Economy – Page 68 – Slugger O'Toole

Sinn Fein needs more than media exposure in the Republic…

Mick Fealty on March 3, 2008, 8:35 pm

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Setting aside all polls and forecasts, and even the party’s reverse in its electoral fortunes last year, the Irish Examiner believes it is the party’s preoccupation with Northern Irish politics that poses it’s biggest difficulty in making headway in the southern polity. Mr Adams was strongest when talking about northern issues — the proposed transfer of policing and justice powers, the campaign by some unionists to force out Ian Paisley, the commitment to establish a “high-powered taskforce” to drive forward …

“I think it literally desecrates an area..”

Pete Baker on March 2, 2008, 4:11 am

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It might not constitute the “change in material circumstances” that the Republic of Ireland’s Environment Minister, the Green Party’s John Gormley, eventually said he required, but the criticism of the road building through the Tara valley by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney will likely reverberate throughout government. He’s not the first poet to point out the implications of that development, but he is the most influential. The Irish Times front page highlighted his comments today, and the BBC report has more …

“somewhat distorted by political comment and controversy..”

Pete Baker on February 29, 2008, 5:08 pm

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Now that he’s just an ordinary MLA, Ian Paisley Jnr may have more latitude in expressing support for the planning application by Seymour Sweeney for a Causeway Centre.. but I’d suggest there will be some raised eyebrows in the Environment Minister’s office over his comments on the news that Mr Sweeney has requested a hearing at the independent Planning Appeals Commission on the Minister’s ‘notice of opinion to refuse’ that application. From the Belfast Telegraph report Mr Paisley Jnr today …

“We don’t have enough money to do what we would like..”

Pete Baker on February 18, 2008, 3:46 am

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the BBC’s Politics Show, in Scotland at least, that after ten years of devolved power he now backs a review of the powers of the Scottish Parliament, including taxation policy. Or, as Brian Taylor puts it, he has joined the McChattering classes. Should we be concerned here? If such a review here was to include a review of the mandatory coalition, perhaps not. But if it does not, then these recent comments, from Sinn …

“This acquisition is a long-term commitment by the DUP to the constituency..”

Pete Baker on February 16, 2008, 8:11 pm

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Expect more criticism of “lazy journalists”.. But the Assembly are reportedly set to release figures which indicate that, according to the NewsLetter report, the DUP’s Ian Paisley, Snr and Jnr, intend to jointly claim £62,500 a year from public funds for the rental costs of their constituency offices at 9-11 Church Street, Ballymena. But, whilst the rental costs may be the subject of some debate, the background to the buying, and renting, of the property reveals the involvement of a …

Wearing the ministerial hat.. and other assorted headgear..

Pete Baker on February 11, 2008, 10:57 pm

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It has the faint whiff of pork-barrel politics, and it looks like there’s some ministerial trespassing involved, but the BBC’s blogging Mark Devenport spotted some crossing Northern Ireland ministerial statements at the end of last week – on the apparent funding from the Republic of Ireland government for a study into a bridge at Narrow Water, County Down, following a North South Ministerial Council meeting. First with the news, on 7th Feb, was the NI Education minister – although the …

“The ending will never spoil the memories..”

Pete Baker on February 9, 2008, 2:08 am

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The 25th anniversary of the kidnapping, and subsequent disappearing, of the champion racehorse Shergar in 1983 sees a number of articles about those events. Jockey Walter Swinburn reminisces here and, after a brief introduction of some the wilder conspiracy theories, there’s one of the more thorough accounts here. UTV’s Ivan Little also reports below – including on what “one veteran republican” had to say about the sanctioning, or otherwise, of “a spectacular own goal.” Pete Baker

The Irish and their helicopters…

Mick Fealty on February 7, 2008, 7:22 pm

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If you check out the relevant statistics for the Civil Aviation Authority you discover that there are 896 private helicopters have been registered in the UK. The IAA stats are available but it’s harder to disaggregate the helicopter figures. Yet Slugger understands that back in 2004 there were a staggering 114 new registrations alone. Given that big sporting events like the Donegal International rally now have tight regulations on helicopter traffic (and charge €500 to park one of the things). …

“Removal of the variation is essential to permit unrestricted use of the airport’s main runway..”

Pete Baker on February 7, 2008, 3:50 am

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Indicators of yet more potential problems ahead for City of Derry Airport are revealed in a Belfast Telegraph report today. Having been granted the power to vest land around the airport by the Regional Development minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, the Derry City Council’s Airport Committee met today in private to consider a report on the preparations for securing that land for the airport’s use.. and to clear the CAA’s current variation on the airport’s licence. From the Belfast Telegraph …

“agreed that a Notice of Opinion to refuse should be issued..”

Pete Baker on February 6, 2008, 4:27 am

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The Causeway row looks set to continue. Prompted by an apparent leak from the Assembly’s Environment Committee by Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay, the BBC report that, as had been hinted at, the Planning Service Management Board had told the minister that they “agreed that a Notice of Opinion to refuse” the application by Seymour Sweeney should be issued in June 2007.. 2 months before the Environment minister announced that she was minded to “of a mind to approve the …

Taoiseach takes a break..

Pete Baker on February 2, 2008, 3:16 am

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Of course it’s a “new dawn”.. and not just a distraction from real politics.. ANYhoo.. lots of coverage of the visit by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley’s North Antrim constituency to tour the new Galgorm Hotel and Spa Resort.. which, while it was not [see footnote to report] the second item on Ian Paisley jnr’s shopping list, it did, apparently, receive over £1.7million from Invest NI in the past year. Pete Baker

Economic growth and the lawyers…

Mick Fealty on January 31, 2008, 8:39 pm

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There’s no figures to support this, but Orla Milligan an Associate Director at PRG, is pretty up beat about the future of the legal profession in Northern Ireland in The Lawyer. So all of you who thought that the end of the peace process meant an end to the ‘wartime’ bonanza for lawyers, can think again… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and …

Opposition does exist, apparently..

Pete Baker on January 29, 2008, 2:23 am

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Interestingly, it looks as if the BBC’s Mark Devenport might have been caught futuring somewhat in his earlier report on the longest day in the Assembly to date – the debate on the Programme for Government – although strictly speaking he may be correct that “‘opposition within’ [the Executive] at Stormont has receded.” [Adds That report has now been updated to remove the futuring]. But subsequent reports say that, although it was passed by a margin of 60-24 votes, the …

Ministerial mind to turn?

Pete Baker on January 28, 2008, 10:37 pm

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An interesting, and short, snippet from the end of Stormont Live today. According to the BBC’s political editor Mark Devenport “all the buzz”, as the Assembly’s Environment Committee waits on Section 44 being imposed by the Speaker, is that the Environment minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, will use a ministerial statement tomorrow to “row back” on her previous position of being “of a mind to approve” Seymour Sweeney’s private development of the Causeway Visitor’s Centre and instead approve a publicly …

“NI Water should continue to be a government-owned company at least for the next five years..”

Pete Baker on January 28, 2008, 7:05 pm

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The Northern Ireland Regional Development minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, has welcomed the publication of the Strand 2 report from the Independent Water Review Panel – report available here [pdf file]. The Strand 1 report was noted here previously – and its recommendations, on water charges, were discussed here. Dealing with Management, Governance and Delivery, this report’s timing couldn’t be better.. Included in its recommendations is this one for the Environment minister to consider [added emphasis] An independent Environmental Protection …

The nuclear-powered archipelago?

Pete Baker on January 25, 2008, 12:41 am

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UTV report that the Assembly’s Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee have agreed to examine the possibility of building a nuclear power station in Northern Ireland. Bring on the nuclear NIMBYs!From the UTV report Alan McFarland (UUP, North Down) admitted nuclear power was a controversial issue but said it was one that had to be examined. Mr McFarland added that renewable energy may not necessarily be the answer. A DETI inquiry in 2002 rejected nuclear power as a potential option in …

“When the bids are returned at the end of April 2008..”

Pete Baker on January 24, 2008, 4:01 pm

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The Belfast Telegraph’s Noel McAdam reports that the Department of Finance and Personnel have confirmed that Northern Ireland’s biggest ever Private Finance Initiative (PFI), the WorkPlace 2010 plan, will go ahead – now that the legal challenge has been settled. In a statement last night, the Department of Finance and Personnel made it clear that progress towards the final offer stage in the Workplace 2010 procurement for the Civil Service office estate has not halted. “On 14 January invitations were …

Post-primary reforms to be “cost-neutral”?

Pete Baker on January 22, 2008, 11:41 pm

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Judging by Stephen Farry’s performance on Stormont Live [BBC iPlayer] today the Alliance Party remains a party in opposition to the Budget, even if Mark Devenport thinks other opposition is vanishing. But it’s the SDLP’s Mark Durkan who points to a potential problem in the budgetting ahead. In an apparent reference to events in the Assembly, he says that the Finance minister told him today that, on the issue of post-primary reforms in the Education system, “the Minister for Education …

“This has informed the Executive’s decisions on capital allocations over this period..”

Pete Baker on January 22, 2008, 7:43 pm

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If you were wondering where any additional resources for the new allocations in the Executive’s “unanimously” agreed budget have come from, this paragraph in the Finance Minister’s statement [pdf file] would appear to provide the answer Over the next three years of the Budget period, the [Capital Realisation] Taskforce report has identified a range of potential opportunities to reinvest the proceeds of up to £295 million of asset disposals. Further work remains to be done on analysing the scope and …

“a number of significant differences from the draft plans..”

Pete Baker on January 21, 2008, 8:59 pm

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We should find out tomorrow what differences there actually are between the Draft Budget and the one which is now reported to have been agreed by the Executive this morning – in a decision postponed from last week. And what effect the oppositional campaign has had. For now, though, we have this report stating Details of the spending plans will be outlined by Finance minister Peter Robinson on the floor of the Assembly tomorrow morning. It is understood the final …