Monday, June 07, 2010
Anglo gets another €2bn
Despite the fact that this week the government gave another €2,000,000,000 to Anglo Irish bank (that’s €500 from every man, woman and child in the country) there has been little debate on the subject. It’s almost taken as a given now that every few weeks or so we have to find another lump of money to put into the bank. You have to wonder is this just more good money going after bad. If this was any other business in the private sector it would have been let go to the wall long ago.
Instead of discussing Anglo, the airways have been consumed with the Gazan flotilla and with Ivor Callery’s driving expenses, leaving little room for anything else.
On Wednesday Donie Cassidy arranged for a debate on the subject of Gaza in the Seanad. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was present, as were about 6 or 7 Senators from the different parties. I thought that we had a good debate on the issues, which included discussion about the Goldstone report, Israel’s invitation into the OECD, Operation Cast Lead (from Christmas last year) and of course the attack on the flotilla. Minister Martin was on top of his brief, and I think it was a very useful exploration of the whole issue.
On Thursday we were meant to have the Israeli ambassador come in to our Foreign Affairs Committee. He pulled out at the last minute so instead we had Shane Dillon, one of the travellers from the flotilla, come in to recount his experience. The place was packed with TDs, Senators, journalists and members of the public. It’s not often we get such an attendance at our committee!
On a blog posting a few weeks back I mentioned that I was looking for help over the summer months. There are a few projects I want to get done and we don’t have the capacity in the office to carry them out ourselves. Well, a large number of people applied for the position, I’m glad to say. The calibre of the applicants was excellent and it was difficult to reduce the total number of applicants down to a select set for interview. We held the interviews on Thursday last and we are now making some tough decisions about who to offer the positions to. The reality is that all of the interviewees were very suitable, but the problem is that we haven’t room for everyone!
Many thanks to Cathy in HQ for helping with the arrangements on this.
Instead of discussing Anglo, the airways have been consumed with the Gazan flotilla and with Ivor Callery’s driving expenses, leaving little room for anything else.
On Wednesday Donie Cassidy arranged for a debate on the subject of Gaza in the Seanad. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was present, as were about 6 or 7 Senators from the different parties. I thought that we had a good debate on the issues, which included discussion about the Goldstone report, Israel’s invitation into the OECD, Operation Cast Lead (from Christmas last year) and of course the attack on the flotilla. Minister Martin was on top of his brief, and I think it was a very useful exploration of the whole issue.
On Thursday we were meant to have the Israeli ambassador come in to our Foreign Affairs Committee. He pulled out at the last minute so instead we had Shane Dillon, one of the travellers from the flotilla, come in to recount his experience. The place was packed with TDs, Senators, journalists and members of the public. It’s not often we get such an attendance at our committee!
On a blog posting a few weeks back I mentioned that I was looking for help over the summer months. There are a few projects I want to get done and we don’t have the capacity in the office to carry them out ourselves. Well, a large number of people applied for the position, I’m glad to say. The calibre of the applicants was excellent and it was difficult to reduce the total number of applicants down to a select set for interview. We held the interviews on Thursday last and we are now making some tough decisions about who to offer the positions to. The reality is that all of the interviewees were very suitable, but the problem is that we haven’t room for everyone!
Many thanks to Cathy in HQ for helping with the arrangements on this.
