Shay Conway

The Irish Independent

2012-01-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

My favourite piece on the Indo. Nothing has changed.

"Remembering the Past: Irish Independent - a century supporting rich and powerful

BY SHANE Mac THOMÁIS

The Irish Independent famously On 3 January 1905, 101 years ago, the Irish Independent was launched by William Martin Murphy.

James Larkin once referred to Murphy as the "most foul and vicious blackguard that ever polluted any country... a capitalistic vampire".

During the 1913 Lockout, when the downtrodden workers of Dublin took to the streets for better conditions, Murphy used his paper to beat them into submission with a description of his workers as the "poor and have naught, but if they were rich tomorrow, debauchery would soon have them in poverty again".

He called for the execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. It continued its anti-republican ways during the Tan War and in December 1919, a group of 20 IRA men destroyed the printing works of the paper.

The Independent naturally took the pro-Treaty side during the Civil War and at the fall of the Four Courts in 1922, it wrote: "To save a Republic that never existed in fact, a number of young men, partly blustering bullies, partly fanatics honest with the terrible honesty of a monomania, partly boys with no mind but for an escapade, broke away from the army of the nation, set themselves up as the directing force of the country, plunder and destroy, threaten and lie, uniting all their diverse qualities of bravado, unreason and irresponsibility to render any government impossible but theirs."

In 1924, the traditional conservative nationalist newspaper, the Freeman's Journal, merged with the Irish Independent. For the rest of its history, the Independent continued to peddle a virulently right-wing editorial line. It gave political allegiance to Cumann na nGaedhael and later Fine Gael. It urged Irish support for the fascist General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. On the 10 August 1936 the Independent told its readers that "nuns bodies were been thrown on the streets of Barcelona". Readers were informed that the fascist Blueshirt leader Eoin O'Duffy was to set up an Irish brigade to fight for Franco and "stop a workers republic, a farmers republic or any other form of republic in Spain".

In the 1970s, the Independent was taken over by Tony O'Reilly, a seller of baked beans, who was shaped in the mould of the papers first proprietor. Under O'Reilly's control, the paper was dumbed-down. It also became less politically aligned with Fine Gael. In the 1997 General Election, it endorsed Fianna Fáil under a front page editorial, entitled 'Its Payback Time'. The 'payback' referred to its chance of revenge for the refusal of the 'Rainbow Coalition' to allow O'Reilly who owned the Independent Newspapers to completely take over a rival newspaper, the Sunday Tribune and so achieve absolute dominance of the Irish newspaper industry.

Today, Independent News and Media holds a near monopoly on the Irish newspaper industry, particularly since the closure of the Irish Press Group in the early 1990s. After the closure of the Evening Press, the Independent's Evening Herald is now the capital city's only evening newspaper.

O'Reilly's endeavours in the interests of the rich and powerful and indeed British interests in Ireland have not gone without due recognition. He has received baubles from the English Queen for his efforts and likes to be addressed as 'Sir' Anthony O'Reilly by his coterie of fawning hacks. Today, O'Reilly's papers, particularly the Sunday Independent continue to pour forth anti-nationalist and anti-worker bile with no pretence of objectivity or balance. William Martin Murphy would be proud. "

Oil near Dublin Bay - What about the Dolphins ?

2012-01-23T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ireland's oil and mineral reserves are staggering. Any eighties vintage geologist will remember the euphoria of the North Sea discovery and will have seen oil samples taken from the Irish Sea. The sixty or so Geologists produced every year in Ireland thought that there was a chance of working near home. A lot of drilling went on and exploration drilling in the Kish Bank Basin confirmed the potential for petroleum generation. Recent analysis of old seismic data has revealed a very promising structure about ten kilometers offshore near Dublin in shallow water.

The problem is that five dolphins live there. Too bad about the €80 billion reserve (900 million barrels of oil). We can do the maths, we all know that dolphins are worth €15 billion each and we all love dolphins. Everything is under control Shell to Sea activists ensuring that the mail boat businesss is not disturbed and the the Irish can continue to emigrate in the thousands.

The wealth figures are stacking up nicely. €750 million worth of gold in eight veins in Croke Patrick, €2 billion worth of gold in Cavan Monaghan, €2 billion worth of gas shale in Lough Allen and now €80 billion in Dalkey Island.

Irish Government can save €60m on unemployment

2012-01-14T09:28:00.001-08:00

Pension Fiasco

2012-01-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Renewable Energy

2011-12-18T15:28:00.000-08:00

I have been a computer user since October 1978, things have come on a lot since. In the mid eighties we saw the growth of the IBM compatible PC, the processor went from 8086 to a 80286 then 386 then 486 then there was the RISC after that the progress was so rapid that the annual reduction in price size and commensurate increase in power is taken for granted. There even was a seasonal element, don't buy between mid August and Christmas, as prices were up because of students returning to school and college followed by the pre-Christmas and Christmas demand. The new year brought in the latest technological advance, the demand then wained until July which was always the best time to buy.

Now I look at the potential progress in new technology - Renewable Energy, photovoltaic electricity production in particular. What is it ? essentially a glass screen pointed towards daylight and electricity is produced. You can buy an electricity system today that will supply your house with all the electricity you need for a system which costs about €15,000 . A normal house would need a screen about 25 square meters ( 15 foot square), a big battery and an inverter (a device which converts the energy stored all day in the battery into a usable form in household appliances).

My prediction is that the within 10 years a photovoltaic system for a house will cost €2,000 and the screen will be the same size as a standard Christmas edition biscuit tin.

So no more electricity bills after 2022. How can I be so sure ? The amount of light energy falling on the surface of Ireland is 117 watts per meter squared per second, or 421 electricity units per hour or 28 units per hour on an area the size of a biscuit tin. Even if we are 95% inefficient in converting light energy to electricity we get 15 electricity units per day which is the amount needed to run a normal size home.

Any comments would be appreciated....

Pension Hoax - Public Sector

2011-11-09T02:32:00.000-08:00

Even the very brilliant Ingrid Miley has not copped on to this hoax. Many public servants have been duped into thinking that they will make money by retiring early on or before 29th February 2012.

There is a false feeling abroad that all old age pensions have not been cut this is not true, Civil and Non Commercial Public Sector pensions were cut by seven and a half percent in 2009.

The lump sum payment on retirement was not cut, and is calculated using the uncut 2008 salary. From March 2012 it will be calculated on the reduced salary. So if you are due a €50,000 lump on the 29th Feb 2012 this will go down to €46,250 on 1st March so you will save a months salary, not much and not worth retiring for.

If you are a teacher and wait until September to retire you will end up working an extra 10 weeks for 24 weeks salary ( because you get paid for June, July and August anyway). Your pension will also be €500 a year higher because you will have extra service.

Drink Driving Limit: a false pretence

2011-10-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

Recent reduction the the Irish drink driving limit has annoyed me. To suggest that anyone who has lowered a pint of beer is a danger behind a wheel is simply wrong. The social damage caused by the relentless attack on the licenced trade continues in a mindless fashion. My monthly drop in to Leinster Cricket Club has been brought to an end. Unless I take to walking walking from the office I will no longer be able to enjoy the view of the Dublin mountains while imbibing. No more gossiping with the faintly dim team selectors.

So why was this law passed? It is in fact a part of the government health strategy to reduce alcohol intake in the population. This underhand insidious guerrilla warfare began by reducing the limit to 80mg, this was to some extent reasonable. The weekday public house closing times were then reduced, this was followed by stopping all take home sales after 10pm . Now the limit is 50mg and for some driver categories 20mg. So a few pints the night before, combined with cough mixture, fruit juice or mouth wash could easily push you over the limit.

I find it offensive and intrusive that the robots* in Dail Eireann should decide my diet without putting the slightest bit of thought into it. Maybe Catholic Church law is being replaced sharia law, we will know for sure when we start stoning unmarried mothers.

It is a false pretence to say the alcohol limit is being reduced to cut down on road deaths. Drink driving deaths are largely caused by young males with several times the blood alcohol limit in their system.

*the ministerial definition is anyone who gets more than 500 points in the Leaving Cert.

Exit Strategies for Irish Economic Woes

2011-09-22T17:02:00.000-07:00

It is fairly pathetic seeing polititicians henning around like headless chickens trying to put a end to economic woes.
The Irish minister for finance is been handed several unrealistic options, by eurocrats looking for personal or political gain.

Sell the Irish stake in Aer Lingus the national airline 95m - to show willing to get rid of state assets. Nice one, a few years a go it wouldn't have bought two houses in a certain suburb of Dublin. You would get much more for the Book of Kells or extracting gold from the eight rock veins under Croak Patrick (€700m).

Borrow more money to pay back €2,700m owed by the defunct Anglo Irish Bank, in the hope that that markets will think that we are a save bet and that we always pay back what we owe. Sorry that won't work , we will just look stupid. This money was lent to us by adults who knew what they were doing and also knew the risks. Banks go under all the time all around the world. Normally bondholders insure their risks, these bonds are insured by AIG, which is now owned by the USA, and surprise surprise that is why Obama is so so pleased that we are hell bent on paying back the remainder of the bond holders. The possiblity of a compromise of say paying back €100m a year has not entered Mr Noonan's head.

The self confessed dunce Mr Suderland was mouthing on today like the biggest gob at the trough. This big mess was caused by the private sector in particular the banks his solution is to blame the public service, and cut their pay. I didn't believe him at first but now he has persuaded me, his confession at the tribunal was indeed the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

So enough moaning from me, how can we get out of this? Simple, do what Argintina did, expand state control from the old age pension and the public sector pensions to include the private sector pensions. It is only fair the state has contributed heavily to these funds. Private sector pensions have already been subsidised by the Irish State in two ways. First, by the huge tax allowances given to contributors to these pots. Second, Irish Private Pensions were of course major bondholders in Irish Banks and were paid off last September.

Irish on-shore gasfield

2011-09-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Value laden articles on Irish on-shore gas abound. Words like clean and natural, or toxic, dirty and chemical generally indicate where the author is coming from rather than where he is going with the article. I am a geologist by qualification, my work now focuses on labour market analysis and dispute resolution. This is an attempt to present the situation as it is.

Following a discovery in the USA that certain shales contain natural gas there is a renewed interest in a 1960's gas find in the Leitrim area. At the time the gas flared for a day or so and then stopped, today the interest is now not in the sandstone but in the lower shales. The Arigna coalfield is in this area, opencast and pit mining ceased twenty years ago, after many years of successful mining of low quality coal. Conor Lenihan granted licenses to explore this area two years ago. The area is 8,000 square kilometers in size.

The method currently used to extract natural gas from shale is called Hydraulic Fracturing or Fracking. This method is controversial. It involves drilling a vertical hole down to the layer of shale, once at the shale the drill bit moves horizontally along the shale. A high pressure solution containing sand is forced into the hole, prising layers in the apart, the sand keeps the layers and cracks open and the gas flows.

Many concerns have arisen with regard to the Fracking process, these are being examined in the UK and the USA.

-Increased seismic activity (earthquakes) is the latest in the media, yes you will get increased seismic activity if you blast water into the ground with the equivalent force of a few tonne of TNT, as you do in quarrying. Ireland is one of the least active areas in the world and I would be very surprised if Fracking was banned in Ireland for this reason.

-Leaks in the hole causing contamination of the ground water with fracking solution and natural gas. Yes this is possible, if the hole is not sealed correctly. If so the fracking process would be very inefficient, efforts to maximise the downward pressure would be wasted, likewise gas would seep out. This is as likely as a geothermal drill hole leaking coolant into the ground water, it can and does happen and is monitored by the environmental protection agency. It is in nobody's interest to make a faulty drill hole.

-Storing returned Fracking water solution. About one third to a half of the Fracking solution returns to the surface, this water contains material collected in the subterrainean journey. At this stage we don't know what extra material it will contain, probably salts. It has to be stored above ground, it can be filtered and used again. At present artificial rubber lined lakes are used to store this material, this in my view presents the most significant ground water contamination danger. A significant water purification system would have to be used.

So what are the economic implications. Estimates vary widely from €1 billion to €120 billion, that would equate to from 500 to 40,000 jobs, from five to one hundred acres of concrete. No one can say until there is a report on proven reserves and the depth of these reserves.

Let us take the €1 billion scenario.

On the macro economic front, balance of payment improvement either by exporting the gas or using the gas as an import substitution. One hundred and fifty million in development costs, half of which goes into the local economy as land purchase, employment costs, sourcing and hauling sand, water charges to local council. Twenty-five to forty percent of the profit €250 million in taxes.

On the micro economic front, what sort of economic activity is going to happen and where are the jobs?
Assuming one large Fracking Pad, up to 500 construction jobs clearing the site, laying concrete, building hydraulic compressors, silos for storing sand. Construction of gas inter connector pipe, construction of waste lake and water purification system and associated piping. Long term each drill is Fracked once every 4 years, requiring lorry drivers, maintenance fitters, plumbers and engineers, for up to 20 years.

If the gas field is bigger than this scenario, there will be no problem housing extra workers. The preliminary census results show 25% or more or the local housing is unoccupied

What should we do? I suggest that we get an accurate measure of the amount of gas available and wait until the safest extraction method is developed. Once a we have a proven reserve we can borrow on the strength of the future return. There is one thing for sure - this gas is going to come out out the ground.

Garda Vetting Worries as Teenage Rape Allegations Withdrawn

2011-07-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Herald had it, "The girl was allegedly raped in a cubicle in the male toilets of the nightclub shortly before 11pm on Thursday". The boy (14) involved was arrested and taken to Terenure garda station.

Several years ago a prominent politician's daughter withdrew an allegation of rape while in Irish college.

It is up the DPP to look at the evidence and decide whether to bring it to court, those involved can also insist on bringing it to court. What are the consequences for the children involved. If no charges are preferred it ends up being a bad nightmare, occasionally churned up in Dublin's rumour mill. If it was true she regrets not having the herculean strength necessary to go through the courts. If it was false he is relieved that it is all over and then proceeds with extreme caution and some bitterness. False allegations are rarely followed up, few have the resources to do so, despite the damage that is done.

I recently gasped when I came across a garda vetting return "Theft - insufficient to convict". So presumably for somebody charged with rape and is found not guilty a garda vetting return will come back "Rape - insufficient evidence to convict". You might want to read the previous couple of sentences again. Once you are charged you effectively have a criminal record. Every employer gets a a list of all charges and convictions ever made against you. The employers' may genuinely be interested in whether you are suitable for working with vulnerable people, but once you agree to garda vetting, every employer will see all convictions and charges (shop lifting, drink driving). You will be effectively tried again and again, but this time not by competent judges and garda, but by every tom dick and harry who is in the garda vetting role in an organisation.

Garda vetting as it stands is a complete character reference, so if your child gets charged for shop lifting, you can forget about a career in any of the vocations (medicine, nursing, childcare). Nobody wants to know a thief or someone who was caught smoking a joint.

I am fortunate enough not to have any criminal record (or any charges), but this could have been very different. I remember as a 19 year old Trinity student working in a hotel summer job in Wexford. At the weekend dance I was with a large group of pals. A spliff was passed around, I didn't participate, everyone who did was visited by the local Gardai. Not being a local, if I participated I would have been charged and my Garda vetting report would now read "Possession of a controlled substance - in/sufficient evidence to convict"... now try get a job with that.

Irish water tax folly

2011-06-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

For the most part Irish residents don't pay for water directly, only holiday homes commercial premises and schools have meters. The establishment medja have recently decided to back water charges, no dissenting voices are allowed.

A combination of neoconservative green talk and stupidity prevail. Arts graduates wanging on about precious water - a scarce resource. Precious I agree, as with air humans die without water. Scarce I disagree, it falls in its purest distilled form from the sky. No amount of letters in the Irish Times about how they charge for water in South Africa and how right on they are for doing this, will persuade me otherwise. They live in a desert, we live in a temperate climate with high rainfall we do not necessarily have to charge for water.

So what is behind this surge of establishment pressure to charge for water. The country's backers have decided that water charges are a good way of extracting more money from middle income citizens ( 500,000 old age pensioners and 500,000 social welfare recipients will not have to pay as usual ).

This is how it will pan out. In September a government e-tender will be posted. "Will somebody install 2 million water meters". No Irish company will have the resources to do it, so it will go overseas. They will probably charge us €500 per meter, this can be broken down to €50 to buy each meter from China, €100 in installation labour costs, and €350 profit to the UK, French or German company that supervises the work. Nice one, €200 million in the local economy and €800 million expatriated. The idea of setting up a commercial semi-state company to handle this, is of course against the rules. The self confidence that fostered the establishment of the Electricity Supply Board in Ireland in the thirties no longer exists.

So what will happen after the meters are installed? You guessed it, the network will be handed over to private companies who will charge us what they like forever more. Just like England county council officials will become well paid water company chief executives overnight.

What are the alternatives. Why do we have to treat the plentiful pure water that falls from the sky? The answer is bullshit, cow shit and especially sheep shit combined with thousands of tons of chemical fertiliser. We could introduce the principle that the polluter pays, and recognise that the necessity to clean water is part of the real cost of farming. Treating water is in fact a farm subsidy.

ESRI a clumsy attack on dying FÁS

2011-05-14T01:49:00.000-07:00

The ESRI was too embarrased to take questions on yesterday's launch of their report attacking FÁS. Not surprising, the realisation that you are in the hachet job industry is a bit of a come down for those of us who are used to calling our colleagues professor this that and the other. The ESRI has resorted to using research as a weapon of corporate destruction now, after its own business model has collapsed. They closed their labour intensive survey department and promptly moved to a lavish new corporate offices in the financial quarter of the city.

The ESRI is essentially funded by the state. Its private client base is being eroded, few corporations want to subsidise an expensive research body. Yesterdays report was "grant aided" by government a neat way to deal with procurement requirements.

At the beginning of all publications the ESRI is careful to disassociate itself with the content. Now that is a conundrum. While it is stuck with its financial issues it does not want to be saddled with quality issues.

I do not think a base headline grabbing tactic is suitable for any research body. There are some issues with the quality of this report. In short I think that there are some things wrong with it. The methodology where explained is poor.

It is hard to know where to start, a difficult discussion with a mouthy patient with Alsheimers disease comes to mind. The report hops from six years in the past to the present, ignoring the different unemployment stuctures. Undermines its own methodology by stating that there should be no control yet discovers a control after the event ( a statistical first ). It uses data from sources that it says are to some extent flawed, yet there is an implied reasoning that their use of the same data is not flawed.

There is a considerable body of work on the National Employment Action Plan, all positive, in particular for the Local Employment Service.

At €1,000 a page the report is very expensive paper which you and I are paying for.

Some wrongs in the Irish Civil and Public Service

2011-05-01T13:54:00.000-07:00

Deterioration in standards in the Irish Civil and Public Service can be put down to three or four things.

The bonus system. This is when your boss decides that you get extra pay for any reason that he feels fit, or in most cases when he can't think of a reason for not giving it to you. The bonus system in the public sector has existed in the sector for over 20 years in some shape or form. It gained a height of popularity around 10 years ago and was recently eliminated to a great extent following recent media resentment. However it still exists for public sector workers at Principal Officer and Assistant Principal grade, 1% of annual salary paid in two half yearly instalments, it is not payable if certain attendance criteria are not adhered to.

Selection of departmental Secretary Generals by politicians. In recent times, in an effort to further democratise the Service, public representative leaders - the ministers, would select departmental heads from a shortlist of Assistant Secretaries. The main effect of this was assistant secretaries will do anything when asked to do so by a minister. The problem is that the minister is just looking as far as the next election, so long term planning goes out the window, and the Ministers constituency gets something extra that it doesn't really deserve. This is not going to change, one Dail Member's recent acceptance speech really disappointed me when he said that he would represent his county, his province and his country --- in that order. This would indicate to me that a very sparsely populated County Bogland will be further subsidised by Dublin and Cork.

The abolition of the Civil Service Appointments Commission for promotion selection. Even the most jaundiced and downtrodden civil servants that I know, never ever criticised the appointments commission. Its removal heralded the way to appointment by interview, and we know what this can mean, appointment by telephone conversation with the minister, or appointment of people who can talk the talk. A lot of people still get in by merit but not all, a recent conversation I had with two assistant principals led me to the horrible conclusion that both had a very superficial understanding of the application of the "percent" principle (yes they had a vague idea what a percent was, but that is really as far as it went).
The abolition of the statutory position. A statutory position is one which you can't easily be be fired from e.g. a judge ( two thirds of the Seanad and Dail have to vote you out). Up to 1987 all principal officers were given statutory positions on appointment, it basically meant that their judgement was trusted and if someone asked them to do something daft they could say "no". The jobs for life resentment brigade got on to this one and low and behold the statutory position status was removed. All public servants have to do everything they are asked to do, including contradicting their words and their actions. Lots of ridiculous things then started to happen. The national spatial strategy was torn up and the random and inefficient decentalisation of state jobs across the country began. One minister didn't like the "count" ( a very enjoyable few days when the general election votes are manually counted), so he ordered the purchase of an electronic counting system for €150,000,000 , to this day the machines lie idle.

The generalist. This is a concept where it is believed that any civil servant can do any job in the civil service. I don't know where this concept came from, it may have been when Ireland was a simple agricultural economy. Ireland has moved on, things are more complicated now, not everybody is capable of doing everyone else's job, there are too many specialities changing very rapidly, requiring long term experience and training.

Quality standards. This is a sort of an extenion of the one size fits all approach. Basically everybody describes their job in minute detail, writes it down and when they leave the next peson reads the file and they can do the job. Great... if you are flipping hamburgers, not really any use if you are doing something complicated.

The sole requirement to progress is an ability to manage your career.

Airtricity - loan sharks

2011-04-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Huge bill from Airtricity €1056

I got a huge bill from Airticity last week. they "forgot to" bill me in February, so I had €1056 deducted from my account.

http://householdsaving.blogspot.com/

I wasn't surprised to read in The Sunday Times today that Airtricity "forgot to" bill lots of people as 500 went into the above site. I think Airtricity was trying to avoid a big switch back to ESB. The ploy was, that since ESB had reduced their prices just before Airtricity was about to issue the biggest bill of the year ( due to the cold winter). Airtricity simply did not bill some of their customers, and the customers were not reminded of the high cost of electricity. The other advantage of this ploy was their customers were now in arrears and were trapped with Airtricity untill they clear the debt. Remember you are entitled to a proper bill hopefully CER will recommend that if they didn't bill you on time that you are entitled a reduction.

Click here to learn how to make your own energy.

Not fit for Purpose - howling at the moon

2011-04-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Brendan Howlin the new Minister for Public Service's statement probably is best answered with a measured response. He said that the three hundred a fifty thousand public sector workers that he is responsible for were much undermined by the media. It was then reported that he then went on to say that "much were not fit for purpose". I don't know if he is including himself or the Gardai or the Teachers. I don't know if he is trying to motivate his charges by fear or if he has just become callous and thinks that intimidating a downtrodden section of the workforce is a useful thing to do, like Carey he is using the media to insure that public servants continue to be vilified in their everyday lives.

The non commercial public sector is the only verifiable successful response to the financial crisis. An eight percent reduction in staff numbers combined with a twenty percent cut in pay and a threefold increase in unemployment to deal with. For years public sector workers paid into pension funds which transferred over to the public sector pension fund (FÁS staff contributed half a billion) , this fund was then handed over to the banks and used to shore up the banks pension deficit. The irony that the "not fit for purpose" public sector was more able to look after its pension funds than the banks, and the public sector's reward was the theft of their pension fund by the banking sector - the guys who caused the financial crisis in the first place.

Other sections of society are not contributing in any way to the crisis, those in the commercial public sector (CIE, ESB, An Post, Bord Gas) have so far not taken any pay cuts. Five hundred thousand old age pensioners have not seen any income reduction, yet non commercial public sector pensioners were singled out for cuts.

I suggest that Minister Howlin should get some management training and try to motivate and rebuild the team spirit within his workforce. He should also get away from going back to the same well time and time again. He should recognise how unfairly the public sector have been treated.

Click for a training guide.

James Brooke-Tyrrell prisoner

2011-04-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

April 1st 2011 James Brooke-Tyrrell woke up to face his first full day of a prison sentence handed down for white collar crime. I first met James twenty five years ago, a well spoken young man employed primarily to edit video disc material.

A steady state job in video was hard to get. Gradually satisfaction with arriving into work on a Honda 50 wore out. Most people did not notice the change in lifestyle, those who did probably put it down an easy bank loan. No one assumed cynical criminal activity. His guilty plea has robbed us of a chance to find out if he had an accomplice.

The myth that white collar fraud is harmless is tested when your character is in ruins. Your colleagues questioned and blamed.

On a personal note it is a tragedy for anyone to wake up in prison, but remember the old adage "if you can't do the time don't do the crime", if you do you may wake up an April fool in Mountjoy.

Click Here!
How to survive a jail sentence, Click here.

Kevin O'Brien cricket

2011-03-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

Watch the highlights by clicking below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBME8b7FJcQ

sometimes this video goes down - so put in a comment and let me know if it is not working.

One hundred thousand new jobs and 30,000 public job cuts voodoo or wha ?

2011-02-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

One hundred thousand new jobs and 30,000 public job cuts voodoo or wha (t) ?

In a zero jobs growth scenario 100,000 new jobs in Ireland would be expected in a workforce of two million over a 3 year period. This is how it works in general, most people work for 40 years so all things being equal one fortieth of the work force retires each year, these retirees have to be replaced. One fortieth of 2 million is 50,000 multiply by 3 and you get 150,000 . Now you have to factor in no public sector recruitment. The public sector has 400,000 workers so, it has an annual retiree population of 10,000 or 30,000 jobs will not be replaced in 3 years, leaving 120,000 new jobs. This is the new jobs model at its simplest, the extra 20,000 will absorbed by the reducing balance each year.

What about "no compulsory redundancy" in the public sector, well in fact there is no need for any redundancy, if you are patient natural wastage should take care of the numbers reduction. If we become impatient it would be foolhardy to focus on the older worker. The main reason is long term workers are entitled to large benefits and for anybody with 25 years work we end up paying up to 70% of take home salary for zero work, so there is no benefit. However if you target the younger public sector worker, redundancy costs are small, and those employed since 1996 are entitled to social welfare payments. younger workers are more easily absorbed into the workforce. the old trade union mantra "last in first out" will save the country a fortune.

There are some serious dangers in freezing public sector employment. Given the high level of qualifications needed for public sector work, there will be a big impact on graduate employment. Work placement or internship programmes will work to some extent for a year or so, longer term new teachers, physiotherapists, sociologists etc. will leave the country. The view that there is no output from the public service will be tested when the workforce diminishes.

The Irish not for profit sector - a taxation untouchable

2011-02-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

Twenty five billion a year turnover remains untouched, but who would tax motherhood and apple pie. The not for profit sector a seventh of gross domestic product remains immune to the negative effects of the down turn, yet salaries in this sector show the highest growth. The second busiest car park in Ireland is owned owned by the Royal College of Surgeons, no wonder the that staff have not seen a income reduction. Terenure College has an income of over two million per year yet the teachers are paid for by the state. Most citizens will not enter Fitzwilliam Tennis club yet lottery funds are always welcome.

So how does it work. A service of some kind is provided to a group of people, it can be a drug rehab scheme, sports club, credit union, education establishment, or the Knights of Columbanus. The service is charged for and paid for by the members, the public or the state or a combination. No one knows what goes on in the not for profit sector, but sometimes a large opportunity for members gain presents itself. Take Dunlaoire golf club, the members sold the land to a developer and build a new club a couple of miles away, each member pocketed €50,000 which was subject to a a tiny amount of capital gains tax.

The cash-in antic has been going on for many years. The Macabi Carisle sports club did it twice, the first time to provide provide reduced price housing for the Jewish community, the second time just for the cash. This of course leads to resentment economics, "tax them all, because I wasn't part of it", indeed revenue made a lame attempt two years ago to stop this heinous practice. The members of Leinster Cricket Club were asked to amend their constitution so they could not profit from the sale of the land. I remember the AGM well, surprisingly there was no laughing, all the members asserted their rights to joint private property. Most still like to journey to Dublin 6 from the foothills of the Dublin mountains.

So how will a Fine Gael government make money out of the not for profit sector. Slim pickings left in victimising the public sector, how about going for community chest. Maybe a use it or lose it tax, 1% on all land and other assets owned by the not for profit sector. Maybe a bit to Marxist but taxation of fixed assets is the best way known to man to mobilise capital.

Government Change in Ireland IMF EU Rules

2011-02-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

While a change of government is welcome, there will be no real change of power. The power lies with five people who check into the St Stephen's Green Hotel for three days at the end of each month, each day they go over to Kildare St and correct the homework, if it is not up to scratch they change it, this is the way it is going to be for the next few years.

These guys have a lot of experience, expertise and power. They don't listen to the media. They have seen it all before and they prescribe the remedy.

They have spoken already, some things are necessary - FÁS already has had its budget increased, because it is the only training agency which is capable of training apprentices and early school leavers and an organisation like this is a essential part training a workforce. The incentivised retirement date for non commercial public sector workers has already been extended twice, this is because we need a public service, to pump water, carry away waste, arrest criminals, cure the sick, and if all who wanted to leave the service left we would rapidly deteriorate into a third world country.

The three main party leaders know this. They all have the same economic solutions - do what you are told.

As for the distractions Fine Gael took the biscuit - Abolish the Senate - now lads is that all you could come up with. Mind you Labour and Fianna Fail soon got on that band wagon. Only Gerry Adams in his sweet innocence of the republic's politicians desire for generating populace rhetoric made it clear that this subject has been brought up in every election in the history of the state and nothing has or ever will be done about it. The only person who believed it was Shane Ross, that election in Dublin South is going to cost him a packet, mind you it will split the Fine Gael vote and hand Labour two seats.

As for the sucking up - no one has mentioned RTE's half billion annual budget, that is twice what FÁS spends on Employment and Training Services.

Mortgage arrears differ from negative equity in Ireland

2011-02-06T06:18:00.000-08:00

At some point in the history of a house mortgage negative equity exists. Buy and try and sell it the next day and you will lose your buying and selling costs. The only subsidy should be for mortgage arrears for family homes as the cost of rehousing is greater than foreclosure. As the state - Ireland Inc. now owns the banks we now find ourselves owning the debt and the rehousing problem.

Some comfort should be extended to homeowners in trouble. But many householders, who purchased modest houses, will resent subsidising the mortgage repayments of other householders, at least some of whom acted irresponsibly in buying a house that they could ill afford.

How do we address this resentment issue? The subsidy should be repaid by the home owner when they die. Either through the compulsory life insurance policy or by the sale of the property when the dependents are gone. OK the kids don't get a chunk of money when the folks die and they have to take the Ryanair flight back to bury them, but they would not have got it anyway if the house was taken off the parents for failure to keep up the mortgage.

The State is stuck with this debt either way, long term it will recoup its losses.

Who knows Germany may cave in and allow hyperinflation, allowing assets to become valuable again.

The Irish Times - losing €100,000 per week

2011-02-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

The Irish Times has it own fair share of troubles. The Industrial Relations News has reported that the paper is seeking an initial 35 redundancies, in reality its troubles will only be solved with seventy redundancies.

A series of very bad business decisions have led to this sorry state of affairs. They got caught up in the construction bubble, paying €50 million for my home dot ie a site dedicated to the selling of property. It is now worth about practically nothing.

No real analysis of its business model was carried out. Thursday was property supplement day a sell out during the boom and Friday the jobs page normally a good day. Saturday the weekly TV supplement, the best sales day today. Monday sport and Tuesday education.

The first time I noticed cracks in the news content was Christmas Eve 2008. I had just returned home from the Pro Cathedral and picked up the paper at about five to midnight. I was just horrified to see on page three or five a full size picture of a 15 year old girl at her mother's funeral, the girl's father was later convicted of the mother's death. Maybe it was the lost look on the girls face or the unkempt look of the fairly well to do child (considering her mother was in a coffin it was not surprising). Maybe I was thinking of my own child of similar age. My main thoughts were with madame editor (with similar aged children) eating buns in Donnybrook with her eye definitely off the ball.

Unfortunately things are worse now, the the content is in disarray. In reality it has degenerated into a bunch of high volume bloggers, vying for different sections of the market, prioritising their own prejudices over analysis.

Last Saturday I was tricked into reading cold O'Toole's column, the front page caption implied that he had the nerve to run for the a seat in the Dail. Several zeds later I realised that he was only tempted to run for office on the basis of the opinion of some people in a queue in Marks and Spencer, this is the type of forensic journalism that I have become used to.

The only place in the paper where you can be sure of decent content, accurate fact and analysis is in the sports section. It is really the only no nonsence part of the paper.

The Irish Times has been chipping away at its readership for years. Christina Murphy demonised teachers, low and behold they stopped buying the paper. Over the last couple of years all public secor workers have been demonised and you know what, they stopped buying the paper and if you believed what was written they are the only people who have the time and the energy to read it.

Back to the business model. It it hard to fathom the lack of understanding of how to migrate such a valuable title on to didital media. The New York Times sells its digital version for 50c per week, the Irish Times costs ten times that.

Maybe with the recent Fine Gael bias they might get some of the RTE licence money, on the basis that it is a national communications institution.

RTE spent €3 billion in the last ten years

2011-02-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

RTE (the Irish state broadcasting service) is a funny place, a commercial semi state company, that wonderful entity type that is funded by public money yet not answerable to anyone. Unlike the ESB (Electricity Supply Company) it dodged competition, it did a very clever trick allowed competition in and kept all the licence fee money for itself. Two million buildings (every business, house or flat) with TVs that adds up to €320 million per year plus another €100 million or so in advertising a tidy sum.

The cost of TV equipment is not very big, a few masts, studios, electronic equipment, all this stuff has come down a lot in the last few years, even the five acres under grass in Donnybrook has reduced in price. In the last 10 years RTE has spent €3 billion, where has it gone?

Why can it not stand on its own two feet and survive commecially, like TV3. This is one fifedom that has to take a cut. Why do I have to pay for it ? I do not like it. I do not like the very poorest in this country having to pay more than the universal social charge on a TV station.

To think that Gerry Ryan's* coke dealer was paid indirectly by me is just sickening. Like everyone reading this, I know that Gerry was the only person in RTE connected with drugs but one person is one to many.

* Gerry Ryan an RTE broadcater was found dead recently, cocaine was found in his blood. He earned €1,000,000 per year and was not the best paid person in RTE.

Seanad Reform - the old chestnut

2011-01-30T01:43:00.000-08:00

The topic everyone wants to exchange ignorances about. So what is it and what is wrong with it? Technically it has all the powers of the Dail except it can't pass money acts.

Dev castrated the Seanad by introducing the 11 Taoiseach nominees thus making sure that there is always a government majority. It exercises some power by mulling over legislation and pointing out obvious mistakes. Cutting out these 11 nominees would make the Seanad a lively powerful place.

What are the perceived wrongs of the Seanad. Forty three of the remaining 49 senators are selected by by about 800 people, this seems like a small electorate but in reality they are all elected by most of the adults in the country, so everybody has an indirect say on who gets in to the Seanad.

The remaining six senators are elected by graduates ( who decide to register ) of Dublin University and NUI, about 200,000 people. The nice thing about this is people living overseas can vote, it is the only way some of the diaspora can vote. There are a few other positives about the university senators, avant garde and the unusual are acceptable among the educated electorate. The sad thing about the university panel is that a source of resentment politics - Johnny H20 has to face up to the fact that he did not quite make it through university or indeed a Dublin technical college, few want to be reminded of this every 4 or 5 years.

There are a few technical points I came across when I ran for a Trinity seat in 2007. If you have a degree from Trinity and NUI you are only entitled to vote once, it is a serious offence if you vote in both university selections. Overseas voters have to put the correct stampage on their postal ballot, lots of votes arrive late and are not counted. One in seventeen votes are spoiled because the simple instructions are not followed. This puzzled me for a while why would an educated electorate get it so wrong. The main reason votes are spoiled centres around the declaration of entitlement to vote, normally is not signed and witnessed or not included. Probably a miguided belief that your vote can be linked to your name or that you have to show your vote to your witness. The procedure is, once the main envelope is opened and it contains a signed and witnessed declaration as well as a small envelop containing the vote it is accepted, the declarations and the small vote envelopes are then separated before the votes are opened.

Bail Out - Mid Winter Misnomer

2011-01-20T03:59:00.000-08:00

I really don't get the use of the word Bail Out when used to describe the EU/IMF intervention in our financial crisis. The word gives the impression of some sort of charitable deed which we must be grateful for, when in fact we are repaying a loan at very high interest, I would be very happy to get an interest rate of 5.3%. Especially from someone who was borrowing from me to pay back the debts of someone else who owed me money and couldn't pay. I would be in a fantastic situation I carelessly lent a packet to a few gobbets in Anglo Irish, they lost the money and someone else is going to pay. Now when I was making money from Anglo I just kept my mouth shut and kept shovelling money over to them. Now when they can't pay obviously the Irish taxpayer will have to pay - it makes sense and falls into the new category of capitalism called the "Investor wins both ways" (subcategory Investor should not examine where the money is going).

No seriously folks the blame can be shared three ways: The people elected a government who ignored the bacon report and concentrated on populism and the answer to everything was the holy word Democracy or every eijit in the country new what was best. Secondly the Irish Banks the did not carry out due diligence on the ability of borrowers to repay. Thirdly the EU banks, same due diligence.

Of the three culprits the EU banks have so far got off Scot free. The Irish banks can't pay. Unfortunately the Irish people have agreed to pay, but realistically we can't pay. Maybe at zero interest over forty years we might be able to do it. The other way is that the EU banks forgive a portion of the debt.