Gavinsblog.com

Category: Irish Politics

  • O'Donoghue and media capture?

    I was floored on Friday driving while listening to Today with Pat Kenny (Friday July 31, last 15 mins). Well, when I say floored, I was shouting at the radio. In the usual PK roundup of the week, where a panel of guests is invited to comment on events of the past seven days, some…

  • Sean Dunne's Icelandic debts

    Commenter FPL has pointed to a Wikileaks document I hadn’t seen before, and I believe has not received widespread attention. Full PDF (Dunne is on Page 128). It includes this page, which refers to developer Sean Dunne’s liabilities to Icelandic bank Kaupthing. The bank was sort of like Ireland’s Anglo Irish. It was nationalised last…

  • What NAMA needs

    Constantin also has a good list of things that need to be added to the legislation, to make it more accountable to the taxpayer: 1) Provisions for taxpayer protection and provision for a taxpayers’ oversight board filled with only independent observers, who are not in the employment of NAMA, NTMA, the State or any other…

  • What NAMA means

    Constantin has been giving some of the best NAMA analysis I have read thus far. I will quote two specific sections I believe are important (but read the whole thing on his blog). Light block quotes are from the draft NAMA legislation. All of this is from Constantin: (c) a reference to the long-term economic…

  • Gerry Gannon's assets

    One of the Anglo 10 is signing assets over to his wife, according to the Irish Mail on Sunday. I did a backgrounder on Mr Gannon here. LEADING developer Gerry Gannon is transferring properties worth tens of millions of euro, including an entire lake and foreshore, into his wife’s name. The surprise move – initiated…

  • Should we name the Ansbacher account holders?

    So asked Prime Time in September 1999. Of course the names were released… three years later. I recently put the entire Ansbacher report back online, after seven years of it being unavailable. I also posted the list of all account holders. What is interesting about this, is the voxpop at the start. There was anger,…

  • Moriarty, Desmond, Lowry and O'Brien

    Given the day that’s in it, as the Moriarty Tribunal reconvenes for more public sittings, it might be worth noting the following. Financier Dermot Desmond first became involved with Denis O’Brien when his venture capital firm IIU underwrote the Esat Digifone consortium’s bid for the state’s second mobile phone licence to the tune of £6m…

  • Fianna Fail hammered

    I can’t say I’m not pleased. Fianna Fail policies since 1997 have bankrupted the country. I am pleased the auctioneer councillor I ran from my door, Maurice Ahern (Cork), appears to have failed to get elected. I will be relatively quiet for the rest of June, I overloaded on the Ryan Report/Election/Anglo/Party funding stories. Time…

  • Michael Woods – resign

    From the RTE archives. September 30, 2003. Michael Woods is interviewed about the indemnity deal. Up to now it’s been sitting somewhere without a link on the RTE website, I pulled it off. First, an analysis of the C&AG’s annual report 2002, which questioned the indemnity deal: Then, the Michael Woods interview. Hold onto your…

  • Child abuse report

    I watched this on Questions & Answers last night. I can’t add anything.