Mark Coughlan – Page 23

Digest – Jan 17 2010

Roll up roll up and that jazz.

– HOME

Anthony – typically pulling no punches – on Revenue.

The observations of the Puckstown Lane blogger on banking inquiries, post-bust. Also, Veronica on IrishElection.com.

Simon McGarr fillets this bizarre opinion piece by Breda O’Brien.

Shane Coleman makes a lot of sense in The Sunday Tribune today, highlighting the need for nuanced commentary and analysis. Batt O’Keeffe is a minister I have some time for, he has put his head above the parapet on third level fees and actually made some decisions while in Education. Whatever you think of his decisions – closing schools due to weather in this case – at least he made some, something our Taoiseach could consider doing more often.

Also in the Tribune today, ‘What next for Anglo?‘, ‘The Price of NAMA for taxpayer keeps rising‘ and ‘Glass bottle site valuation ‘ignores emissions’. Their Business section really is top-notch today, the revamp looks like it’ll be a success (I’m not a big fan of the opinion section most weeks however).

I thoroughly enjoy the writing on Booming Back. This post is worth reading in full but the (quite funny) description of the Green Party (written by a former member) is particularly quotable:

The more astute of you will no doubt be pointing out that I used to be a card carrying member of the Green Party. This is true, but I viewed the Greens as a loose collection of activists banded together in an attempt to use collective strength to drive forward their own disparate environmental and social justice agendas, like the Shell to Sea campaign, the Tara bypass, opposition to Shannon Rendition flights and the Poolbeg incinerator. I was wrong. The Greens are in fact a loose collection of folks banded together for the sake of banding together. Social justice and activism seem nowhere on the agenda, the party’s sole drive is to stay in existence, an apolitical Oroborus endlessly devouring itself in an orgy of self-preservation through self-consumption. My mistake, I’ve moved on, and to reference Žižek quoting Beckett, I must fail better next time.

One of the many reasons I nominated Bryan Mukandi in the best blog from a journalist category – if you’re reading, Madam, I reckon his face would look well on the opinion pages.

– WORLD Continue reading “Digest – Jan 17 2010”

Galway stories of interest: council, Gardaí and GAA

There are two very interesting pieces on the front of the Galway City Tribune this week. The lede (main headline item) is “Planning probe into ‘Garda’ signature on GAA document”, with the sub-headline ‘Validity of controversial Pearse Stadium application questioned’.

The second item (not online) is again on questionable planning practices, it’s headed “Council sold residents’ car park in error”. This story appears extremely complicated and is quite difficult to understand on first reading, but it is worth a read. For non-Galwegians: you can view an electronic version of the print edition by clicking the masthead below if you wish to inform yourself further.

The main story is slightly easier to get your head around. Enda Cunningham reports a senior garda has ordered the GAA and Galway City Council to establish who signed a document submitted as part of a contentious planning application for floodlights on Pearse Stadium. The signature, purported to be that of a member of An Garda Siochana, is attached to an official letter from An Garda and was submitted as part of a the traffic management part of the application. The superintendent at Salthill station, Noel Kelly, does not know who signed this letter.

He is quoted a saying:

On the morning of January 6 2010 I went to the planning section of Galway City Council to view the alleged document. […] I have a concern with the document entitled Pearse Stadium/Transort Traffic Arrangements which is attached to Sergeant Moloney’s letter. The [document] purports to be signed by a member of An Garda Siochana. The signature is not mine. It is not my inspector’s or Sergeant Maloney’s signature. No other persons have permissions to sign documents on behalf of An Garda Siochana.”

The GC Tribune also reports that the Council has accused the GAA of misleading them as the the number of games which would be played under the proposed floodlights. Over 100 objections have been lodged against the application by local residents and resident’s associations.

My understanding of the second story is as followings: Galway City Council had granted planning permission for two “badly-needed” schools to the Vocational Education Committee (VEC) on a site near a large housing estate in Doughiska, on the outskirts of the city. It has now emerged that planning permission was then granted for a car park to be built for residents of the housing estate on the same site, this car park has since been built. The planning permission for the car parks was granted to and, it appears, the work carried out by, McInerneys, the company who built the estate. The result is the building of the two schools,which would cater for more than 1000 pupils, may be delayed by up to four years.

It’s an odd story, councillors are even pointing out the lack of transparency surrounding it. A report was submitted about the site to Galway City Council on Friday just after The GC Tribune went to print, I’m going to look for a copy of it tomorrow, if I do get my hands on one I’ll post it here.

Two stories worth keeping an eye on, we’d be interested in hearing about any further developments, of course.

Thanks to Allan for letting us know about them.

The Galway City Tribune is part of the Connacht Tribune Group, you can pick it up around Galway for something like €2.

Transparency Ireland event on Tuesday

Some readers may be interested in attending the Transparency Ireland event taking place next Tuesday in Buswells at 1pm.

The topic will be ‘An alternative to silence – protecting whistle-blowers in Ireland’.

See this link for more information.

Speakers include Eugene McErlean, former internal auditor at AIB, Bernadette Sullivan, former nurse at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Tom Clonan, former officer in the Irish Army and now Irish Times defence correspondent; and John Devitt, Chief Executive of TI Ireland.

Do say hello if you spot me (though I will be off back to work afterwards). Gav will probably be there too.

Kildare kerfuffle: reflected nationally?

This blog post by a former county councillor, Donal Corcoran, has caused quite a kerfuffle over the last few days in Kildare. It details what conferences Kildare County Council was charged for by councillors for tickets to over the last year. Yes, that last sentence appears terribly structured but it’s that way for good reason; it appears county councillors didn’t attend all the conferences for which the claimed the cost of tickets.

To get this straight; councillors didn’t attend conferences for which they requested the council pay for tickets. It doesn’t seem to be them over-claiming on their own expenses, instead they seem to be wasting money by not turning up at conferences which the council paid for them to attend. Complicated sentence structures all ’round but I hope you get my drift.

The Leinster Leader and Kildare FM have followed up the story – Leinster Leader without attributing it to the original source unfortunately (“as seen by this paper” tut tut, what’s wrong with crediting blogs, lads?) – you can get their coverage here and here. (Kildare FM credited the story to Leinster Leader). Jim at Primal Sneeze gave me a heads-up on it earlier in the week, you can read his feelings on the matter at this link.

Strangely, some of Kildare’s reps claimed for attending days like “Maximising Your Vote” and “Get Elected: You the Media”. These seminars appear to be geared towards improving an individual’s personal political potential, not their abilities or understanding of the issues they’re elected by the people of Kildare to cover. They really should be paying for these events out of their own pockets, not yours and mine, right?

Maybe a few of the regional and local journalists and bloggers who read this website will consider contacting their own local authority and ask for similar information. It may available on request without submitting an FOI. We could do with a better picture of what type of seminars councillors are attending in the name of improving the standard of local governance. At the moment I suspect widespread junketeering.

I’d also be interested in hearing from conference organisers, surely councillors don’t turn up at conferences that might be on a Friday, sign-in, stay until lunch and disappear? They’d never do that, especially not conferences held far enough away from their area that they’d have to claim an overnight allowance, surely not?

Incidentally, John Gormley has announced new restrictions on the amounts councillors can spend annually in attending conferences today.

—

If you get similar information from another local authority please do email me at coughlanmp AT gmail DOT com.

Update: Tweet came in from Dermot Looney, councillor in Tallaght, he says, “Those of us who refuse to claim any Conf expenses & divert that money to homeless accomm instead never seem to get a mention!”. I’m further informed that 15 of the 26 South Dublin councillors have pledged to do the same, all party reps bar the Fine Gaelers. Note: I haven’t checked that and am taking Cllr Looney on his word.

If you know of councillors who do other such things get in touch and I’ll be happy to list them here.

Michael Lowry's statement prior to Moriarty report

Michael Lowry just released a statement giving his side of the issues the Moriarty Tribunal has covered. The Tribunal is expected to publish its final report within three weeks. I’m publishing his statement in full here for those interested who may not have received it via email. Any comments will be strictly moderated on this post.

Media lawyers will be pouring over this at the moment. I’ll make no other comment than to note that the Tribunal cannot respond at the moment, obviously. You may remember Denis O’Brien also hit the media a few months ago.

13th January 2010

Statement by Michael Lowry TD:

Regarding the impending publication of the final report of the Moriarty Tribunal of Inquiry

I recently made a request, through my solicitor, to the Moriarty Tribunal to allow me the opportunity at the Tribunal to publicly address all of the evidence given to the Tribunal about the licence process since I last gave my evidence in 2005. It has always been my belief and understanding that I, as the subject person of the Tribunal’s inquiry, would be the last person to give evidence and to address all of the allegations that were made against me. It was my understanding that this was accepted by the Tribunal. However, the Tribunal is now refusing me this right. After eleven years of being investigated by the Moriarty Tribunal, they refuse to allow me time to defend myself in public on the licence process. I am both surprised and disappointed by this response given that I have been forced to endure this highly expensive and personally corrosive examination over this period. You could form the impression that the Moriarty Tribunal is intent on destroying my character, shredding the reputation of the Irish civil servants and damaging the international image of the Irish State. They are attempting to do this in the absence of any real evidence in support of their outlandish theories. There are numerous issues which I have not had the opportunity to address including the evidence of Richard Nesbitt SC, which is material to the awarding of the GSM licence.

Grievances with the Licence Process: Continue reading “Michael Lowry's statement prior to Moriarty report”

Ghost estates in Ireland

Pictures of ghost estates from 2008

Ghost estate? Some interesting new research on ghost estates by Ireland After Nama (IAN) can be studied here. The resultant data map is also worth viewing – the full image is at this link.

Justin Gleeson, Peter Foley and Rob Kitchin found “there are 74 estates [which entered the national address database before December 31 2007]… where over 30 percent of the houses have been under-construction or vacant for over 2 years.”

Considering the property market peaked somewhere around December 2006, it’s fair to conclude the majority of dwellings covered in the research are likely to remain in their respective categories for some time. Why, in two years, would someone buy a house that has been unoccupied for five years, when they could get a brand-spanking-new gaff at a similar price? Of course, that thought-process assumes the property market will be on the up by 2012, as claimed by Government, thus there will be new gaffs to buy. That’s not at all guaranteed. Continue reading “Ghost estates in Ireland”

New Statesman article on Ireland and FF

An article in the latest New Statesman outlines the economic and fiscal policies of Fianna Fáil that has us where we are today.

Failed by Fianna – New Statesman

[…] The cuts announced in December aim to reduce state spending by €4bn this year, but the overall plan is to slash it by €15bn within four years. As total expenditure by the Dublin exchequer was just under €60bn last year, this means that the Irish state is set to shrink by a full quarter in less than half a decade.

At least two generations look destined to pay a painful price for the follies of the golden circles whose scams, swindles and con jobs have lumbered Ireland with zombie banks that make RBS and HBOS look relatively vibrant. Anglo Irish alone may swallow over €30bn of public cash, equivalent to the total revenues collected by the Irish exchequer in the whole of last year.

more below…

[…] Dublin’s fragile coalition government seems far more spooked by the danger of international investors downgrading their country’s credit rating (which would make the cost of borrowing substantially higher) and the spectre of the IMF seizing the financial reins. Dublin is determined to distinguish Ireland from Greece, whose continued profligacy threatens to destabilise the entire eurozone.

[Additional Reading: Greece calls in IMF to help sort out massive debt]

The NS piece is a decent potrait of recent events, albeit one written for an audience not heavily informed on current affairs in Ireland. (Though I’ve never heard an Irish politician being referred to as “Iron Brian”).

The description of Boom-time Ireland as “a land of spivs and speculators and a manufacturing outpost for American multinationals” is concise and accurate. As is the comment “Ireland’s economic miracle was always somewhat hallucinatory, because these US firms… used it as an Atlantic tax haven and route to the EU marketplace”.

One also has to agree “most welfare recipients probably won’t be any worse off [following the Decemeber budget], as the slight fall in their benefits will be offset by the steep fall in prices that Ireland is now experiencing”. Though I would note ‘most’ is a numeric term in this context. AK comments on this topic below…

Unfortunately, the New Statesman writer has missed (or ignored) the recent u-turn on elements of the ‘progressive’ pay cuts proposed for the public sector, which would add some context to that paragraph. Overall though, worth the read, and a damning verdict on the Irish Government of the last decade from an influential overseas magazine.

Guido‘s comment on the piece is, as some would expect, a slanted simplification of the situation (can’t Ireland and the UK both be in economic meltdown concurrently?) which misses the point entirely to get a cheap dig in at the British Government. Suppose, can hardly blame him, they haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory over there either.

Digest – Jan 10 2010

Hear, hear for The Sunday Times editorial (though I disagree with the statement on there being too many TDs).

The government, but also the political establishment generally, must bear most of the responsibility for this lack of civic mindedness. It is a direct descendant of cynicism and weariness with a selfish and at least semicorrupt political system.

If Irish people thought that the country was being run fairly, and that decisions were being genuinely taken in the national interest rather than purely in the self-interest of ministers and political parties, they might sign up as equal partners in the great programme of national self-sacrifice that still lies ahead.

Also from The Sunday Times, ex-politicians paid €40,000 to watch DVDs.

We’re turning a corner!

I was buoyed to see The Sunday Tribune Business section lede ‘Gardaí poised to arrest Anglo Irish Staff‘ having heard about the Criminal Assets Bureau raiding the home of a top-ranking Limerick bank boss earlier in the week. Unfortunately other stories on the same page include:

[SPIN WARNING]: ‘Referendum needed for banking crisis probe (says head of the Oireachtas regulatory committee, a Fianna Fáil TD)’,

‘Anglo-Nationwide investment [made with taxpayers’ money] will be lost‘

and ‘Trio of insiders in race for AIB job‘.

Elsewhere, TDs expenses hit a record high last year, according to The Sunday Independent, don’t worry, the Independent Electoral Commission will solve all this, all of it. Ehem.

Gerard O’Neill (economist) of Amárach Research offers to buy Eamonn Ryan a subscription to Sky TV.

– WORLD

The of data analysis and mapping is still in its infancy. However, this one of The Underpants Bombers’ online activities is interesting reading (and viewing, see below, though you’ll need to read the post, or this one, for some semblance of context). Every journalist should have a gander and good think about the possibilities. An English and History degree might have been useful when looking to land a job in the media over the last ten years, but over the next twenty will a Computer Science one be more valuable? Methinks it may.

Continue reading “Digest – Jan 10 2010”

Letter in Irish Times on Ahern's tax exemption

8 Jan 2010

Madam, – When I wrote a biography of Brendan Bracken I was denied the artists’ tax exemption by the Revenue because a biography, being a recital of facts, did not rank as an original and creative work. Are we to infer from their determination in relation to Mr Ahern’s memoirs that they are fiction? – Yours, etc,

CHARLES LYSAGHT,

Strand Road,

Merrion,

Dublin 4.

I was under the impression that the Arts Council judged whether work warranted the exemption or not – possibly incorrect.

Bertie Ahern and the artists' tax exemption

Bono, Enya, Elvis Costello, Maeve Binchey, Louis Walsh and now Bertie Ahern . Who’da thunk.

Section 195 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is the legislation under which Bertie Ahern claimed his tax exemption as an artist of ‘cultural or artistic merit’. The exemption was introduced by Ahern’s mentor, Charles J. Haughey, in 1969 as a way to encourage individuals with artistic talent to work in, or continue working in, the Arts. Until 2006 when a €250,000 cap was placed on the level of tax-free earnings, all income through artistic endeavor was completely tax free (this cap has since been lowered to €125,000). Last year the Commission on Taxation recommended a completely abolished, though arts minister Martin Cullen has rejected that out-right.

Judging by details available on claimants since 2001, somewhere near three quarters of claimants each year – approx 800 to 1000 individuals – sought exemptions on less than one and a half times the average industrial wage (excuse the ill-defined figures, inflation and other economic flucuations mitigate against exactitude). Approximately half that number were claiming on less than one third of the same figure. Quite rightly too, it was brought in help struggling artists and encourage people not working full-time in the area to produce work of note, despite what some wealthy artists will try to tell you. Continue reading “Bertie Ahern and the artists' tax exemption”