North South – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

NI Company ordered to pay £32million damages over Irish pork dioxin contamination

Pete Baker on December 22, 2010, 5:06 pm

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The BBC reports that the High Court in Dublin has ordered the Northern Ireland based company, O’Neill Fuels Ltd, Coalisland, County Tyrone, to pay Millstream Power Recycling Ltd, Bunclody, County Wexford, €38.7million (£32m) damages as a result of the Irish pork dioxin contamination in 2008. From the BBC report Millstream supplied the pig meal containing dioxins that led to the recall of Irish pork products. It was ordered after pig meal on a number of farms was found to have had …

Sinn Féin: “There is not a shred of evidence linking republicans to the Northern Bank robbery…”

Pete Baker on December 14, 2010, 3:10 pm

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While Taoiseach Brian Cowen refused to answer any questions on the issue, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Justice Minister, Dermot Ahern and Health Minister Mary Harney have all re-stated the Irish government’s 2005 assessment that the Sinn Féin leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had prior knowledge of the Northern Bank robbery. And a report in The Irish News today notes that Sinn Féin’s view that there is “not a shred of evidence” to link the IRA to the robbery of …

Irish Labour Party: “We may not be in a position to build the road from Dublin…”

Pete Baker on December 11, 2010, 5:00 pm

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Thanks to today’s Irish News we have the response from the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, to comments from Irish Labour Party transport spokesman, Joe Costello, which cast doubt on the proposed £850million upgrade of the A5 between Londonderry and Aughnacloy. From the Irish News report Mr Murphy said last night it was too late for the Republic to back out of its commitment to the project because the contract had already been signed and a payment plan …

Irish Labour Party: “giving Northern Ireland £400million towards its roads is not a priority”

Pete Baker on December 9, 2010, 3:16 pm

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The Irish News today reports comments from the Irish Labour Party’s transport spokesman, Joe Costello, TD, which cast doubt on the proposed £850million upgrade of the A5 between Londonderry and Aughnacloy. From the Irish News report …Mr Costello claimed that while it was “fine to make commitments in the middle of the Celtic Tiger years”, the southern state could no longer afford “grandiose schemes”. “At the present time, we are experiencing savage cutbacks in education, health and social welfare. Giving Northern …

“No party should be playing politics [with the NI budget].”

Pete Baker on December 7, 2010, 1:36 pm

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With anonymous “republican sources” briefing anyone who will listen about tensions between the DUP and Sinn Féin over the still-to-be-agreed draft Northern Ireland budget, and while noting the DUP’s response reported here “The DUP has one approach to the budget,” [a DUP spokesman] said. “We are confident a budget will be put in place. “We are not playing politics with the budget. This is too important. “Families are struggling to pay mortgages. People are wondering if they are going to …

“Economic crises, however severe, will come and go…”

Pete Baker on December 1, 2010, 7:50 pm

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In The Guardian, Henry McDonald points out that the Economy, not unity, is Irish priority There is a great unspoken paradox about the current politico-fiscal crisis gripping the Republic of Ireland. The Irish people’s anger and disillusionment may have thrown a lifeline to Sinn Féin and rescued the party from total irrelevance in the Republic but its united Ireland project is more unrealisable than ever. Of course, as the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, was telling us, and The Guardian, last July The …

Republic’s base for public sector pay and welfare cuts much higher than the north’s

Brian Walker on November 23, 2010, 5:17 pm

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Cuts in pay and welfare start in the Republic start from a much higher base than in Northern Ireland, according to headline comparisons made by Gerry Moriarty in the Irish Times. This is a reporting mission I’ve been urging for months. Well done Gerry. The job is by no means complete and I hope it will prompt wider analysis and debate. Remember that Irish public sector pay and benefits was higher a year ago. The taoiseach’s salary was about 20% up on …

A profound shock to unionism – a necessary step along the road to final agreement

Brian Walker on November 15, 2010, 12:33 pm

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The Anglo-Irish Agreement whose 25th anniversary falls today immediately exposed the limitations of a unionist veto on all political progress. But its equally significant and unintended result over time was to demonstrate the impossibility of reaching full agreement without participation by all sides, Sinn Fein as well as unionists. Understandably perhaps, retired mandarins of Iveagh House like Sean Donlon stress the check to unionism. Essentially the elements of the 1985 Agreement remain the default position should the GFA and St …

International Representative for west Belfast to contest Irish seat?

Pete Baker on November 14, 2010, 1:23 am

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Apparently the rumours are true… We’ll see. The BBC reports that the International Representative for west Belfast, Gerry Adams, MP, MLA, is “expected to announce later that he intends running for the Irish parliament in the next election.” For Louth? As Gerry Adams said himself, “I think there is an issue that I do not stand for election in the south and I have a constituency in another jurisdiction.” Indeed. Update From the updated BBC report Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is …

Cross-border shoppers spent €418m in Northern Ireland over the last year

Pete Baker on November 12, 2010, 5:12 pm

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That’s the figure given in the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) quarterly national household survey on cross-border shopping [pdf file]. According to the iol report The figures showed a 2% drop in cross border shoppers in the 12 months compared to the previous year, when an estimated €435m was spent. The CSO said: “While there was a decline in the proportions of households making shopping trips to Northern Ireland, this was offset by the fact that households who were making trips were doing …

Financial crisis widens gap between north and south

Brian Walker on November 12, 2010, 10:29 am

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Wars , famine and internal government crises were meat and drink to my generation of journalists as we were growing up. Sure enough, we vaguely registered ” the gnomes of Zurich ” who had to be appeased moments before yet another devolution of sterling crashed over us. But the end of “Bretton Woods” and the birth of ” the snake” were all arcana from the pink pages we could safely leave to the better-dressed money people as we coped with …

I fear for children and idealists in the present climate

Andy Pollak on October 27, 2010, 2:14 pm

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At least we now know where we are now in Ireland, North and South, in the worst financial crisis to have hit the island in living memory. At time of writing the Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, has said that a significant proportion of the €15 billion which must be slashed from public spending before 2014 to get the Republic’s budget deficit down to the level required by the EU must be cut from the government’s budget in the coming …

Brendan Hughes: “I had no control over this squad. Gerry had control of this particular squad”

Pete Baker on October 26, 2010, 7:27 pm

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Peter Wilson, a 21-year-old with learning difficulties who went missing in 1973, was only added to the official list of those abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries in October last year. Today, on the basis of information described as “of good quality, it is reliable and from a good source”, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains announced details of a search for his remains. Meanwhile, as Rusty flagged up on Sunday, tonight RTÉ will broadcast Voices From the Grave …

Rocky (A5) road to Dublin?

ItwasSammyMcNally on October 26, 2010, 12:40 pm

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As the Irish government clings desperately on to both the country’s economic independence and to its tiny Dáil majority whilst simultaneously promising the Plain People in the South more pain in the shape of less pay, fewer jobs and disappearing public services it may seem surprising that they are still funding that road which winds its way through the middle of the Ulster countryside and for no obvious electoral advantage. Of course, all political parties in the South insist that …

John Hume voted “Ireland’s greatest”

Brian Walker on October 23, 2010, 11:01 am

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John Hume wins the RTE competition, followed by Michael Collins, Mary Robinson, James Connolly and Bono ( at least according to the Irish Times report. Ryan Tubridy announced the losers ” in no particular order”). Pity no voting figures were given for the phone-in poll. But there we are. No Taoiseach made it to the final five, not even Dev, while Collins did – although I suppose we can count him briefly as the formal head of the provisional government. Interesting if …

Vote Hume now in RTE’s Ireland’s Greatest

Brian Walker on October 22, 2010, 12:24 pm

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Northern chauvinists like me who may hold differing opinions may still want to vote North in the great RTE competition that ends tonight. So go to! Details in the website and in this letter to the Irish Times from my very old (I mean long time) friend. It’s short notice I know but longer than for Strictly or X Factor. Vote now for John Hume. 　 The Editor, The Irish Times Dear Madam, As a friend of John & Pat …

TUC and ICTU oppose lower Corporation Tax for Northern Ireland

Pete Baker on October 12, 2010, 4:59 pm

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Interesting to note ICTU Deputy General Secretary Peter Bunting, now sitting on that interim NI Water Board, welcoming a TUC report critical of attempts to lower corporation tax here. From the Belfast Telegraph report ICTU Deputy General Secretary Peter Bunting said: “This paper should once and for all lay to rest the argument by some vested interests in Northern Ireland that a low corporation tax regime would assist economic growth for all, as opposed to private profit for the few.” As …

“We will all play our part – however long it takes, whatever it takes in bringing that threat to an end”

Pete Baker on October 5, 2010, 12:08 pm

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As the Irish Times notes, at a seminar in Belfast yesterday the Irish Justice Minister, Dermot Ahern, commited his government to providing adequate resources to tackle the continuing republican paramilitary threat. And last night those republican paramilitaries are believed to have been responsible for a car bomb in the UK City of Culture for 2013. Interestingly, the owner of a hotel near the site of the explosion is quoted in this iol report Mr [Garvan] O’Doherty said there would be setbacks, but …

NAMA takes on £3.35bn (€4bn) loans linked to NI assets

Pete Baker on September 29, 2010, 3:59 pm

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The BBC notes that “Nama, the bad bank agency set up by the Irish government, is to take over loans originally worth around £3.3bn linked to assets in Northern Ireland.” RTÉ gives the figure revealed today by Peter Stewart, the head of Nama’s advisory committee on Northern Ireland, as a “qualified estimate” of £3.35billion [pdf file] (€4billion) and adds Mr Stewart estimated that around €2.4bn of the loans were linked to undeveloped land, €1.2bn to investment properties and €400m to projects which …

Learning from a green town on the Irish border

Andy Pollak on September 29, 2010, 12:55 pm

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I’d like to return to the theme of energy cooperation in Ireland. This month’s belated row over the purchase (announced in July) of Northern Ireland Electricity by the Irish government-owned Electricity Supply Board – which, interestingly, saw Peter Robinson and his DUP Minister for Industry Arlene Foster take different positions – is a small storm in a unionist teacup and will pass. The great majority of people in politics and business in Northern Ireland agree that the single electricity market …