Mr Justice Peter Kelly was told today that the [M1] tolling company is claiming it had a legitimate expectation, including a promise from the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, that tolls would go only up. The court heard that the Minister told the Dáil in June last year that the by-laws provide for an upward only review of tolls.

The authority says that the by-laws do not make any express reference to an upward only toll system and, in fact, provide a mechanism to allow for a decrease.  Senior Counsel, Shane Murphy said the company was advocating an interpretation of the by-laws which would insulate it from all external realities. He said that the Minister’s statement could not be regarded as a ‘promise’, as it was said after the contract between the NRA and the company was finalised in 2004.

4 days before the election, it’s worth remembering that it’s not just about the financial crisis and its aftermath.  It’s about the insanity of everything goes up and all our top people are worth it that went before.  Even now we don’t know for sure the guarantees on tolls and minimum usage that the tolling companies on M1, M3, M4 etc were given.  It’s a shame that Minister Dempsey is not running so that at least the voters of Meath West and (indirectly) East could have passed judgement on his tolling policy implications for the county.   Note incidentally that the argument used by the NRA — that laws can’t be interpreted as providing insulation from all external realities — applies in spades to the question of paying off bondholders in insolvent banks.

It’s France, last month, when the aid minister Alain Joyandet chartered a jet to go a donors conference for Haiti — conveniently located in Martinique.  Now it cost somewhat more than Noel Dempsey’s outing but the principle is the same.  The apparent difference: Joyandet’s superiors — the President and Prime Minister — have some sense of when gratuitous waste occurred and they got shown up by it.  That ain’t Ireland.

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 is sobering that cross-border shopping trips in 2009 will result in the emission of 100,000 tonnes of carbon.

Retail Ireland called on the government to take measures to reduce the economic and environmental impact of cross-border shopping by helping the retail sector in the Republic to regain lost competitiveness, thus making cross-border shopping less attractive.

This can also be filled under grasping at straws.

hat Tip Slugger

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 bear in mind. The former minister was responsible for €180,000 in travel expenses in one year – spent on the minister, his wife and private secretary travelling in pretty extreme luxury.

Limousines, luxury hotels and the like are hard to justify at the best of times – and these were the best of times – but in a piece in the Indo yesterday, O Donoghue’s people did their best.

Defenders of the Ceann Comhairle said yesterday that all the accommodation and incidentals had been procured by his departmental officials.

Ah it was those nasty, useless, wasteful civil servants who made the ministers trudge through the luxury. Surely we cannot admonish a man for doing his job? Well hold on a second, that is not technically what they are saying – the civil servants booked the trips, that was their job, but on whose orders were they booking such extravagant stays? Where was it made clear that the trips must follow the form they did? There is taking initiative and then there simply doing one’s task and our minister’s spinners have made no comment on who made the call to stay in luxury hotels. I think we can take a stab at that from the following:

It was also suggested that such expenditure was necessary in order to encourage the location of big events, such as the Ryder Cup, in Ireland.

Ah, there we have it, in order to compete for massive events – of which we have only hosted one, the Ryder Cup – we must spend €60,000 a year on a minister, €60,000 on his wife and €60,000 on his private secretary. In order to get value for money from that they would end up as tax exiles for the year from time spent overseas.

It is not for a dig I am making this point – for across the page in yesterday’s Indo the mentality that deems it a fair use of taxpayer dosh to loll about in limos was made clear. Figures released to the Indo suggest that Ryan’s income last year was €115,049. This is for a man who was Minister during the 1970s, and MEP in the 1970s and 1980s and drawing three different pensions.

I doubt very much he is responsible for the amount of money he is taking, a €17,178 MEP’s pension, a €60,044 Oireachtas pension and a ministerial pension worth €37,827. That is a phenomenal pension by any standards. It underlines what we all should bear in mind. At the top of our tree there are hugely remunerated public and (even larger still) private workers. The attitude laid bare by the extravagance of O Donohue’s expenses and the psychology that ties the pension of Richie Ryan to the earnings of his successors.

That latter is a matter which is within the remit of the Minister for Finance to change, it was a discretionary decision to tie pensions to earning of successors and while no one would say that a man like Ryan is not entitled to his pension – I baulk at the idea that he earns as much so long after departing office as I would if I became a Junior Minister.

For years there are those for whome percentage increases during benchmarking generated runaway income increases. 5% of €34,000 is a significant sum but nowhere near as much as 5% of €150,000. For many public sector workers – especially those now facing cutbacks in the Bord Snip report, their increases followed the former pattern – keeping them within range of the average industrial wage. For those toward the top it was the indulgence of enormous wage growth thanks to the same percentage increases.

Richie Ryan was not around the table taking those decisions – but our current political and economic leaders were. Of course cutting back on pensions tied to current earnings, expenses for Ministers to travel the world and the earnings of politicians, higher civil service wouldn’t save €5bn but a cut would go a long way to rectifying things.

The attitude of self-indulgence, overpayment and clubby ‘we’re worth it’ pensions has to change. The last few days underscore that we don’t have a pure public-private divide but one between those at the top of both trees and the rest of us. The top must bear its share of cuts before they get any veneer of legitimacy for the cuts they implement for the rest of us.

Tim O’Brien wrote…

The NRA said it sent an e-mail application to Eurotap [the assessment group] in March 2008 requesting the inclusion of the Dublin Port Tunnel in the programme, which measures compliance with a 2004 EU directive on tunnel safety.

The tunnel has been dogged by problems with its safety systems since its opening in December 2006. A safety report from Egis Tunnels was commissioned in 2007 by tunnel operator, Transroute, which identified significant deficiencies in the tunnel’s automatic control system.

The date that the NRA claim they sent the email is interesting. Safety issues have given them serious trouble since day one, but they came to head near the end of February 2008.

–

In December 2007, as reported in The Irish Times, a truck overturned in the tunnel causing traffic chaos but more notably, spilling fuel, questions were asked why it took six hours to clear the truck and what the consequences would have been were the fuel to have ignited.

One month later the NRA announced they were going to remove defective tiles from the roof of the tunnel. The tiles were “prone to ‘float’ in high winds making them a potential hazard for drivers and leading to ongoing maintenance problems. A number of drivers, alarmed at the sight of the tiles falling, had contacted media organisations and the NRA to complain”.

On February 29th and again on March 4th last year RTÉ’s Prime Time ran reports detailing how the NRA was keeping the tunnel open contrary to safety manual procedures. The investigation also shone light on the fact that fans designed to fight fires in the tunnel had failed consistently on an on-going basis over a number of months, 13 at the same time in one instance, yet the tunnel remained open. It also detailed how the computer systems designed to monitor the temperature inside the tunnel – amongst other things – had failed without resulting in the tunnels closure. Finally, the report noted that water containers inside the tunnel had the potential to block vehicle exiting in emergency situations. A damning report.

A week later on March 11th a small fire in the tunnel caused its closure for five hours, the safety mechanisms, in the glaring media spotlight at the time, reacted relatively well. There were reports that traffic had been allowed continue into the northbound side of the tunnel while the fire burned on the southbound side but these were either not followed up on, or were unfounded.

So, looking at those dates, it would be fair to assume, based on the laws of probability, that the “missing email application sent in March 2008″ was sent or received between the date of the fire (March 11th) and March 26th when the NRA Chief Executive Fred Barry went before an Oireachtas Committee to answer questions on the cost and safety standards relating to the tunnel.

Taking the language used by Tim O’Brien in his report this week to be correct, “application” would indicate that the direction of communication was, and could only have been, from the NRA to Eurotap, the safety assessment body.

Now, assuming that…

• the NRA, being a State body, has some sort of IT department monitoring the data on its servers,

• that the application could only have been sent from one of a relatively small number of NRA accounts

…and

• that the date the email was sent on could be narrowed down to within 30 days (March 2008) making locating the data on the server not that difficult.

It would be therefore be feasible to find the date the email was sent on, from whom and to whom – and show all that to Eurotap and the media.

If the NRA did that they could prove that they did, as they said they did, send the email to Eurotap and thus the blame, as they wish it to be, could be placed rightly on the shoulders of Eurotap for leaving them out of the safety assessment.

However, we all know they won’t do that because it’s quite clear that the NRA purposefully didn’t send the email in case the the results compounded the damning revelations of the Prime Time report which had emerged in the prior week (or possibly even days).

A disgusting and shameful excuse from the NRA.

Safe driving.

But when Belfast didn’t turn out to be El Dorado, there was the quiet return of Shannon-Heathrow at a service level sufficient to keep basic connectivity at the airport.  But today’s news is that long-haul services other than Boston are being pulled for what could be a long winter.  While Aer Lingus will explain this in terms of Shannon being a seasonal demand airport, the ugly truth is that Aer Lingus is looking like a seasonal demand airline, at least as far as service to the US is concerned.

According to the Irish Times story, they’re having trouble filling Dublin-Dulles and Dublin-SF as well, especially outside the June-August travel window which is being hammered anyway by the global recession.  Thus the issue on the table is the Aer Lingus business model.  For the past few years, the model was that they could have a significant short-haul business and then niche long-haul to the USA and perhaps the Gulf.  But the lesson appears to be that there isn’t the market base to sustain the niche markets, and Ryanair is running rings around them on the short-haul (especially given Aer Lingus schizophrenia about how to compete with them).

So, a prediction: the Shannon-USA row will be much less damaging to the government than Shannon-Heathrow.  But it will more damaging to Aer Lingus.  It will re-open the question of the government shareholding and whether the competition between Ryanair and Aer Lingus really needs to be a policy objective of the European Commission, their stated basis for blocking the Ryanair bid.  One senses that Michael O’Leary and Noel Dempsey have a few conversations ahead of them.

I have the full release below the fold. It is worth reading in its entirity to gauge what Ryanair are playing at here. They reckon they can get a deal – especially in an environment where BA and Qantas are looking at merging into a global airline – and are doing everything to ratchet pressure; provide premium on the shares, make the right noises on unions and slots, appear conciliatory.

Since Ryanair’s announcement of its Offer, it has noted a range of observations and comments from a variety of interested parties and stakeholders. Opinions have also been expressed that Ryanair’s Offer is unlikely to receive European Commission merger approval.

At a meeting between Ryanair and the Minister for Transport last night, 3 December, 2008, Ryanair highlighted the benefits which the Offer, if successful, would deliver to Ireland, Irish consumers, Aer Lingus employees and all other Aer Lingus stakeholders.

In this announcement Ryanair outlines some of the details of its proposals in order to demonstrate how the Offer promotes and secures competition and how it will promote national aviation policy and perceived Irish Government concerns in that regard.

With respect to the Offer, Ryanair is undertaking that, if its Offer is successful, it will:

A) Recognise the Trade Unions in Aer Lingus. Ryanair will commit and guarantee that Aer Lingus will continue to honour and respect Aer Lingus’ long-standing policy of trade union recognition within Aer Lingus.

B) Shannon-Heathrow connectivity will be restored. Ryanair will ensure that Aer Lingus returns to the Shannon-Heathrow route with a minimum daily frequency of a morning and evening rotation, at the first seasonal schedule change following completion of the Offer. The Heathrow slots necessary to meet this commitment will be switched from one of Aer Lingus’ other Heathrow routes. This will meet the Government’s national aviation objective of restoring connectivity between Heathrow and the Shannon/Midwest region, and improving Ireland’s connectivity to London Heathrow.

C) Government will be given control over London Heathrow slots. Ryanair propose that the Articles of Association of Aer Lingus will be amended upon completion of the Offer to provide the Irish Government and Minister for Transport with a legally binding guarantee that will ensure Aer Lingus’ Heathrow slots cannot be sold, transferred, leased or switched by Aer Lingus to any other airline or to any other route without the prior written approval of the Irish Minister for Transport. This legally binding guarantee will protect Ireland’s connectivity to Heathrow and the world.

This will ensure that the Irish Government’s national aviation policy (as articulated at the time of the Aer Lingus’ IPO), to ensure a minimum level of connectivity between London Heathrow and Dublin, Cork and Shannon, will be guaranteed into the future. This proposed provision in the Aer Lingus articles of association (which will be detailed in the Offer Document) will correct the deficiencies in Aer Lingus’ existing Articles, which allowed Aer Lingus to close the Shannon-Heathrow route and replace it with a Belfast-Heathrow route, despite the Government’s objection. This guarantee’ will ensure that Heathrow’s connectivity to Dublin, Cork and Shannon can be protected by the current and future Irish Ministers for Transport for the benefit of Ireland and all Irish consumers/visitors.

D) Ryanair will provide a €100 million bank guarantee that Aer Lingus’ short haul fares will be reduced by a minimum of 5% for a three year period. Ryanair’s Offer guarantee’s to reduce Aer Lingus’ short haul fares (€94 in 2007) by a minimum of 5%, on a like for like basis, for a three year period post completion. The merged Ryanair/Aer Lingus Group will provide the Irish Government with a €100 million bank guarantee which can be drawn down by the Irish Government on behalf of consumer/taxpayers if an independent auditor, nominated by the Government, cannot confirm that the Ryanair/Aer Lingus Group have complied with this fare reduction guarantee each year for the 3 years post completion of the Offer. The Ryanair/Aer Lingus Group will also reimburse the Government for all costs associated with this annual independent audit of Aer Lingus’ short haul fare reduction. This €100 million bank guarantee will provide consumers, the Irish Government and all other stakeholders with absolute assurance that the annual €40 million consumer savings arising from the minimum 5% reduction in Aer Lingus’ average short haul fare will be delivered, in order to promote competition and growth on Aer Lingus’ short haul route network.

E) Ryanair will provide an additional €100 million bank guarantee that Aer Lingus’ fuel surcharges will be eliminated in their entirety (for all new bookings) within 28 days of completion of the Offer. The merged Ryanair/Aer Lingus Group will provide the Irish Government with a €100 million bank guarantee which can be drawn down by the Irish Government on behalf of consumers/taxpayers if an independent auditor nominated by the Government cannot confirm that the Ryanair/Aer Lingus Group have complied with this fuel surcharge elimination within 28 days of completion of the Ryanair Offer (for all new bookings). The Ryanair/Aer Lingus Group will also reimburse the Government for all costs associated with this independent audit of Aer Lingus’ fuel surcharge elimination. This €100 million bank guarantee will provide consumers, the Irish Government and all other stakeholders with absolute assurance that the annual €100 million consumer saving arising from the elimination of Aer Lingus’ fuel surcharges will be delivered in order to promote competition and growth on the Aer Lingus’ long haul route network.

Ryanair believes that these substantial guarantees and financial penalties, which will be unique to the proposed Ryanair-Aer Lingus airline merger, will afford consumers, the Irish Government, the European Commission and all other stakeholders the necessary confidence in Ryanair’s guarantees. Ryanair believes that these reductions in Aer Lingus’ short haul fares and removal of Aer Lingus’ fuel surcharges will deliver annual consumer savings of over €140 million, and will meet national aviation policy by promoting and securing the competitiveness of Aer Lingus’ short and long haul network, and increasing competition between Aer Lingus’ lower fares and Ryanair’s services on short haul routes to and from Ireland.

Not a bad day’s business