EVERY WEEKEND, TheJournal.ie gives its readers the chance to put their feet up and take a look back at all the goings-on from the world of business.
Once again it’s time to delve deep inside The Briefcase for the important – and sometimes less-important – financial news that has come out this working week:
Jean-Claude Trichet made a few denials. The former ECB boss finally made it to the banking inquiry – sort of – where he rejected claims he told former finance minister Brian Lenihan to “save your banks at all costs”. But the whole affair was a slightly humiliating one for Ireland with Trichet, who was sporting a fancy new watch, calling the shots from start to finish
Complaints about a controversial billboard backfired. Hundreds of complaints were lodged in the UK about the Tube ad by little-known supplements company Protein World showing a bikini-wearing model. However it appears again that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, because the company reportedly recorded £1 million in sales on the back of the campaign – for only £250,000 spent on the billboards
The Central Bank’s governor is standing down. Patrick Honohan will retire by the end of the year after about six years at the helm, having taken the job a year after the blanket bank guarantee. By the time he walks away from the role, Honohan will have voluntarily sacrificed over €500,000 to the taxpayer on his annual salary
At least two people weren’t at all happy with RTÉ. One of them was a Rev Raymond Hannon, who complained about a programme that suggested Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. And another was billionaire Denis O’Brien, who sought a court injunction to stop the state broadcaster airing a story which he claimed delved into his personal finances
Brian O’Donnell finally handed over “The Bloody Keys”. After weeks of legal wrangling, the solicitor turned developer decided to return the Gorse Hill mansion keys to the Bank of Ireland – at its annual general meeting. Later the same day BoI boss Richie Boucher got a grilling over the bank’s reluctance to pass on interest rate cuts like AIB had
Ryanair was robbed to the tune of €4.6 million. The money was siphoned from one of the budget carrier’s accounts via a Chinese bank during the week, but the airline expects to get its money back soon
Enda Kenny outlined plans for the “phased abolition” of USC. The taoiseach said the first priority was for 500,000 low-paid workers to be taken out of the net of the hated tax after this year’s budget. It will be part of up to €750 million in tax cuts the government has been flagging for 2016
The Siteserv controversy descended into farce. Journalists trying to find out the names of shareholders who enjoyed a €5 million payout when the failed company was sold in 2012 were treated to some user-unfriendly 1990s technology. Meanwhile, the normally serene Finance Minister Michael Noonan got a little heated during an interview with RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke over Siteserv’s sale to the Denis O’Brien-owned Millington
In case you missed it during the week, US TV station CNBN dug a little gem out of its archives – a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg trying to explain to viewers a thing called “The Facebook”.
And the founder of the social network, which now boasts nearly a billion active daily users, handled it well – setting out a few plans for the rest of 2004:
We’re going to launch a bunch of site applications which should keep people coming back to the site and maybe we can make something cool.”
First published 2 May
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