EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers you a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
€4,320 – The amount reportedly owed by environment minister Phil Hogan to a property management agency in Portugal. It is reported that while Hogan was encouraging the Irish public to sign up to the €100 Household Charge, he was simultaneously refusing to pay an outstanding bill for property management at a penthouse in the Algarve.
43 out of 45 – The number of by-elections won by the National League for Democracy in ballots in Myanmar, also known as Burma, last week. The Union Solidarity and Development Party – the governing party seen by many as a puppet of the former military rulers – won only 1 of the seats, in the only constituency not contested by the NLD.
34 metres – The height that a potential tsunami could reach if Japan was hit by another 9.0-magnitude offshore earthquake, according to a government report. The tsunami that caused so much devastation last year, by comparison, was 14m in height.
-3°C – The estimated lowest temperatures recorded in some parts of the country this week. Compare that to the temperatures above 22.2°C recorded in Belmullet the previous week.
27 – The number of years since the first of many reports which complained that underage prisoners were being housed in St Patrick’s Institution. That’ll come to an end within two years, after €50m of government funding was arranged to develop a new juvenile campus at Oberstown.
€378,920 – The total amount donations disclosed by Irish politicians in 2011, according to documents published this week. TDs, Senators and MEPs are required to disclose any donations above €635 from any individual source. None of Ireland’s MEPs disclosed any donations whatsoever, while independent senator Rónán Mullen clocked in as the best-funded member of the Oireachtas, with donations of €18,277.96.
€8.72 billion – The Irish government’s total income for the first quarter of 2011. That’s up by €1.2 billion on the same period from last year, and it’s €809 million more than had been expected.
30.5c – Of each €1 spent on the National Lottery last year, 30.5c went to good causes. The government has committed to maintaining this amount for 2012 and beyond, as part of plans to issue a new 20-year Lotto licence which will help pay for the National Children’s Hospital.
9 – The number of countries in the world where people are happier than Ireland. That’s not just our guess – that’s the findings of the UN’s first ever World Happiness Report.
1,137,000 – The combined number of views clocked up within three days by the ‘Kony 2012: Part II‘ video released by Invisible Children this week, after three days. That’s less than the number the original famously clocked up – at the time the world’s most viral video – but still a pretty hefty number.
0 – The miraculous number of fatalities after a F-18 jet crashed into an apartment complex at Virginia Beach yesterday.
Three months – The amount of time for which the minister for transport, Leo Varadkar, was given… free transport. New Dáil documents show Varadkar was given the free use of a Skoda Superb for three months while he decided whether to take out a full lease.
€102.40 – The amount paid by one senator, per acre per year, to rent land in Gort for organic farming. Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames rents 166 acres for €17,000 a year, according to the same Oireachtas documents.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say