Simon McGarr writes about adventures in the world of the European Movement. I do not think it is quite factual to say that Margot Wallstrom, the VP of the Commission (whom everyone in Ireland insisted in calling ‘Margo’ in honour of the Queen of Country) spent the evening speaking to bloggers, although a considerable amount of time was spent.
J.C Flowers is one of the companies apparently interested in investing in and restructuring Irish banks, in particular, Bank of Ireland. The same company took over Long Term Credit Bank of Japan and restructured it into Shinsei (‘rebirth’) Bank which according to Joichi Ito describes as ‘an example of how legacy companies in Japan can be turned around with good management and smart methods’.
A lot of people are concerned that foreign investors will do something radical with the Irish banks. But the reality is that this is what is required. Our banking is not anything like as efficient as it could be and our bankers are nowhere near as smart as they thought they were. If the sector does not restructure itself now, it will have restructuring forced upon it by competition from across the eurozone within a few years. It is worth reading what former Bank of Ireland CEO Michael Soden has said. Leaving things the way they are is just not an option.
According to a report in the Tribune, Dublin Bus has 4 percent fewer trips this year compared to last year. This amounts to tens of thousands fewer trips per day, and a great deal of lost revenue. This reduction in numbers is despite the fact that petrol prices have never been higher in the last year, and despite the fact that parking charges in the city centre are growing ever higher.
The most likely explanation is that Dublin Bus is feeling the effect of migrant workers leaving Ireland. The increase in bus passenger numbers in recent years was the result of immigrants, not the result of people leaving their cars behind.
The Department of Transport, which pays a large subsidy to Dublin Bus now has to accept that despite extensive marketing efforts, Dublin Bus management largely failed to entice drivers out of their cars. The problem is that the service DB provides just isn’t suited to the modern city and the modern commuter.
It’s not a capacity problem anymore. There is now overcapacity on Dublin’s Buses. Throwing more vehicles at the problem won’t solve anything. The whole public transport system of Dublin, in particular of the bus service that forms the core, needs to be completely redesigned to meet twenty-first century needs.
The government has already bailed out Irish banks. Now it has to do so again. The reason for this is that it wasn’t done properly the first time. The guarantee was simply no help. Although it provided liquidity (i.e., so that the banks could get a few euros on tick to carry on trading) it did nothing to deal with the losses that have resulted from the fall in the value of property and the resulting fall in value of the loans secured on property. The banks need capital invested in order to cover this.
Until they get the money, they won’t be able to lend money to businesses, and that will result in unnecessary bankruptcies and undermine whatever growth there is in the economy.. I am just after hearing about a business that can’t raise a ten thousand euro overdraft – the lack of facilities will stop this business from growing. (Bill Cullen agrees with me, so obviously it must be true.)
I was on the judging panel for the Golden Spiders for this year. It was very interesting. The judging process is pretty thorough, but it’s certainly not perfect. Anyway, you too can be a Golden Spiders judge by participating in the public voting for the Social Networking and Community Website.
The organizers are pretty open to ideas about how to get the community more involved next year. Any thoughts or views?
So, my solicitors and I spent a day in Court with Swords Express, the public transport company I started to provide decent, fast transport to the people of Ireland’s biggest town last year. You only go to Court when there is something really big at stake, and you only go to Court with the government if you think you are very likely to get a favorable outcome. The costs involved are tremendous. The government has limitless resources and is not afraid to bring them to bear. Even for our one-day event and even though no evidence was heard in Court and the State decided to settle on the day, the costs will be into six figures, money which the taxpayer will end up having to pay.
This is a great video about why youtube and the whole Internet makes a big difference to the way we live.
Someone (Mr P. Stewkesbury) wrote a nice review of my book on Amazon. (Scroll down to the bottom.) It is very kind.
There is an interesting (though slightly hard-to-believe) case study in the Irish Times today, with some interesting observations from experts. It’s strange, some of the observations seemed quite good in the print edition, but seem quite lame on the Internet. Part of the reason for that is that the full details of the contributors aren’t given on-line and these are really an integral part of the article.
Anyway, the important lesson from the article is that service is something that can be designed and improved, and many problems can be solved or at least reduced without always needing more resources.
This article in the Irish Times (now free) is an important description of the problems with the National Consumer Agency and other bodies by Michael Casey, a former assistant director of the Central Bank of Ireland.
UPDATE: Ann FitzGerald of the National Consumer Agency responds.
