Banks! Banks! Banks!

The above sign has been erected outside Anglo Irish Bank on St Stephens Green and I don't think there would be too many would disagree with its sentiments (mis-spellings aside). It's a kind of 'a plague on all their houses' against the bankers, politicians, unions and pretty much everyone except the poor taxpayer who is delivering the moolah to bale them all out. All very justified.


I still have a major problem though in that the banks are merely trying, through all of whats going on, to get back to where they were and what they were at before the proverbial 'merdre' hit the fan. Is this progress? The bankers are still being paid exorbitant amounts of money and paying themselves bonuses for Gods sake! Is this justified?

Surely if you are in line for bonuses there should be a corresponding sanction for the people who have delivered the banks, the economy and the country down the tube! If this was the case then most of them would end up owing their place of employment money, such is the extent of the bad job they have done for which they have all (paradoxically) been handsomely paid!

People keep telling us that we have to save the banks without telling us why. Every international competitor on the banking scene, who were introducing some (much needed) competition into the banking market, are now running away like scalded cats. This means that as soon as the banks get enough money into their coffers again (from us) they will be back to business as normal. They are all private companies with their main focus as delivering 'shareholder value' - profits into the private sector. They have no responsibility (imho) to 'get the economy rolling again' as we are being told - notably by politicians as the banks themselves are making no such claims!

Interestingly Vincent Browne on TV3 last night covered a new TASC report which detailed the amount of cross-pollination of directorships held by a small few people mostly in Dublin who populate the board rooms of the biggest companies in Ireland. Each non-executive director was likely to be paid (€66,000-€130,000) a huge amount for their part-time work and each was likely to hold around 10 other non executive directorships!!!!!!!!

This is absolutely extra-ordinary and applies, no doubt, in great part to the boards of our banks also! Whats the bet that many of those directors also have contacts/appointments related to our great independent media and political spheres also? I always think it would be a most interesting task to 'map' as it were all the connections, through marriage, family, appointments etc. between business, media and government. Wouldn't that make for interesting reading!

I won't even go into the extremely low levels of women sitting on these 'old boys networks'....oh, sorry I mean 'boards'!!!!!!

Anyway, as these self same people are forever telling us (although for very different reasons) none of this gives us the rope to drag ourselves out of this very deep hole! That I think will be provided by neither the banks, nor the government. It will be provided by the ingenuity of the Irish people who are already showing signs of imagining themselves out of this mess.

I say this because, as you may know, I am a judge on the Deise Den competition currently running on WLR fm which is offering a €25,000 prize pack for some lucky new or nearly new business in this area. I have been very enthused and heartened by the range and amount of entries to the competition and while unfortunately there can only be one winner, many of the entries and finalists offer the potential for people to at least create employment for themselves and who knows, even expand and possibly provide much much more than that in the not too distant future.

One thing is for sure though: there is a wealth of ingenuity and imagination and determination out there amongst people! They are all to be encouraged and congratulated on their bravery and their spirit. I salute them all. We need more like them!

Ard RÍ Hotel An Eyesore - City Taking Action

Below is a Press Release issued by the City Manager today:

For immediate publication

Ard Rí site entered on Derelict Sites Register by Waterford City Council

Waterford City Council is to take action to have the old Ard Rí Hotel site cleaned up and put in good order. The prominent multi-storey building overlooking the city has been closed for several years and has now been entered on the Derelict Sites Register by the City Council.

The Council today confirmed it will now be pursuing the owners to have works carried out ‘to remove the site from dereliction’. A formal notice specifying the works to be carried out will be served on the owners in the coming week.

City Manager, Michael Walsh, said that unfortunately, the former Ard Rí Hotel has now become ‘a blot on the landscape’ and he will, with the support of the members of Waterford City Council, pursue all avenues legally available to have the owners carry out necessary works.

Mr Walsh added that he will be reporting to the Council at next Monday’s meeting and if the owners of the Ard Rí site fail to undertake the works specified within an appropriate time, the City Council will carry out the work and seek to recover the costs from the owners.

The City Manager added that, at a time when so much work and effort is going into presenting Waterford city at its best, he is not prepared to tolerate derelict sites such as the Ard Rí.

ENDS – May 5, 2010.

Is Cowens' Term Coming to an End?

Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my behalf but I can't help feeling that the rug upon which our esteemed Taoiseach has placed himself, is unravelling beneath his very feet - at a rate of knots! Bit by bit his tenure is looking more and more shabby and threadbare and unlikely to last.

Everything he has done right back to 2004 when he was promoted into the Finance portfolio is under examination and at every turn he seems to have made the wrong decision. I think that, sooner or later, this Anglo Irish noose is going to tighten around his neck - both for his sins of ommission and indeed, of commisssion.

Perhaps that is why, even his voice is beginning to sound a bit strangulated and I'd say he's feeling the pressure.

Watch this space as I have a feeling that the rug is not far from being pulled altogether.

Litter Litter Everywhere!

Litter. Rubbish. It's disgusting. There must be something we can do to stop our beautiful Country from being dumped on by our citizens!

What is it about Irish people (not all, of course but a hefty minority) that they feel it is okay to destroy our roadsides, beaches, parks, streets with their dumped rubbish?

There are fly-tippers - those brazen, selfish - and yes, stupid - people who drive around in the dark of night waiting until there is no other car in sight so that they can horse a bag of rubbish out the door or window. There are casual litters, who throw papers out windows or drop them as they walk. There are rubbish families who think it's okay to leave nappies at the beach. There are teenagers who think it's cool to spit out your gum wherever you happen to be hanging out. There are dog walkers who see it as acceptable to leave dog faeces in parks and on paths.

What kind of a nation are we? Why do we do these things? Why won't we stop? We will whine til the end of time about things that we can't control and yet we continue to drop and to accept the dropping of litter, which is ruining our country! Take a walk or drive down any road, street, boreen, town, village or city in Ireland and just observe the litter. Now with the road verges cut and the new spring growth not yet in evidence the real scale of the problem is visible for one and all.

What kind of people do this? On what planet is this acceptable behaviour? None. What can we do? How can we make a substantial difference in a short time - because that is what we need to do?

The clean up of dumping and littering has cost this country dearly - and yet, some of the same people who are giving out about the billions going down the Anglo toilet are the cause of this particular cost to the nation. When are we going to stop tolerating it? The sooner the better I say.

What's the Anglo Story?

Unlike 99.99% of politicians that I have heard in recent days, I will ADMIT that I don't understand this whole Anglo Irish Bank debacle. Problem here is that, while I'm admitting it, none (I'm convinced) of the other 99.99% understand anything about it either. But that doesn't stop them spouting off as if they had done their PhD's on the very subject.

They are merely parroting what they have been told - each given a few standard lines to throw out when they are asked about it. These include: "it would cost more to wind it down"; and "it's the lesser of two evils" and "it was the Lehmans collapse that caused all this not government policy".

They are the very worst of sheep, following dutifully into the Dail chamber and supporting the Government, as the voting fodder they are while ignorantly not knowing or caring about the well that they have thrown our economy down. Sure, it's the lesser of two evils they say confidently. Gobsh*tes! The whole damned lot of them.

Did the Government really guarantee all those debts in the midst of an emotional night of hand-wringing by the banks - with no more examination of the consequences for this country than that? Are they really that stupid? I don't know why I'm even asking that question: we know now that they did (according to Cowen) and we know that they are (stupid that is).

I want to know: what damage to Fianna Fail is contained in those Anglo Irish vaults? What skeletons lurk there that are so damaging to them that the whole country has been sacrificed to keep them secret or to keep those who know about them quiet? We're a mad little country all the same.

I don't understand it no. But I know a pup when I'm being sold one. And this is no pup. This is a foul, diseased beast that in my opinion is going to grow and grow with an insatiable appetite that is to be feeding from the trough of this tiny economy for decades to come. It will devour schools, hospitals, jobs, businesses... And the most worrying thing is that the people we elect to run this country haven't the damnedest clue how big it's going to grow, what it's going to cost or how to control it.

Gilmore was right. This is economic treason. This is self-harm on a national scale. Ho hum, and in the FFr's troop to do what they're told.

Remember now lads, all together: "it would cost more to wind it down; it's the lesser of two evils; it was Lehmans not us.....louder at the back!"

Follow The Money

There is an end to the amount of money you can either take from people, or ask them to contribute. There is a bottom to the pit and in this Country at the moment I think that many people are reaching that place.

Excluding those at the top of the pile who will always have enough to fund extravagant lifestyles, the vast majority of people are now tightening their belts to the extent that it hurts - or are living quietly, fretting, becoming more anxious and desperate as the bills keep coming and there is nothing there to pay them.

This is happening to people who have worked all their lives and are now either earning less or have been made redundant; or their pension has been whacked out from under them a lá the Waterford Crystal workers; or self employed people who can't get cash flow or can't get paid and many are trying to live on little or no income and are becoming increasingly desperate not seeing where it will end or how they can get themselves out of this situation.

If you're trying to reach on a mortgage, loan repayments for say, a car, health insurance, home insurance, heating, phone, lighting - none of which are luxuries by any means.

Then you have to visit the Doctor (none of whom it seems to me have reduced their fees) or more expensively, the Emergency Room, or worse still, a Consultant and the school is looking for a contribution for running costs and the teenager needs a fortune just to keep ticking over, and the kids are growing out of their clothes, and the bins have to be paid for and the motor tax and the carbon tax and the.....well you get the idea.

Costs are not coming down across the board. Income is going down. That's never going to lead to a balanced situation. Many people are coming to the end of their tether and are clinging on by their fingernails often not seeing a way out for themselves or their families. Homes are being sold. Cars repossesed. Sick children going without that Doctors visit even.

People who have lots of money - aka our TD's and especially Ministers - will never understand how desperate people are becoming on this front. People falling behind on mortgage payments - most would do almost anything to ensure this doesn't happen but many at this stage just can't help it. After all shelter and food are our most basic needs.

There are a whole coterie of professionals who seem immune to cost reductions. And still the blasé attitude comes down from on-high. From those with a fortunes worth of money and the prospect of a further fortunes worth of pensions and lump sums insulating their backsides from the harsh realities most of us are dealing with day in and day out. Or giving payrises to those in the banking sector - particularly Anglo Irish Bank, for Gods sake!!!!

Then to add insult to injury they can't even do their jobs; they witter on about helicopters not flying in dark and clouds when that's a lie - and one that has been pointed out to them and yet they persist. Less is more they tell us! A 12 hour service will deliver more than a 24 hour service! This is actually what they're expecting us to swallow!

They deny us a University because maybe it mightn't go down well in ones own constituency; they fill the airwaves with so much drivel and noise that its hard after a while to decipher whats truth anymore. They can't, it seems, really do anything much at all except make an unmitigated mess of everything.

Their weapon of choice, is surely the boomerang!

A bit like the principle which says that there are less deaths when doctors are on strike I'm beginning to think that we'd all be better off without the lot of them!

Could Lack of Change Mean Lack of Talent in FF?

Coughlan to Education & Skills (including Training element of FAS); O'Cuiv to Dept of Social Protection; Hanafin to Tourism, Culture & Sport; O'Keeffe to Enterprise, Trade & Innovation (including 3rd level research funding); Carey to Community, Equality & Gaeltacht (including disability) and Killeen to Defence.

That's as far as I picked it up on first hearing - don't take it as gospel just yet but its there or thereabouts.

Sean Connick - FF TD for Wexford is to get a Junior Ministry although I didn't hear what yet to keep the 'geographical' balance I guess. Sean is a good guy and well informed. He should be good and I wish him well. Pity there is no-one in the City who was thought fit for a Junior Ministry and this does not augur well for the future - as the situation with opposition parties is similar on that front unfortunately.

So! What does it mean for Waterford? Well, we have the Minister for a University in eemmmmmm...... Letterkenny in Education now.

I'm also assuming that Minister Coughlan hasn't changed her opinion since last May when she argued on a visit to the City that despite her officials in the IDA advising her that a University was required in Waterford she "didn't necessarily agree with them".

One assumes that this is a demotion in a manner of speaking for Mary - without it wanting to be seen as such - after all education is not one of the 'economic' ministries. So, someone who didn't do a great job in her last posting has now been rewarded with Education? Ho hum. Says it all really.

As to the rest? Killeen...who? Carey.....quiet! The rest is just musical chairs. Incidentally Dempsey is still in Transport so there's no silver lining for the Search & Rescue service either.

I'd call for a General Election but really....what's the point.

Minister Dempsey NOT Well Briefed on Search & Rescue Issue

It seems that Minister Dempsey is not for turning. But I simply cannot let the evening go without challenging his, at best mis-informed and, at least mis-leading, comments on the reduced Search & Rescue helicopter service which he and his department intend introducing on the South & South East coastline in 2013 - the contracts for which are seemingly due to be signed in the next few weeks. He is so obviously parroting the(wrong)information that some suit in the Department is feeding him without having any real understanding of it himself.

The current helicopter service DOES fly at night and indeed, in clouds - contrary to what Minister Dempsey said on the Six One bulletin on RTE today. Where he got that one I'll never know - but it does back up my 'parroting' hypothesis.

It will NOT - according to my information - be 50% faster, but rather maybe closer to 15% faster to fly here from another base with the new helicopters. However, once an emergency is reported a crew from Dublin or Shannon will not scramble (wake, travel to base, be briefed, read maps and take off)any faster than before and regardless of the flying speed would not arrive as fast as a locally based helicopter - which, bear in mind, will also benefit from the faster speeds of a newer helicopter - arriving at an emergency even quicker than it does now.

Perhaps the Minister has been watching too many episodes of Star Trek and thinks they can be 'beamed' to the South coast?

So, imagine yourself in trouble on a trawler - perhaps after a fall, a heart-attack, a cap-sizing, a stroke - perhaps you are in the water...or clinging to the base of a cliff. Maybe you got caught in a rising tide. It's dark, you're cold and panic and perhaps hypothermia is starting to set in. You will now have to wait an EXTRA 30-40 minutes - potentially life saving or live taking minutes - on top of what it might take a local crew to reach you.

Those 30 - 40 minutes I have no doubt, will, some day, unfortunately cost someone their life. It could be your dad. Your husband. Your child. It could be all three as has happened before. Then it will be too late.

We must do everything we can to ensure that this decision is changed now, before the contract is signed. Especially as it seems to be based on entirely ridiculous information like that opined by the Minister above.

I wonder is there a record for how many incorrect facts you can state in a minute? If there is, then Minister Dempsey would surely have a fair shot at that title today.

If this is no big deal - then cut Dublin's service and see how a million people repay you. Are we being targeted because we have less population and currently - no political clout? Is it that parochial? Because short of seeing the justification and how a 30 minute EXTRA delay is a better service (according to the Minister!?!?) then I can see no other reason.

Please attend the Public Meeting on March 31st, 7.30pm in the Tower Hotel. We must unite and get organised across the entire South and South East coast to fight this move. Those who have lost loved ones deserve our commitment now. The brave men and women of the Search & Rescue service who, day in day out, go out to save lives - sometimes at great risk to their own - deserve it. We deserve it.

Could you halve a fire service, or an ambulance? Hell no. Then why this life-saving service? It just doesn't make any sense.

Are we to be condemned to a lesser service than any other coastal community in the Country? Yes if FF and the Greens have their way. This just simply can NOT be allowed to happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not EVER.

Millers Marsh Path Urgently Needs Widening

Sometimes you have to focus on the things you CAN change. (Isn't that part of a prayer?) And one of those things for me, hopefully, is the miserly path crossing Millers Marsh Bridge heading from Johns Street to Storm Cinema.

As you can see from the above picture, the path is barely wide enough to take my slim seven-year-old, not to mention the two year old who was also with us, or indeed myself.

I intend to make vigorous representations to the City Council to have the path widened as a matter of urgency. It really is simply too dangerous. This route has become very well used - in fairness, much more so than it used to be - since the cinema based there and something has to be done to make it safer for pedestrians very many of whom are children - who can be expected, such is the narrowness of the path, to step off of it or even fall off of it in its current condition.

I know the road here is narrow also - just about enough for two cars to pass, but even if it meant making the road one-way or re-organising the traffic at this pinch point, I believe that this is absolutely necessary.

As far as I'm aware there hasn't been a serious accident as yet here but surely that is just a matter of time.

Many of the issues I discuss here are not within my power to do anything about - however, this one is and I intend to pursue it.

Hands Off Our 24 hour Search & Rescue Helicopter!

Oh-ho they've done it now! They've just crossed the proverbial line in the sand. The people of Waterford - and beyond I'm sure - are hopping mad now. Hopping mad that the government has mis-managed this country so very badly that they now need to actually put peoples' lives at risk in order to save under a measly million euro a year. It is just incredible.

I am consoling myself by thinking that surely when someone (outside the Department of Finance) looks again at the facts here that they will realise the blunder they are about to make and make a more 'enligthened' decision. If they do, we will all rejoice.

I have been doing some digging and seemingly the rescue service based at Waterford Regional Airport were out more than 110 times last year with about 10% of those calls at night. Around 49 people were assisted with 9 of those rescued at night. It is surely acceptable to assume that at least some of those rescues prevented fatalities.

I would like to ask why Waterford was chosen? What is the difference between the Waterford service and that provided in other parts of Ireland. I understand that 2009 was the local services busiest year so far and that they were busier than other bases - although I don't have official confirmation of that. So did they just stick a pin in the map?

If you check out the 'Save 24hr Search & Rescue Helicopter Cover in South-East' Page on Facebook which was only started up yesterday, it currently has over 5,500 members - most with real people posting under their own names. Membership is going up at a rate of knots, to put it mildly.

I have written to the Mayor asking him to organise a cross-party open public meeting with Mayors and Chairs from across the South and South East where a campaign can be put together to save our 24 hour Search & Rescue Service. There aren't too many, but I do believe that this issue will garner regional support.

Most people who know me know that my husband works at sea on a tallship and manys the time he has been assisted in emergencies by air sea rescue services around the globe. What if he were to have an emergency in his home port waters....at night? If this is allowed to happen it is unconscionable.

I haven't seen an issue take hold like it for quite some time - this is what people are talking about in cafés, shops and workplaces right now.

To save a million euro (less from what I hear) a year???? My God has it really come to this?

Maybe this is the straw that will finally break the camels back; where the people of the south east will finally say NO MORE and get up and work together to save this service.

May it be the first of many such actions if that is so!