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Fianna Fail

This tag is associated with 19 posts

The cost of “Keeping up with the Fitzpatricks”

By ⋅ March 6, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

Ireland needs a drastic shift in cultural attitudes – away from entitlement and towards personal responsibility. The arrogant aristocracy has made taxpayers as cheap as chips.

Mansergh vs. Ward on BBC2 NI “Hearts and Minds”: Youtube

By ⋅ February 27, 2009 ⋅ 20 comments

Martin Mansergh, junior minister for Finance, and I had a very lively discussion on the telly last night. We were, of course, talking about the economy. He was a nice man but he was completely unprepared. Our lovely interviewer Noel said we’d just have a nice discussion but it quickly turned into a row. I suggested [...]

Anglo debacle in pictures

By ⋅ February 26, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

Anglo in pictures

40 questions looking for answers..from government, regulator and banksters

By ⋅ February 21, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Anglo Directors’ loans 1. How much did Seanie & co borrow? Who authorised it? 2. What did they use it for? a.      Did they buy shares, debt or CFDs? b.     Did they use money to manipulate the share price in some way? c.     What were the terms of the loan? Was it secured? d.     Did [...]

Wanted: a maverick gunslinger to save us from the cowboys

By ⋅ February 9, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

WANTED: MAVERICK gunslinger to cut down enemies of the State. Year 2010: Tumbleweed blows through the empty streets of the International Financial Services Centre. The once proud little place in the wild west of Europe is almost abandoned. A few nervous survivors squint through cracked glass at the young, fair-haired woman outside. She is wearing [...]

Beware the legalese virus

By ⋅ May 30, 2008 ⋅ One comment

EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS are concerned about the rapid spread of an aggressive virus known as legalese LT08. A close relative of jargonitis, academicspeakis and gobbledegook, the malady has taken hold of European laws and infected civil servants throughout the EU. The virus, mostly found in EU legislation and government publications, attacks the human mind and hijacks [...]

Welfare as tragi-farce

By ⋅ July 17, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Friday, July 13, 2007 Scene: A social welfare office in Ballythisis- progress. Ten staffed customer-service hatches line the far wall. The first person in the queue, a very nervous, bald, middle-aged man, looks down at his wet, scuffed shoes. Behind a shiny glass partition, two Government ministers sit back-to-back to ensure a full view of [...]

‘Generation Text’ and the skills gap

By ⋅ May 6, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

The Irish Times Business This Week, May 4th 2007 Businesses have identified a significant deficit among employees and are struggling to remedy it, writes Margaret E.Ward Bertie is trying to tell me something. Every time I walk along a street or drive my car, his gaze follows me from those election posters. At home, Bertie [...]

Sub-prime time or Abbatoir of debt

By ⋅ April 16, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Fresh meat is needed to feed the insatiable appetite of the international abattoir of debt. Our Government has been waving a big juicy carcass in the air – your mortgages – for some time, writes Margaret E. Ward. Recently, the scent was picked up by lenders to the credit-troubled. These sub-prime lenders are flooding into [...]

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