If you are thinking of donating to a charity this year you might consider the Kerry Rape Crisis Centre for their support of a victim of sexual assault subject to horrific community bullying in Listowel.
Minister engages in excessive expenditure for private jet citing pressures of schedule and lack of commercial options to attend an event. Resulting public outcry causes minister to resign before he is sacked.
It’s France, last month, when the aid minister Alain Joyandet chartered a jet to go a donors conference for Haiti — conveniently located in [...]
Previously
balls, Slang: Vulgar.
a. boldness; courage; brashness.
b. nonsense (often used as an interjection).
A new definition to add.
IBEC group Retail Ireland has issued an assessment of the environmental impact of cross-border shopping claiming trips north are releasing ‘tonnes’ of carbon into the atmosphere.
Retail Ireland Director Torlach Denihan said: “On the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit it [...]
This might appear to be a little behind the curve, thanks to my first effort getting lost on the WP app. Anyway…..
The response of Ceann Comhairle John O Donoghue to the reports of his extremely large expenses bills from his time in Arts, Sport and Tourism unveil a couple of things our erstwhile snippers should [...]
A report in the motoring supplement of the Irish Times on Wednesday told of how The Dublin Port Tunnel will not be taking part in a major European tunnel safety assessment scheme because there was a “missing email between the National Roads Authority” and the group carrying out the report. It was headlined “No Record [...]
Here we go again. Aer Lingus is withdrawing more services from Shannon. But this row is going to play out very differently than the end of Shannon-Heathrow. The latter row caught the government on the hop but also featured an Aer Lingus in a very different mood, confident that it could launch a sub-hub in [...]
Ryanair are ratcheting up the pressure on Ministers to sell Aer Lingus to them. They issued an ISE announcement earlier today outlining the details of their meeting with Noel Dempsey today. It includes a commitment to recognise unions at the airline and give the government control of the slots at Heathrow.
I have the full release [...]
Ryanair launch a second bid for Aer Lingus, government have been seeking to sell for months now. It is very uncomfortable for the whole company. Shareholders are getting a premium, government end with egg on faces and unions go apoplectic. Not alone that but Ireland’s free-marketeer nabs himself a decent monopoly on air travel out [...]
Yesterday, in the aftermath of the climbdown regarding the Medical Cards fiasco, I read a post on the weblog of Green Party Justice Spokesperson Ciarán Cuffe, which dealt with the Medical Cards issue.
After reading the post, I gave him my view of the Fianna Fáíl / Green coalition, and put some questions to him and [...]
Today’s Financial Times carries a bleak interview with Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion, which of course is part of a pattern of bleak economic news these days. One part of it brings us back to the uproar that surrounded the departure of Aer Lingus from Shannon for the El Dorado of Belfast –
The above is a picture of a toll plaza on the Dulles Toll Road in the US state of Virginia. Note the structure: barrier free lanes on the left with an overhead gantry for transponder (EZ Pass) users with separated toll lanes on the right giving a choice of exact change payment or full [...]
Not that it’s any use in solving the problem, but has anyone done a cost comparison on the storage costs for the e-voting machines versus the cost of having a backup radar system for Dublin Airport? In a cinematic note, the existence of a backup radar system was of course a key plot twist in [...]
The RPA released a consulation document today on the feasibility of a new Luas line ‘E’ from Dundrum to Christchurch, covering Terenure and Harold’s Cross. The proposal for line E was not included in Transport 21 but the RPA are hoping that the study will be included in a later revision of the project. It [...]
It would be foolish to completely rubbish the newly-announced plans to introduce road safety classes to Transition Year students as any move in that direction is a positive one; but the whole thing does leave you asking ‘is this it?’
One of Bertie Ahern’s home stretch events today was to launch the Dublin Airport Authority’s plan for Dublin Airport City. Not to put too fine a point on it, this seems like one of the crazier proposals to have emerged over the last year, and symptomatic of much of what is wrong with governance and [...]
The time of the departure of Bertie Ahern has now been announced. What of his legacy, his place in Irish history? Here are some points that might be considered.
The people of the Shannon region probably would have ranked the options for airport hub connections as follows: (1) restoration of the Aer Lingus service, (2) British Midland to Heathrow, and (3) service to a continental hub. For now they are getting the third, with Cityjet service to Roissy/Charles de Gaulle, meaning connections to the [...]
Dan Boyle sheds the green jersey. His Sunday Tribune comments (which only got a weblink late in the day) are noted by Reuters.
Ivor the Driver — full Seanad report. It was nice of Bertie to send Ivor’s letter of appointment to his Cork address.
How ossified is Irish politics? In the blink of an eye, Australia — which had no recession — replaces its Prime Minister.
I’m a victim of unique Irish blame culture, says Harney
Things Ministers don't do part 2: Harney is not really responsible for these clinial fuck-ups. Sure kick her over policy but not failure. Typical Irish begrudgerry.
