Growth depends on disposable income [Independent.ie]
- Published: 24 January 2010
Since seeing the cult film Withnail and I, I've had a theory about why John FitzGerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is Ireland's best economic forecaster. In one scene, Danny, a man with shoulder-length hair, explains his coiffure to a friend: "Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain."
Meet John FitzGerald and the first thing you'll notice is a magnificent mane of hair. If my theory is right, this is his Samson-like secret to great forecasting. A cash register in the land cannot ring without an electro-magnetic impulse being instantaneously transmitted along the appropriate follicle. From every corner of Ireland's macro economy, every second of the day, armies of signals are assembled into macroeconomic forecasts in this man's mighty brain.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Time to decide which quangos can make the cut [Independent.ie]
- Published: 24 January 2010
IRELAND is said to have a special relationship with Newfoundland. Generations of Irish people migrated to the Canadian province to fish off its shores. Half of its population are said to descend from Irish settlers.
John Bruton was so struck by the Irish influence in Newfoundland that as Taoiseach he signed a memorandum of agreement to foster that special relationship with his Canadian counterpart.
Bertie Ahern went one further and dedicated a quango to the cause in 2001.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
INTO calls for debate on public sector funding [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 24 January 2010
The incoming General Secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation Shelia Noonan has said spending on the public services here is lower than in many other OECD countries.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
High life: Batt O'Keeffe spent €5,700 on VIP airport charges when junior minister [tribune.ie]
- Published: 24 January 2010
One of the Taoiseach's closest political allies, education minister Batt O'Keeffe, regularly ran up airport charges of €1,000 and more during his time as a junior minister at the Department of the Environment, new records show.
The combined bill for airport costs and charges on just seven trips – understood to include the cost of access to VIP airport lounges and services – claimed by O'Keeffe and various members of his travelling party comes to over €5,700 .
Full Story: www.tribune.ie
The new core values [Independent.ie]
- Published: 24 January 2010
The physical effects of the past couple of decades in Ireland are obvious. Motorways, empty estates, fake boobs, plump kids and different-coloured skin. But what did the roaring Noughties do to our beliefs? More to the point, what should you at least pretend to believe so as to avoid looking like a tool in public?
Religion
You'll still find cars parked outside country churches on Sunday morning, but the Catholic Church is finished. Everything from the Murphy Report, to a priest in Kerry queuing up with the bogmen to shake the hand of convicted sex offender in court has seen to that.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
