Weekend Roundup

With NAMA all the rage lately, it’s unsurprising that a big chunk of the weekend’s news is business related. The Sunday Business post reported on how the Anglo-Quinn merger deal is under pressure to be finalised hopefully within the week. Financial Regulator Mathew Elderfield was quoted by the Post as being “concerned about the distractions which managing Quinn Insurance would create for Anglo,..on top of the €2.8bn already owed by the Quinn family to the bank.” The Post declares that the deal is ongoing, hoping to be resolved within the week.

Keeping on the business theme, a story featured prominently on the Sunday Independent front page is that of Seanie Fitzpatrick’s son David being lent USD$50,000 (€37,048) to purchase an apartment in New York, 7 months AFTER the bailout of Anglo Irish by the State. David Fitzpatrick is an employee of Anglo-Irish’s US operation, and secured the loan against his $1.265 million apartment in New York’s upscale Greenwich Village. The Independent went on to say that there was no evidence that the initial acquisition of the property was secured by a mortgage, suggesting that he had been counting on the money to purchase his new home. Apparently, being the bosses son gets you a credit limit of €1.257 million to charge to Anglo Irish! At this stage in the game, how much more shocked can we the people be? ANOTHER embezzlement of taxpayer’s money? Just another day in Ireland then.

Elsewhere on the Independent’s front page, Brendan O’ Connor, noted Cork man and (former) Chat show host sounds off on NAMA. Taking a firm stance against it, he likens the taxpayer’s acceptance of NAMA to an abusive relationship:
“You see, this is what happens when you let people get away with murder. Let someone walk all over you once, and then it becomes the norm. You are then in what is known as an abusive relationship. We are now in an abusive relationship with the banks. And naturally, like everyone in an abusive relationship, we are tending to blame ourselves in some way.”
This article is a great read, and O’ Connor doesn’t waste an inch of his precious column space in making very clear how the banks and developers have in no uncertain terms “destroyed this country”. All delivered with an acerbic wit and urgency that O’ Connor is famous for. Read more here.

The public sector pay dispute rages on also. With the teaching unions of the country split over their current offer on the table, the Independent covers the passport workers dispute, revealing that staff in the passport office in Cork City were offered double pay for time off as an incentive to clear backlogged applications in the system. Ray Devine of the Cork passport office is quoted by the Independent “Ah, jaysus! That’s in internal email, you shouldn’t have it!” Had to chuckle to myself when I saw that. Apparently, staff in the Cork office were much more courteous during the recent industrial action than their Dublin counterparts, and the incentive was defended by a source in the Dept of Foreign Affairs.

Healthcare has been making the news this week also, not just in the US but also here at home. The Sunday Business Post writes on it’s front page that “High costs prohibit cancer patient’s access to treatment.” Professor John Armstrong is quoted that “only a fraction of public patients had access to the most up-to-date radiotherapy treatments.” This combines nicely with another story in the Independent about how Doctors are facing accusations of giving preferential treatment to private health insurance holders over those on the public healthcare system, with the headline “How long must we wait?” It seems the same issues plaguing the American healthcare system are happening here, with the Public/Private divide being a source of contention regarding preferential treatment of patients with cash, versus those without.

Finally, to move away from the boring ‘ol business side of things, the Sunday Independent ran a very interesting story regarding Phoebe Prince. For those unaware, Phoebe was a 15 year old girl from Clare, who had moved to Boston with her family. Upon her entrance to high school over there, she quickly became the subject of verbal and physical abuse by a clique at the top of the social ladder at South Hadley High school. Apparently, she stepped on some of the “popular” girl’s toes when she became involved with a couple of guys who were the top football stars of the school. What followed were weeks of verbal and physical abuse which ultimately drove Phoebe to suicide. The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick came out this week criticising the teachers and school administrators who ignored Phoebe’s repeated cries for help and completely ignored the situation. I won’t reprint the gory details here, but I suggest reading further into this story, it’s nothing short of shocking and depressing and makes you wonder how people can be so cruel for no good reason.

I hate to end on such a down note, but this is getting a bit long.

That’s the roundup of the weekend’s news; I’ll be back again soon to talk about the Healthcare situation in the US and the media’s treatment of that issue. It's shocking to me how ANYONE can be against free healthcare. It's not a privilege based on how much money you have, it's a right. The Welfare State has been working wonders in Europe since the end of WWII, America can learn from this Why would so many people be against a bill guaranteeing basic healthcare provisions to their fellow citizens ? Does the agenda of the media have enough power to sway the voting populace?

But before, an exclusive review of OneRepublic live from the Savoy in Cork.
(There’s an excuse to go to a concert!)

CT