Another intelligent report from Hearts and Minds’ Julia Paul. This time it’s the Republic of Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s budgetary patriotic call to arms shopping aisles.. Irish shopping aisles to be precise [as opposed to? - Ed]. Indeed....
The anticipated compensation payments might be considered to be legacy issues, but the £24.5million shortfall in the PSNI budget, which Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, has a legal obligation to balance, comes from this year’s operational decisions. Still, with the politicians’ imperative the further delaying of water charges [until after the next election? - Ed] - apparently achieved by central government agreeing to waive charges due to paid by the devolved administration - the Policing Board have voted to reject the Chief Constable’s planned cost savings and will instead lobby the current Justice Minister at the NIO....
Yes Minister on how to rig Opinion Polls… Now take a look at this? I am not sure what on earth the City Council was thinking, but this is exactly the kind of skewing of public opinion mentioned in the episode. Okay, it’s an online poll rather than a carefully designed and controlled survey of local opinion. But best practice dictates the Council should be trying to find out exactly what the populus actually think, rather than leading them towards what the council clearly already thinks. Allowing yourselves to be seen to be that close to a single private vested interest is a very bad idea. More later......
Will Crawley has some interesting detail on the relationship between the Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS) and the Presbyterian Church. And with no apparent answer from the Prime Minister, despite the letter of encouragement from the Presbyterian Moderator, the BBC notes that PMS have taken that newly-legislated administrative option. From the BBC report.“My aim is to see if the society can be rescued or, if this is not possible, to ensure that the society is wound down in an orderly manner to maximise the return of money to members,” [appointed administrator Arthur Boyd] said.
“I cannot at this stage say whether members’ funds can be returned to them in full or what proportion of their funds can be returned. The society has considerable assets,...
From today’s Politics Show, BBC NI Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison reports on one particular measure contained in the Republic of Ireland Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s debut budget - the €2.8 million cut in State funding to 21 Protestant fee-paying schools. Church of Ireland reaction, as reported at the time....
I did ask what the Minister could do to help the Presbyterian Mutual Society. As Will Crawley notes, she can, apparently, expedite legislation to “give the society an administrative option it did not previously have” - go into administration or form a company voluntary arrangement. Although there doesn’t seem to be much more detail than that yet.. and the PMS seem to be waiting for the Prime Minister’s response to their request to guarantee members’ savings. BBC reportIn a statement, the PMS said its directors were grateful for the assistance of the minister and her department in “expediting legislation”. “At this stage, no action has been taken. The society is continuing to take independent legal and financial...
After spending over £19million on securing an unrestricted airport licence, and a proposed £46million in public funds on associated infrastructure, not to mention some loose change, and despite apparent denials by the public representatives, the BBC reports that Derry City Council Chief Executive, Valerie Watts, has confirmed that the council is considering selling City of Derry Airport by 2011.. if they can find a buyer.....
Michael Taft can see a dim light from the end of the tunnel. Well not from the government, but he applauds Eamon Gilmore for setting a few things straight on the relationship between the economic reality and public expenditure:
‘The problem we have in the public finances is as a result of the fact that the economy is in a recession . . . we have a problem in the economy which has created difficulties in the public finances. It’s not the other way around.’
Hmmmm… do you think he’s maybe been reading you somewhere Michael, or what...? Labour’s re-announcement of a 2% decrease in the standard tax band is welcome he says, but not enough:
The fiscal issue goes beyond capital borrowing or using Pension fund for capital projects – it is about...
Will Crawley spots the latest victim of the global credit crunch, the Presbyterian Mutual Society. And, as he also notes, the Presbyterian Moderator “has written a letter to the Prime Minister encouraging a positive response to the request that the guarantee offered to savers be extended to apply in these circumstances.”...
In addition to the £46million dual carriageway, over £19million has been spent on securing an unrestricted airport licence for the City of Derry Airport, with £4-5million coming from Derry City Council. The rest was part of the funding offer from the UK and Irish governments - and then there’s the secret deal with Ryanair.. From the Derry Journal reportDeputy Town Clerk John Meehan said the costs are likely to be reflected in next year’s rates estimates but added it is too early to tell how much they will add to the rates bill locally. “That is what the City Treasurer is now working on. We have just begun the rates estimates period. There will be significant challenges on the capital front but it will be up to members to decide that,” he...
Despite mixed messages during the election campaign, there’s still a reported expectation that President Obama will attempt to renegotiate trade agreements to focus on US jobs and economic strength. Meanwhile, as Simon notes the Republic of Ireland’s one remaining economic pillar (Foreign Direct Investment), Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin told the Dáil: “regarding the suggestion that the new [US] administration may seek to disincentivise companies moving overseas in terms of deferral tax, subsidiaries and other means, we must take this step by step. We must also be aware that such a policy change would require legislative input and we would obviously engage in making our position known to Congress and to public representatives there.”...
After the election.. the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5.2%, California joined Florida and Arizona in constitutionally banning same-sex marriages - Obama in 2004, “my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman” while vice-president-elect Joe Biden agreed with Sarah Palin. And in Iraq..[Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar] Zebari said he believed Obama would take conditions on the ground into account before any withdrawal. “When there is a reality check, I think any U.S. president has to look very hard at the facts on the ground,” he told Al-Jazeera television. “The gains that we have attained and won with hard struggle and a great deal of sacrifice need to be sustained.”
Just saying.....
Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, is on a seven day Trade and Investment Mission to the USA to follow up on the investment conference in May.. And good luck with that, minister.. Meanwhile the Department of Finance is reported to have suspended the procurement stage of Workplace 2010 until early 2009 amid speculation that the two bidding companies may merge. They’ve been evaluating those bids since April this year. From the BBC report.A spokesman for the department said the suspension would give them “time to assess the impact of recent changes in the financial and property markets”. “The minister continues to affirm the importance of the Workplace 2010 principles, and the NICS remains committed to creating a...
Halifax Bank of Scotland have decided not to join the Republic of Ireland’s bank guarantee scheme, despite previously saying they would join to ensure “a level playing field”. They’ve cited the UK government’s banking bail-out. From the Irish Times report.“While the scheme has its merits, and it may suit some of our competitors to join, from our strong financial position it doesn’t suit us,” Mark Duffy, chief executive officer at Bank of Scotland (Ireland), said in a statement. “It would ultimately prevent our ability to offer a better deal for our customers,” Mr Duffy said.
And, if David McWilliams is right, they’ll also avoid sharing liability for any banks in the scheme that do fail.....
According to the Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew, she “will fight this on all possible fronts.” This being the European Commission Audit’s disallowance of £28.5million in EU subsidies paid out to Northern Irish farmers during the period 2004-2006. Back to the Minister - “The next step in line with Commission protocol is to take our case to the Conciliation Body and that is what we will do.” If that proves unproductive, as the Irish News report puts it [subs req], “Farmers may be forced to pay back thousands of pounds in subsidies because Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Dard) officials were too lenient when dealing with claims.” That’s assuming an...
On the Politics Show, BBC NI’s Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison sketches out the historical relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the EU, and sees a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty as being “most likely”....
There’s a detailed iol report, and a BBC report, on the record fines [€3.25million] imposed by the Republic of Ireland’s Financial Regulator on Quinn Insurance Ltd, and on Sean Quinn personally [€200,000]. Sean Quinn has resigned as chairman and as a director of that company, but not from the Quinn Group, following a lengthy investigation by the Financial Regulator which found reasonable cause to suspect “contraventions by QIL of obligations under the Insurance Acts and Regulations, including failure to notify the Financial Regulator prior to providing loans to related companies” - official statement [pdf file]. But RTÉ has the telling detail.
From the RTÉ report
RTÉ News understands the key issue is a loan of...
Northern Ireland Justice Minister, Paul Goggins, MP, welcomes the recovery of criminal assets to the value of £1,905,445 in the first quarter of 2008/9. Of course, that doesn’t include the recently recovered criminal assets of Thomas Murphy et al.. [Is he still a “good republican”? - Ed]...
Robert Peston is concerned [Should I buy or sell? - Ed] about “a new and worrying phase” of
the credit crunch. Meanwhile, if you don’t understand what all the fuss is about, let the two Johns, Bird and Fortune, explain.. The Guardian helpfully adds the transcript....
Whilst those inside the Stormont bubble speculate on the outcome of the negotiations without end, the retail trade is getting seriously worried but that little mentioned economic downturn. Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) along with the IoD, Ulster Farmers Union and about five or six other business organisations had a meeting with the First and Deputy First Minsters, their advisors, and the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service [for all the good it will do them - Ed]
They’re looking for an Economic Summit (Scotland had one today, whilst Wales had theirs last week) which conceivably the private and voluntary sectors could show up to. But so long as Sinn Fein’s armlock on government (warranted or otherwise) continues, the list of...
One of Mick’s picks for his Blog Rush ealier today, Simon at Irish Election, noted that“THE IRISH Financial Services Regulatory Authority has instructed accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to assess the extent to which the banks are delaying the collection of interest payments on loans to builders and property developers.”
If banks are not collecting interest on loans it is pretty clear that with the current state of finance they consider that there is no money to collect. If a company can not pay its interest it will probably go bust dumping a massive bad debt on to the banks balance sheet (and the tax payers laps).
Meanwhile, property development company Taggart Holdings have gone into administration. And a familiar name appears in the report.....
When it was last mentioned on Slugger it was partly due to the unseemingly ministerial struggle to claim the credit, but for the first public view of the proposed design of the Narrow Water bridge linking the Omeath to Newry Road in Co Louth with the A2 Newry to Warrenpoint road, Co Down, it was SDLP MLA PJ Bradley who got the invite to the Stormont Live studio. The unveiling of the design is part of the public consultation process by Louth County Council. [pdf file]...
In the Sunday Business Post, David McWilliams spots another potential problem with the Republic of Ireland’s bank guarantee scheme, “by placing the weaker banks in the state on a par with the stronger ones”, and he invokes Gresham’s Law - named after Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579) founder of the Royal Exchange. By way of an aside, interesting to note that Gresham’s Law, “bad money drives out good”, could actually be called Copernicus’ Law.. but then it did take the administrative genius of Sir Isaac Newton to address the problem of the debased coinage of the time. And Gresham College [established 1597] provided the first meeting place of Those [Royal Society] Guys, on 28 November 1660, as well as, from September 1664,...
The First and deputy First Ministers may have had separate, but equal, meetings with Taoiseach Brian Cowen today [more on that stalemate here] against a backdrop of internal Fianna Fáil dissent over the medical card confusion, growing unease about the Home Choice Loans scheme, and criticism from the Church of Ireland, if not any mention, yet, of the Lisbon manoeuvring.. And, in referencing Brian Lenihan’s comments, Henry McDonald makes an important observation in his Guardian article - just as protest politics appears to be on Sinn Féin’s agenda again.If the Stormont coalition – a devolved administration still inside the UK – is no longer envisaged as a “stepping stone” towards fusion with the republic, then perhaps it would be better...
At IrishElection.com Cian has already noted this, but it’s worth quoting the criteria under which the Republic of Ireland’s government proposes to extend loan facilities to first-time buyers..Under the Home Choice Loan scheme, the Government will lend up to 92% of the value of a home to an individual buying a new house, provided they are a first-time buyer and earn in excess of €40,000 a year.
They must also be in permanent employment for at least two years, and be able to prove that they have been unable to secure a sufficient mortgage from a bank or building society. The loan will be at the commercial variable lending rate and the risk of each loan will be assessed using the same grounds that banks use.
Lending to those deemed not being credit-worthy...
On Sunday Killian Forde picked up a theme, I vaguely touched on a few weeks ago on Brassneck, the similarity between the current crisis and a pyramid selling scheme. John Banville takes a more human look at the roller coaster ride some Irish people have been on over the last year or so… (H/T Susan!)
...the start of our Age of Aquarius can be dated to that week in the spring of 1992 when the news broke in Ireland that a prominent and popular churchman, Bishop Eamonn Casey, had carried on a long affair with an Irish-American woman, and that he had a 17-year-old son by her. It was the first of a series of religio-sexual scandals to be exposed here, each one worse than its predecessor.
The bishop had been a pillar both of church and state — he was a ubiquitous presence...
P O’Neill nominates the 1p and 2p levies as the single most damning aspect of Brian Lenihan’s budget. Not for what it says about the budget, but for the questions is raises about a tax system that may no longer be fit for purpose:
...it reveals a belief (which he confirmed yesterday) that he went for a levy because he did not trust the income tax system to fairly distribute the burden of higher taxes: upper income people would have used more deductions to dodge the higher rate. He believes it asks questions of the core competence of the Department of Finance:
...income tax is one of your primary revenue-raising tools, especially with indirect taxes like VAT and excise constrained by EU shopping (or NI costs). But he chose not to use it. It also...
Here’s a fascinating report from RTÉ on comments by the Republic of Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, responding to queries about the Budget on RTÉ Radio this morning.The Minister for Finance has said an increase in the number of people travelling North of the border to do their shopping had made things ‘very, very difficult’ when he was framing the Budget.
He said there was huge loss of revenue to Northern Ireland, because of the number of goods and services being purchased there by shoppers from the Republic. The Minister said this substantial expenditure meant the Government had to impose higher taxes for essential public services.
Minister Lenihan said this was the consequence if people opted to buy in another State. He said the...
The Lenihan Levy (alliteration is never the politician’s friend in situations like this) combined with the over 70s medical card issue has the potential to be this government’s equivalent of a British government’s 10% tax rate or poll tax depending on your vintage. Part of the problem is that in the absence of any core ideology in Fianna Fail other than the vague ‘we will do whatever is best for the country’ the tendency is towards a bit of medicine for everyone. One backbench TD was noted as saying strong medicine is needed provided it doesn’t kill the patient. To me it sounds more like medicine for everyone whether you were sick or not.
The other problem is that with exact details of the budget’s impact in other departments filtering out long...
Langerland obviously had a certain Minister of Finance in mind when they made this... (not work safe, and slow download)… Not to mention throwing some of RTE’s economic doomsayers into the mix…...