Category Archives: News

news as it is happening-ish

Will it be

1) A number of senior and mid-ranking officials at the Department of Finance?

2) The person whose job it was to spot these errors?

3) Nobody?

YOU decide.

TWO OFFICIAL reports on the €3.6 billion discrepancy in the Government’s debt figures have concluded there was duplication of effort between agencies, failures in communications and reporting, as well as lack of resources for key statistical work.

An internal Government report prepared for the Department of Finance and an external review carried out by consultants Deloitte and Touche have both concluded the responsibility for compiling the statistics should rest with one agency, the Central Statistics Office, rather than it being shared with the Department of Finance.

Lest we forget…

The secretary general of the department when the accounting error occurred, Kevin Cardiff, was rejected for the post of European Court of Auditors by a budgetary committee of the European Parliament by one vote in November last year. The European Parliament later overturned the recommendation by the budget committee to nominate Mr Cardiff to the post which carries a salary of €276,000 per year.

 

Finance Should Lose Key Role After €3.6bn Error, Say Reports (Harry McGee and Simon Carswell, Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

 

The public endorsement of the EU fiscal compact “removes a potential source of considerable uncertainty about Ireland’s future funding” as the vote has removed the immediate concern about where Ireland could find a second bailout, Fitch said.

…Fitch said, however, that the vote had not increased the chances of Ireland’s credit rating being upgraded.

Oh.

So, how about the bank debt?

Germany has cast doubt on any deal on bank debt following the fiscal treaty referendum outcome, saying it would be a “negative signal” to reopen Ireland’s bank rescue arrangements.

Ah.

Fitch Says Timing Of Irish Return To Markets ‘Unclear’ (Simon Carswell, Irish Times)

Irish Fiscal Compact Vote Removes Uncertainty (Fitch Ratings)

Berlin says bank deal for Ireland would send wrong signal (Derek Scally, Arthur Beesley, Irish Times)

pic

St Manchan’s Shrine, an intricate bronzework, was stolen this afternoon.

Suspicions were raised about a car that was seen in the area, travelling between Boher and Shannonbridge. Two males were subsequently arrested on the M5 at Ronanstown, Co Dublin, and were taken into custody.

The men are being transported back to Tullamore Garda Station for questioning in relation to the theft.

‘Priceless’ artefact stolen from church in Co Offaly (RTE News)

pic

Above: Anglo HQ and the Irish Glass Bottle site.

MINISTER FOR the Environment Phil Hogan is to wind up the Dublin Docklands Development Authority in the wake of a report’s “damning findings” on its activities during the property boom.

The report, by the State’s spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, was published last night. It has disclosed serious shortcomings in the authority’s conduct of its planning and development, particularly its involvement in the purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site in 2007.

The site was bought for €431 million by a consortium that included the authority, but is now valued at a little over one-tenth of that, at €45 million.

Ah here. They developed the Docklands.

Oh, wait now.

Minister to wind up docklands authority (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

Relax.

Not to us.

MORE THAN 14,000 current and former staff of Eircom are set to share a tax-free windfall of about €125 million following a decision by the board of the employee share ownership trust (Esot) to wind it up after the company recently emerged from examinership with new owners.

This would amount to an average tax-free payout to Esot scheme members of €8,928.

Since the establishment of the Esot in late 1998, members have received, on average, about €62,500 each, depending on when they joined the trust.

Eircom share trust members to get €125m tax-free windfall (Irish Times)

Oh, wait now…

WASTE COMPANY Greyhound has been ordered to remove almost 3,000 tonnes of its waste that was being illegally stored on a farm in Co Kildare.

The company, which took over Dublin City Council’s domestic waste collection service last January, had been using the farm near Nurney to stockpile accumulated waste.

The firm’s waste had been processed and bailed before storage. It was left sitting on hard stands outdoors on the farm, which was not licensed or permitted for the storage of waste, according to Kildare County Council.

Greyhound ordered to take 3,000 tonnes of waste off farm (Irish Times)

pic

THE 10 MOST expensive prescription drugs in the Republic’s biggest pharmacy chain are to fall in price by an average of 25 per cent. This will save people on medications for conditions including asthma and heart disease up to €300 a year.

The savings are the result of a dramatic overhaul of the Boots Ireland pricing model. It has abandoned the traditional 50 per cent mark-up that pharmacists add to the cost price of a drug on top of a €5 dispensing fee, in favour of a single €7 “professional services fee” that will be added to the cost price of drugs.

Industry sources said last night the move is likely to spark a prescription drug price war with other chains forced to follow suit.

Good news.

That can’t be right, can it?

Chain to cut drug prices by average of 25% (Conor Pope, Irish Times)

Well, you know what they’ve always said about it…

SINN FÉIN support is continuing to grow and the party is now attracting more than twice as many voters as the Labour Party, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll.

The poll also shows Fine Gael retaining its position as the biggest party in the State, while support for Fianna Fáil has increased for the first time since the last general election.

Satisfaction with the Government has increased since the last Irish Times poll five weeks ago but satisfaction with Taoiseach Enda Kenny has slipped.

FG 32% (-1)
SF 24% (+3)
FF 17% (+3)
Ind/Others 15% (-2)
Lab 10% (-3)
GP 2% (no change)

Sinn Féin Now Twice As Popular As Labour, Poll Shows (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

CHILD PROTECTION guidelines issued this week by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) conclude with an observation that there is no “juridical obligation” on bishops to report “illicit facts” to the police.

*moment of stunned silence*

US abuse victims’ group Snap was one of many to condemn the document, saying: “Once again the Catholic Church hierarchy has missed the boat . . . These prelates had a chance to do more than the bare minimum and thus set a good example for their colleagues around the world by putting the safety of children first and foremost, but they chose instead to put the reputation of the church first.”

No Legal Obligation To Report Abuse, Bishops Told (Paddy Agnew, Irish Times)