Category Archives: News

news as it is happening-ish

CUTS OF up to 87 per cent have been imposed on the legal fees sought by witnesses to the planning tribunal, according to figures from the Department of the Environment.

Eight of the 76 parties who have settled their legal costs of representation at the inquiry have had their fees reduced by at least half, while 32 parties have suffered cuts of at least one-quarter.

So far, the tribunal has cost €98 million, according to figures compiled by the department for the committee. This includes €30 million in tribunal costs, €50 million to pay for its legal teams, €15 million on court cases and €10 million on third-party costs.

Major Cuts To Legal Fees Of Tribunal Witnesses (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

Thirteen.

Last week it emerged they had purchased up to 21 properties in Dublin, most of them in south city areas, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and are still the owners of the bulk of these apartments.

It has now emerged that the couple, who are aged 71 and 63 respectively, are also the owners of 13 apartments in the Isle of Dogs area of London.

It is believed the couple bought these apartments in the late 2000s. Efforts to contact them yesterday were not successful.

You tried twanging on the guy-ropes, did you?

Evicted Pair Own 13 Flats In London (Colm Keena and Eoin Burke Kennedy, Irish Times)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

THE NETHERLANDS is on the verge of a general election this morning after the collapse of austerity talks aimed at bringing its budget deficit within EU limits by 2013 – giving rise to new concerns that it could also now lose its coveted triple-A international credit rating.

Triple-a, eh?

The package being finalised is believed to have proposed increasing the state pension age to 66 in 2015 rather than 2020, a cut of €750 million in development aid, a new €9 charge for every medical prescription, the abolition of tax relief on interest-only mortgages, cuts in subsidies to public broadcasters, an increase in VAT, and an across-the-board freeze in public sector salaries and benefits.

What? No household charge? Puh-lease.

Dutch Government On Verge Of Collapse After Talks Fail (Irish Times)

Meanwhile:

As voters in France also delivered their initial verdict on who should lead them for the next five years, and whether they would favor more austerity or stimulating growth, the Czech government was rattled this weekend by popular protests against budget cuts and increased hardship.

 

Netherlands Pushes for Austerity Cuts Even As Debt Crisis Deals Blow To Leadership (New York Times)

Mark Rutte pic (3DN/The Holland Bureau)

VODAFONE IS to refund nearly €2 million to more than 50,000 customers who it overcharged to access a range of premium-rate services including telephone sex lines and so-called psychic phone lines over a period of more than three years.

The company said the billing error only emerged after it carried out an internal audit of premium-rate numbers.

Vodafone To Refund €2m To 50,000 Customers (Irish Times)

Right. here we go again…

Labour Party deputies will be expected to vote against a Bill in the Dáil today which seeks to legislate for the “X-case” abortion ruling, despite expressing support for such a move at last week’s party conference.

Following a 1992 Supreme Court ruling – known as the X-case – abortion has been legal in circumstances where there is a substantial risk to the life of the mother.
However, successive governments have not enacted legislation to give full effect to the ruling.

A Private Members’ Bill put forward by Socialist Party TD Clare Daly, along with People Before Profit TD Joan Collins and Independent TD Mick Wallace, seeks to create a legal framework for abortion in Ireland where a woman’s life is at risk.

TDs To Vote Against Bill Despite Party’s Calls For Legislation (Irish Times)

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Well you can’t have it, sicko. Jeez.

Bidders at Adams auction house on Stephen’s Green at 11am this morning were due to vie for a tangled lock of Michael Collins’ hair – taken from his body as he lay in state by his sister Kitty. The starting price would have been €3000 – €5000.

Respectfully withdrawn from auction yesterday, the hair will now be donated to the National Museum.

Proper order. Harrumph.

Next week, a medical swab used to wipe the Big Fella’s face before he was embalmed will be auctioned at Mealy’s. A snip at €450 – €600.

Michael Collins’s hair to go to museum after sale abandoned (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

HOUSEHOLDS WILL pay an average of €39 per annum over 20 years to cover the cost of the loan from the National Pension Reserve Fund to install water meters in one million Irish homes.

Government sources confirmed yesterday the cost per household, based on the size of the NPRF loan, would work out at about €780, but that the cost would be levied as a standing charge over a period of two decades, in much the same way as such charges are already imposed by other utilities such as the ESB and Bord Gáis.

Oh, Joe Higgins is going to love this.

Households Face €39 Charge For 20 years On Water Meters (Irish Times)

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The ECB has been caught red-handed trying to change the text of a speech of one of its executive board members in Ireland on Friday. Joerg Asmussen had originally said that:

“the main reasoning [for the repayment of unsecured bondholders of Irish banks] was to ensure that no negative spillover effects would be created to other Irish banks or to banks in other European Countries.”

However, the reference to “banks in other countries” was whitewashed from the full transcript that was later released online on the ECB website. Presumably the fact that Irish taxpayers’ money is being used to support the owners of private banks in foreign countries is too embarrassing to admit – even for the ECB.

ECB Caught Changing Embarrassing Transcript (Spreadbetting)

Irish Taxpayer Sacrificed to Prop Up Eurozone Banks – German ECB board Memeber Speaks Truth (Guido Fawkes Blog)

So we pay for the meters and they’re installed for free…

Mr Kenny said he could not comment on the likely cost of the meters as this would have to be decided by the regulator. The cost of installation would be covered by a loan from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, he said.

Over a million homes will require meters to be installed by the end of next year if water charges are to be introduced on schedule in 2014, as set out in the EU-ECB-IMF deal.

The Department of The Environment claims that the installation cost of €300 – €350 per unit is based on ‘pure speculation’ and that the cost could vary ‘depending on the location of the property’

So, good news for anyone selling cheap-ass water meters. And these guys.

Kenny Says Householders Will Pay For Water Meters (Kitty Holland, Irish Times)

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A dossier submitted by An Taisce in 2009 to then minister John Gormley detailed 23 planning cases where the council management’s decisions “clearly conflicted with the [Dublin] City Development Plan and/or architectural heritage guidelines”.

During the boom, it said the council “accommodated and even encouraged development proposals grossly out of proportion to their surroundings and in breach of the development plan, including several high-rise buildings within the historic city core”.

But that’s outrageous, surely?

AN TAISCE’S complaint that Dublin City Council management had “systematically disregarded” its own planning policies by approving high-rise schemes during the boom will not be investigated further by the Department of the Environment.

Oh.

Inquiry into flouting of rules on Dublin high-rise dropped (Frank McDonald, Irish Times)