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EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things we think you really ought to know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #UNIVERSITIES: A thorough shake-up of the CAO university admissions system could be on the way, if new proposals are carried through. The overhaul – which comes as the current points system is labelled “damaging” – could see students given matched to courses according to the particular subjects they do well in at Leaving Cert, reports Seán Flynn in the Irish Times.
2. #FINE GAEL: The second day of the parliamentary party’s annual think-in is getting under way in Galway, with TDs and Senators due to debate the upcoming presidential campaign. Speaking at the meeting, Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday stood over his stinging criticisms of the Vatican despite the Holy See’s angry response, reports RTÉ.
3. #ROADS: The number of people seriously injured on Irish roads is more than three times higher than estimated by the RSA, with more than 14,000 victims hospitalised over the last five years, according to a new study reported in the Irish Times. The study also reveals that road crash injuries have cost taxpayers €4.5billion since 2006.
4. #DRUMM: Gardaí have given up on attempts to question the former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm, who is living in the US. Drumm has repeatedly ignored garda requests to submit himself for interview, and cannot be extradited as criminal charges have not yet been brought, according to Tom Brady in the Irish Independent.
5. #DOCTORS: Just 60 of the 280 junior doctors recruited from India and Pakistan earlier this year have been cleared to begin work, RTÉ reports. The medics, who were recruited at considerable expense in a last-ditch bid to fill hospital vacancies, have all been living in Ireland since July but most are still waiting to be officially registered.
6. #BAILOUT: A German court is due to rule this morning on whether the country’s government broke the law when it agreed to fund a bailout for Greece. Loans received by Ireland from the EU emergency assistance fund – to which Germany is a major contributor – will also be implicated in the decision, which is due shortly after 9am.
7. #BANKS: The former chancellor of the UK, Alistair Darling, has said Ireland’s bank guarantee in September 2008 smelt of “panic”, rather than a plan. RTÉ reports that in his memoirs published today, Darling also says he was aware of disagreements between Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan.
8. #USA: US President Barack Obama is set to unveil a US$300billion ‘jobs package’ of tax cuts and government spending in a bid to drive employment and allay market fears of a double-dip recession, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. However, Republicans have labelled the plan “more of the same failed approach”.
9. #LATE LATE: Ryan Tubridy’s first Late Late Show of the new season saw ratings dive by close to 200,000 viewers against last year, despite huge publicity for singer Sinead O’Connor’s appearance. The RTÉ flagship attracted an audience of just 650,000. According to the Irish Sun, the State broadcaster said the lower-than-expected figure was due to coverage of the Ireland vs Slovakia soccer match the same evening.
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Any TD caught lying about what this deal is or is not, should be stripped of office and pensions.
Not a chance, the only thing those responsible will get out of this is a cushy job on a board when they ‘retire’ with their pensions.
Haha like that will ever happen
Sell-out merchants have a poor ending in history when this level of mistrust and public showing of opposition is seen !
Too many eyes on the Governemnt and their dealings now …
I wouldn’t like to be Willie Walsh – his reputation has just taken a new level of interest in the Irish –
“What is this guy really like ? – let’s forget the suit and the reputation ”
You reach – you show !
Fianna Fail who sold off plenty of shares of Aer Lingus are outraged. While Michael Martin was in cabinet. Not hypocritical at all.
At least they still kept a decent stake in it
The Irish state whether governed by Fine Gael or Fianna Fail has always largely served the interest of domestic and international capital over the majority ordinary citizens. Fianna Fail bail out the bondholders and destroy the nation economically which opens up juicy opportunities for Fine Gael connected business interests to feed on the carcass such as the Siteserv deal. The sale of the government stake in Aer Lingus is just the latest example of this trend.
IAG is owned by international investors (Standard Life Investment, Europacific Growth Fund etc) whose sole reason for holding the shares is to generate profit. If maximizing “shareholder value” in the years to come involves cutting routes from Cork, Shannon etc. then that’s exactly what IAG will do after all the puff and spin from Willie Walsh and the government has evaporated after the sale. The interests of the Ireland’s people are of precisely no concern to international capital.
They sold 3/4 of it. It’s a shame to see it sold, and it should never have happened in the first place, but 25% is a minority stake in a private company. The only real options are to sell it for the best price while it’s prospects are good, or try buy it back, which we can’t afford. Just holding on to the 25% would be to avoid bad pr and nothing else.
Fingal Council voted to renationalise Aer Lingus. Guess what!! The FF Councillors supported the motion. FF is the Party which sold off 75% of the shares in Aer Lingus. You couldn’t make it up. FF is becoming more socialist than the Socialist Party. lol
McNamara had better make the best of his moment of fame. Next week he will be a forgotten man. He has no hope of being reelected.
Can someone walk me through what a report on cost savings in Aer Lingus as a STANDALONE company is creating such a fuss, given its being taken over and therefore irrelevant?
Would be more of an issue if the govt had said no, surely.
> 25% is a minority stake in a private company
It’s more complicated that that. See the Article of Association:
https://www.aerlingus.com/media/aerlinguscom/Memorandum_Articles_of_Association_5June2009.pdf
These were crafted around the states 25% share.
So, for example, the state retained the right to nominate directors and share holders with a 25% share could veto the disposal of London Heathrow spots.
“Can someone walk me through what a report on cost savings in Aer Lingus as a STANDALONE company is creating such a fuss, given its being taken over and therefore irrelevant?”
The government has apparently made the decision to sell its share without knowing of potential extra cost savings.
Cost savings = more profit, which affects the value of the company, which affects the decision whether to sell at the price offered. Basically, the government have decided to sell their stake in a company which may be undervalued, and having now found that this is the case, are dragging the sale through regardless.
Stinks, like everything else they’ve touched.
@ Jammin You’ve heard about the concept of scale right?
Also relevant here, is that it’s is a public company owned by shareholders, who ultimately decide on whether their money is better invested in the constructs of the current company or elsewhere.
You put both those together and you see that the Aer Lingus as is, doesn’t have (or will likely to have in the future) the scale and/or competence to grow the to the required scale, while its efforts to do so may actually be destructive to the long term viability (for everyone) and value of the company. Hence, get out while the going is good.
Re the report, all the hoopla is about potential jobs losses identified. This is on the basis of Aer Lingus as a STANDALONE, which in my humble opinion, makes all this fuss a waste of time and energy.
ya sealing your car before it brakes down. 60 million euro of cut backs 50 to 150 job losses. 600 jobs created it the future not in ireland eastern europe France etc. Trim the hair to make it grow back quicker dont believe it not in this country .nothing writting into law were going on a promise not good enough report not read half ass approach wouldnt expect someone to buy a car without a full service history, typical ireland believe what you hear and not what see sure what do we expect with political cowboys running our country.
Bit rich considering they sold it in 2006 at the height of the celtic tiger
Yes JG, why don’t peope understand that the 25% shares give us/the government – no power whatsoever.
Its just an investment in another public company.
They sold MOST of it, FG are selling whats left, at a time when its profitable and growing.
Are SF/IRA now experts in aviation investment?
My head hurts….
/o\
Would you prefer to sell it Jamming when its losing money and contracting??
If the state were still managing this company they could get money cheaper than any other private company with our special super doper friends in the E.C..B……… thus saving money for every single Irish person by just financing alone – this would mean more money to employ people on good wages instead of letting bondholders control the flow of money for huge profits …to the detriment of society as a whole ….
Corrupt politicians have a long history of not understanding this concept – having been bred from the traditionally greedy and avaricious clans of Europe ………..
Helicopters only so far.
Watch , things are not as they seem. Mr W Walsh is clever and the promise will be broken . They all are. For the better they will say.
So gullible. They gave it away.
There is no guarantee at all currently. IAG are paying a 40% premium to the market price.
Do you generally comment on things you clearly know nothing about?
Fiann – such comments are not rare on here.
Jammin is great at them – about anything, from water to aviation….
This fight is over votes.
The politicians are only scared about losing blocks of voters
Very true.
Track record, never fails .how would you know what I know. ?
Aer Lingus unions have their head up their jacksies if they think that they are not going to have job losses. The crutch of the government is gone and now they are going to have to deal with the real world and live in a real business environment. Malaysian Airlines which is now being run by former Aer Lingus boss Christoph Mueller just fired all 20,000 staff and is only rehiring 12,000. This is going to happen in AL because the unions have fu*ked it for years.
No one wants to see job losses there but they are inevitable given the behaviour of the unions over the years. The people that we know will get hit but you can be guaranteed that the union bosses won’t.
unions have ruined that company for long enough, great to see some change :)
And many others pat. Singularly responsible for the closure of Waterford wedgewood with their insane wage demands.
Mr Mueller stands to gain over € 4.3 million if the sale goes ahead.
Willie Walsh stands to gain over € 700’000.
Has the minister or any other minister got a large share holding in the company.
The only job loses Fianna Fáil ever concerned themselves with was their own.
Very simple, as a major shareholder the government should have seen this report. So either kenny is spoofing when he said neither himself or the Minister for transport read it, or Aer Lingus is hiding information relating to possible cost savings/staff redundancies as its about to be sold off.
Either way, the sale should not go ahead in under the present circumstances.
Shareholders don’t have access and are not privy to internal reports commissioned by a public company, thye only have access to resolutions, minutes of general meetings and financial reports. So no shareholder could have seen that report even if they wished, governmental or not
The internal report indicates that cost savings are possible, which means that the company may be undervalued, meaning that the sale may not be a good idea. Until the facts are established, the sale shouldn’t be considered.
Just in case anybody forgets, FF sold 75% of Aer Lingus.
Asset stripping and selling out to Merkel again.
Is merkel an IAG shareholder?
Now there is a silly comment. And you question me!
Does anyone know where the report can be found online?
Daviddrummsass .com
or
indalookafterya.com
are the two websites I heard about but I could be wrong …
Maybe they are dot eye ees …
Aer Lingus have cash reserves of approx 600 million the LHR slots worth about 400 million,They own the newly revamped office building at Dublin not to mention the trucks and other ground handling equipment they use.
Is the offer by IAG good considering when Willie was CEO of Aer Lingus he wanted to outsource catering and cleaning services.
From what I heard years ago BA outsourced some of their own handling services in LHR,To another company who subbied in another company.
And made a total balls of it.
The only way to judge the value is to look at what it’s valued at on the stock market and the IAG is a premium on that.
While I still wish we owned a majority stake in Aerlingus there are few options available with a minority stake at this stage.
We either need to get the cash from the 25% working (as it’s doing nothing for us at the moment just sitting there with no rights) or make an offer for the remaining 75%. If we truly believe it’s an important asset we need buy it all back. I’m not saying that’s the right decision but owning 25% is just a souvenir of a former time as we have so say over anything. Unfortunately that horse bolted when the IPO happened.
just sell it and be done with it
It was sold years ago. This fight is over voters
Timmy Dooley and Fianna Fail are shysters trying again to pull the amnesia card again.
Fianna Fail sold off Aer Lingus in 2006.
Fianna Fail should step aside and let someone with credibility or honesty fight this battle.
Yesterday’s charade in the Dail by Fianna Fail is really typical of the contempt with which they’ve always treated the average punter. They knew well that this internal Aer Lingus report on potential cost savings was completely separate to the proposed IAG deal (Which is still by no means a done deal). Who’d have thought that Aer Lingus might actually try and plan ahead for cost savings regardless of potential takeover, as all business must do on a continuous basis.
Those who are opposed to this deal really are your typical luddites who’d have absolutely everything in shockingly inefficient state ownership if possible, and know nothing about aviation for that matter. They hate the idea that Aer Lingus will do better in fully private hands and fail to see the bigger picture that the additional passengers a strong Aer Lingus will provide will do a lot mode for this country and its economy than a small carrier struggling to compete in an ever more competitive market, thats minority state owned, ever could.
FF have already sold the house called Aer Lingus. All is being dealt with now is the furniture and the price and benefits being attained is well in excess of current market value.
We’re sterling to slide in value, or oil prices increase again, this offer price would never reappear. Sell sell sell is the correct course of action.
It’s not so much the job losses that should be the talking point. The bigger issue is the selling of a key national asset, and particularly the Heathrow slots which are especially vital for the long term growth potential of cities such as Cork and Limerick. Paschal O’Donoghue is committing the same crime that Todd Andrews committed in the early 60′s by ordering many of the rail tracks to removed. He just couldn’t see the long term advantage of keeping them. We’ll regret this. I have no doubt.
Why are they allowed to make a decision on selling shares in aer Lingus with out asking the people that own the shares? The people of this country should be asked if we want to sell after all its the peoples silver and the not FG/Labour’s silver.
I have absolutely no time for this government and I’m not particularly happy with the sale of AL, but…
That’s what we democratically elect governments to do, make decisions on behalf of the people.
My God, is it such a hard principle for some on this site to understand?
FF was the party that privatised Aer Lingus, sold 75% of it off for a song,now complains. It would make a cat laugh.
Are these guys saying Air lingus is only worth 5.20 billion?? Ryanair was reported at 11bn . Keep it, a 1 billion saving in the grand scheme of things seems hardly worth it
?!??
Deary me…
I see dippity dooley is causing noise in the dail. All blather of course only to be seen to be doing something for the election.
As long as he fools the people in clare, thats all that matters to him!
This will in long term benefit the country as whole. FF are showing they are not ready for government ever again.
Can we have a referendum on it?
Those now crying wolf sold 75% of Are lingus back in the day. Hypocrites!
I foooken hate politicians! This is nothing more than political posturing from the opposition. The government get it wrong a lot (most of the time in some peoples opinions) but the opposition say black is white just for the sake of it and nothing will ever change because of that.
have your say