you know the Advertising Standards in Ireland won’t investigate complaints about government advertising. I don’t mean political advertising, but advertising by government agencies. The ASAI says such advertising is not in their remit.

    In the UK, their ad standards agency does police all advertising [except political advertising which is scrutinised by Ofcom].

    What proportion of all advertising in Ireland is government? I’d guess it’s 20%+ and in some media, eg RTE radio, I’d guess it’s 40%+.

      1. eoin

        Have a listen to RTE Radio 1 sometime. Maybe it’s just me or the progs I listen to but I’d say nearly all the ads during the weekend 1pm shows are from government agencies like the HSE, RSA etc. Doesn’t the RSA alone has an ad budget of around €4m a year. The HSE’s must be huge. And they’re just two government agencies.

  5. eoin

    It’s a raid!

    The Irish Times was given the story by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland that it was raiding a bottled water producer in Monaghan.

    https://www.fsai.ie/home.html

    I can’t recall, but did the FSAI raid any beef processors during the horse meat scare?

  6. eoin

    It’s a small world.

    The “Racing Post” above was founded in 1986 by someone who is becoming very familiar to an Irish audience, Dubai dictator Mo McToom.

    Mo sold out in 2016 to Exponent Private Equity but Mo himself has reportedly retained ownership of the title.

  7. eoin

    Is convicted Kinahan drug trafficking organisation member Fred Thompson getting legal-aid for his complaint about his prison conditions?

    Court reporting suggests he was granted legal aid for an appeal of his conviction.

    How much is this costing us?

  8. Batty Brennan

    That story about the missing girl Nora Quoinin would tear your heart. Did anyone else hear that airhead on RTE1 Drivetime ask the guy on the other end of the phone about “Witch Doctors” and “voodoo”? He was noticeably lost for words for a second or two. Like, WTAF?

    1. martco

      oh I heard that…utter car crash stuff

      BUT you’ll be delighted to know that it now appears that RTE have got their OB squad on the ground at the resort to shore it up with some vacuous interviews. someone called Samantha Libreiri? reported in this morning, the voxpop stuff was great, you should listen back & appreciate how well your licence fees are being spent.

      hopefully after all the hard work Samantha & the crew will get a few days to themselves to catch a few rays…

  9. Joxer

    interesting that Farmers are allowed to stop workers carrying out their work and the Garda stand by and let them. And yet it wasn’t so long ago that the same reason was used to explain why the Garda had to batter protesters stopping workers from putting in water meters.

  10. Murtles

    So politicians claim €9 million in expenses (on top of their inflated salaries) for everything from coffee mornings to restaurant meals for “policy meetings” – Sean Canney being the master of meals racking up €3,200 in various eateries, yet the Dept of Education expect parents to borrow from credit unions for iPads. Joke of a country.

  11. Ron

    And as usual it will be rural Ireland and the farmers that will hold the political filth to account. Whilst the rest of the impotent electorate are so busy chucking stones through their glass houses, the farmers of this country are out on the streets standing up for themselves.

    Support the farmers and learn how to effectively protest for change. I hope they shut this banana republic down with their protest until they get what they are entitled too.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      It’s the farmers who keep FFG in government. Maybe they should really hold FFG to account and dump them out next election.

  12. eoin

    Shady minister Richard Bruton awards a drilling licence to Chinese-backed Providence resources, for drilling off the coast Cork. If they cock up with an oil spill [God forbid], they have to stump up the best part of €1 billion to cover environmental damage, damage to tourism, clean-up costs and such. I’d be very interested to see what evidence was produced by Providence by way of indemnity…

    Also, why is FG speaking from one side of its mouth about cutting carbon emissions, the dairy herd etc, and at the same time granting dangerous drilling licences to Chinese-backed fossil fuel companies?

    Also, has Enda Kenny, a director of the Ireland China Foundation been lobbying on behalf of the Chinese?

  13. eoin

    This lunchtime, the EUR:GBP is nearing 93p as the UK sees a decline in GDP in the second quarter of 2019. Was the decline in Q2,2019 just down to the build up of stocks in Q1 ahead of planned Brexit in March? Not really, production was down in April, that’s true, but it recovered in May but now it’s down in June. This is the first quarter since 2012 that GDP declined. If there’s a decline in Q3,2019, then disco! the UK will be technically in recession.

    What was Boris saying “if you bet against Britain, you’ll lose your shirt”? Looks like if you bet against sterling and the UK economy, you’d be quids in (even if the quids are worth less than before!).

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