Author Archive
Chilli
Friday, March 14th, 2008Dáil Eireann Register of Interests for 2007 aka What do our TDs own?
Friday, March 14th, 2008Check out all 111 pages of the Register of Members Interests of Dáil Éireann 1 January 2007 – 31 December 2007. There are a few interesting ones.
Randomly selected:
Our Taoiseach hasn’t a penny or something:
AHERN, Bertie (Dublin Central)
1. Occupational Income …….. Nil
2. Shares …………………….. Nil
3. Directorships……………… Nil
4. Land ……………………… Nil
5. Gifts ……………………… (1) Honorary membership of Clontarf Golf Club for the year 2007: Clontarf Golf Club, Dublin 3; (2) Manchester United opus presentation: Kraken Sports & Media, UK Ltd., Pilgrim Street, London; (3) Bronze Cuchulainn sculpture by John Behan: Dublin Central Fianna Fáil; (4) Official pass for entry to 10 greyhound stadia: Greyhound Board, Henry St., Limerick.
Other Information Provided: (1) I do not receive any material benefit from this as I do not play golf. (2) I have given this publication to the State for observation by the public in Farmleigh. (3) Presented to me in recognition of 30 years service to Fianna Fáil, received in my capacity as Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin Central. (4) I do not use this pass.
6. Property and Service …….. See Donations Statement for 2007 (Form 2) under the Electoral Act 1997 (as amended).
7. Travel Facilities ………….. Nil
8. Remunerated Position ……. Nil
9. Contracts …………………. Nil
One TD has shares in Google:
ARDAGH, Sean (Dublin South-Central)
1. Occupational Income …….. Accountancy practice: Ardagh Horan, 168 Walkinstown Road, Dublin 12.
2. Shares …………………….. Shares: Bank of Ireland, Irish Life & Permanent, CRH, Google Inc., Tullow Oil, South County Golf Club, CB Film Productions Ltd: films; AB Productions Ltd.: films; Managed Fund: Mliif Japan Opportunities €50K; Oppenhein Growth Fund €50K; Mliif Emerging Europe Fund €50K; Robeco MM Asia-Pacific Eqs €50K.
3. Directorships……………… Nil
4. Land ……………………… Milltown: 1 apartment: rental; 1 townhouse: rental; Clondalkin: 1 apartment: rental; Walkinstown: Accountancy/Constituency office: accountancy practice/constituency office; Budapest: ¼ share apartment: not let.
5. Gifts ……………………… Nil
6. Property and Service …….. Nil
7. Travel Facilities ………….. Nil
8. Remunerated Position ……. Nil
9. Contracts …………………. Nil
NOONAN, Michael (Limerick East)
1. Occupational Income ……..Reduced pension from Dept. of Education for service as teacher: Dept. of Education, Hawkins House, Hawkins Street, Dublin 2.
2. Shares …………………….. Shares: (1) Anglo Irish Bank, Stephen Court, 18-21 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2; (2) Lyxor ETF China Enterprise HSCEI, Lyxor Asset Management, 17 cours Valmy 92987, Paris, La Defense Cedex, France; (3) CRH, 42 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2; (4) ISEQ 20 ETF, 3 George’s Dock, IFSC, Dublin 1; (5) iShare FTSE 100, Barclays Global Investors Ireland, JP Morgan House, Mayor Street, IFSC, Dublin 2; (6) iShare FTSE Mid 250, Barclays Global Investors Ireland, JP Morgan House, Mayor Street, IFSC, Dublin 2; (7) Lyxor – Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 ETF, Lyxor Asset Management, 17 cours Valmy 92987, Paris, La Defense Cedex, France; (8) Lyxor – Dow Jones Select Div 30 ETF, Lyxor Asset Management, 17 cours Valmy 92987, Paris, La Defense Cedex, France: (9) Lyxor ETF MSCI India, Lyxor Asset Management, 17 cours Valmy 92987, Paris, La Defense Cedex, France; (10) Powershares Nasdaq ETF, PowerShares Capital Management LLC, 301 W. Roosevelt Road, Wheaton, IL 60187, USA.
3. Directorships……………… Nil
4. Land ……………………… 20 acres of mixed pasture and woodland attached to my residence at Mt. Trenchard, Foynes, Co. Limerick: woodland and farmland which is let.
5. Gifts ……………………… Nil
6. Property and Service …….. Nil
7. Travel Facilities ………….. Nil
8. Remunerated Position ……. Nil
9. Contracts …………………. Nil
MCGUINNESS, John (Carlow-Kilkenny)
1. Occupational Income …….. (1) Transport company: Interlink, Hebron Road, Kilkenny; (2) Landlord: O’Loughlin Road, Kilkenny.
2. Shares …………………….. Investment Bond: Hibernian Life & Pensions, Dawson St., Dublin 2: investment.
3. Directorships……………… Chairman Non-executive: (1) K.I.A.L.; (2) K.I.D. Co.; (3) Young Irish Film Makers: voluntary groups.
4. Land ……………………… (1) 11+12, O’Loughlin Road, Kilkenny: letting; (2) 24, Industrial Est., Hebron Road, Kilkenny: letting; (3) Grove Island, Limerick: letting; (4) Shinrone Nursing Home: letting; (5) 31, Woodlawn View, Santry, Dublin 9: letting; (6) 4, Kilcoran Lodge, Co. Tipperary: letting; (7) Rolestown House Hotel, Dublin: letting; (8) 2, Trimbleston, Dublin 14: letting.
Other Information Provided: (1) Pub, off licence, grocery shop, motor service business; (2) warehouse, office, retail; (3) student accommodation; (4) nursing home; (5) & (6) accommodation; (7) co-ownership, investment.
5. Gifts ……………………… Nil
6. Property and Service …….. 1, Maryborough St., Carlow: John Flynn, same address: use of room for 1 hour per week for clinics (for part of 2007) now discontinued.
7. Travel Facilities ………….. Nil
8. Remunerated Position ……. Nil
9. Contracts …………………. Nil
WALL, Jack (Kildare South)
1. Occupational Income …….. Landlord: 15 Leinster Street, Athy, Co. Kildare.
Other Information Provided: Flat over constituency office leased for €60 per week.
2. Shares …………………….. Nil
3. Directorships……………… Non-executive Director: (1) Goodwill Housing Co-op: Newbridge: housing co-op; (2) Casteldermot Housing Co-op: Castledermot: housing co-op.; (3) Churchtown Development Association: Athy: voluntary community association.
Other Information Provided: All voluntary positions that have no remuneration or value to the directors.
4. Land ……………………… 15 Leinster Street, Athy, Co. Kildare: constituency office and flat.
Other Information Provided: Constituency office purchased 1998.
5. Gifts ……………………… Political donation for 2007 election: S.I.P.T.U., Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.
Other Information Provided: Donation of €2,500.
6. Property and Service …….. Nil
7. Travel Facilities ………….. Nil
8. Remunerated Position ……. Nil
9. Contracts …………………. Nil
Is the screw turning on ComReg and the broadband providers?
Friday, March 14th, 2008Two interesting bits in the papers of late. First in the Business Post was a bit about the Consumers Association of Ireland getting quite gung ho with ComReg and are (very Stephen Colbert) putting ComReg and the DCENR on notice. Seems they had a meeting on Monday and pointed out all the areas where ComReg was doing a bad job. Long meeting I guess? About time that the CAI made some noises after sitting on ComReg’s Consumer sham Panel which did nothing but give ComReg credibility when it deserved to be condemned.
Nice quotes:
‘‘ComReg has been in existence for over five years and, by now, we would have expected it to have made significant strides. In some cases, not much has changed since the days when these sectors were run by the Department of Public Enterprise,’’ Doorley said.
‘‘However, if the review suggests that it has the powers and has failed to act, then the CAI will be putting ComReg and the government on notice that, if it does not reform and perform within a reasonable period of time, then it should be stripped of its consumer protection role and it should be given to another body.
‘‘In short, it will be a case of shape up or ship out.â€
Secondly the Advertising Standards Authority, an industry “regulated” group has new advertising codes for broadband (Irish Times link) which will urge broadband providers to declare average speeds during peak hours when they advertise. This I’m more cynical about. The ASAI cannot force anyone to do this. It’s all urging and writing them notes if they don’t comply. No legal powers at all. No fines. Previously telcos have ignored the ASAI‘s notices. They also have a code for availability/coverage. Now that will be interesting. With Mobile broadband in Ireland being muck, I wonder what the speeds advertised will be now and whether they’ll release the data to the public. ComReg should be doing this on a monthly basis.
Back once again
Friday, March 14th, 2008I’m back. The nonsense will once again resume in a few hours.
Stations of the cross, True fans and micro-training classes
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Did you ever live out in the country in Ireland and they’d have the Stations of the Cross in a house and the whole community would come along? People from the parish or the catchment area would show up and belt out the old tunes of Hail Mary. Act of Contritions and Our Fathers and then once ended the real fun would begin with the socialising afterwards. The women would have all these great sandwiches made and all sorts of baked goods ripe for the munching, there’d be tea and coffee and maybe a “drop” for some of the men. News would be exchanged, stories retold, introductions made if there were new people there and an almost knife fight to be the next house to do them. Ahh country life. I actually kind of enjoyed them apart from that god stuff. It’s a very interesting way of getting a community together and socialising and not one pub was needed.
I got thinking of this due to Kevin “Cool Tool”s Kelly. Kevin has written an inspiring blog post about the idea that an artist or musician or writer could survive by having just 1000 fans but these would be “true fans”. The loyal fans would would spend a days salary on you over a year. It’s taking the idea of the long tail (hype hype) and moving away from the end but not hugely towards the top. It brings you to a point where you can get a regular or safe enough income from people who know you and regularly support you from the liking your work and that working the room or the circuit enough to get these 1000 could be enough for most people to be able to do what they love and remain comfortable.
Photo owned by Karlina – as things are… (cc)
He points to Danny O’Brien too who talked about being at a house concert and it’s an interesting concept. An up and coming or maybe slightly established musician plays your house. You are her mini-patron in a way. 40 people at most coming to your house party. She plays, everyone loves her music, they might go beyond getting turned into a fan and maybe turn into a true fan or an evangelist. As the person that organised the house party you get attention and adoration from people who might never have experienced this person before. Maybe they’ll buy five cds off her there and then.
Kevin Kelly’s essay is probably going to inspire many blog posts from me alone on this concept and you can see from the comments on his post that it could very well turn into a book judging by the feedback and examples he’d collecting. It made me think of something else though. The ideas of BarCamps and the ShareIT experiment I tried and the offers of free blog training in Cork and Dublin are nice ways of meeting people and sharing but they could still be friendlier. The banter after is always better and more information can be exchanged too after.
I really wonder could you do the idea of a house training session. Do some simple training sessions for an hour with a group of people and then socialise afterwards. Kind of like the Help Yourself idea but in someone’s sitting room. With apple tart. And ham sandwiches with mustard. Or lentils with mustard. 🙂 This would be very basic stuff obviously and would be geared to people who have not been to a session before. Am sure there’s all sorts of legalities with public liability insurance or some such thing too. I’d love to try it out though. Oh and it would have to pay. The trainer gets some money and those attending pay but also have to chip in for the catering.
What do you think?
Bloggers Book thing – Still going to happen
Monday, March 10th, 2008Well, it didn’t happen before the Blog Awards because there was too much on so we’re re-scheduling. If anyone can suggest a good venue where we can gather Grandad, Twenty, Fiona from The Waiting Game, Kieran Murphy and Declan Burke to talk about blogs and books, let me know.
Comp Sci student looking for Summer Work Exp/Internship
Monday, March 10th, 2008A friend of mine that’s doing Computer Science in UCC is looking for Summer work experience either in Cork or Dublin though he is happy to go elsewhere. Sam’s LinkedIn is here if you want to have a look. Give him a shout if you think you might know of a company looking for students. His email is fitzpatricksam ( AT ) gmail.com
Fluffy Links – Monday 10 March 2008
Monday, March 10th, 2008Ian points out the last episode ever of the Wire got leaked. All I’ll say is, it’s been a disappointing season and wrapping it all up in 90 mins disrespects everyone.
In case you didn’t see it, the Blog Awards podcast is here.
Nice post with daffodil pics from Darragh.
iPlayer tech Porn. The backend to BBC’s iPlayer for the iPhone.
MacBook Air, scaring airport security.
Tom Tom Club – Genius of Love
Sloooooowwww
Sunday, March 9th, 2008Blogging is going to be pretty slow the next week as I take some time off and disconnect from the digital world and maybe try and read a book like those normal folk do. I’m hoping to start and finish Twenty Major’s book too. Everyone should buy it and get a blogger to number 1 in the charts. See you all in a while.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
Sunday, March 9th, 2008He’s on tonight in Whelan’s. I have a spare ticket if you want it. Txt or email me.