Current Account: The Dublin Airport Authority appears to be in permanent crisis mode. Whether it's bomb scares, passenger queues or lack of space in its various car parks, the company's senior management are rarely let off the hook by travellers or the media.
Despite the best efforts of the company to alleviate the chronic congestion at the airport, there is probably little that can be done until the second terminal is built.
However, the company's attempts to come up with interim solutions have hardly inspired confidence either. This week the company failed to secure planning permission to erect a marquee on the roof of its multi-storey car park to deal with periods of overcrowding.
The authority said in April planning permission would not be required, but it was soon put right on this by Fingal County Council.
During a recent Oireachtas hearing on the subject, the authority's chairman Gary McGann wondered aloud about the mechanics of securing planning permission for a marquee. One cheeky deputy replied that the DAA might get some useful advice from Fossetts Circus.
French newly-weds spend it like confetti
A lavish wedding where newly-weds were sprinkled with shredded euro-note confetti has provoked outrage in a French town, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Liberation said angry locals in the southern town of Sete scrambled on the ground to scrape up the bits of 5, 10, 20 and 50 euro notes scattered at the nuptials. "People chucking money away in the street for everyone to see, when there are so many struggling to get by!" said Frederic, a resident quoted by the newspaper.
Around 200 people attended the ceremony, which included a firework display estimated to have cost €40,000, the paper said. The bride was the daughter of a local businessmen who made his money in textiles. - (Reuters)
Big tent politics
Nice to see Fianna Fáil welcome Mick Bailey of Bovale Developments into its famous tent at the Galway Races. Not two months has passed since Bovale made a €22.17 million tax settlement, the State's biggest, but that doesn't deter the dominant party in Government from fraternising with the bold Mick. Not at all.
Fianna Fáil has form here. Always hungry for cash, the party accepted donations from Bovale even after the planning tribunal found Mick made a corrupt payment to Ray Burke and three corrupt payments to George Redmond, the former planning official. Thanks to the tribunal, Bovale had to fork out €12.5 million in tax and nearly €9.7 million interest and penalties.
Bailey may have indulged in tax evasion on a grand scale and corruption at a high level, but he doesn't seem to see the irony in his presence in the bosom of the FFers. Fianna Fáil doesn't seem to see the irony either. In the party led by Bertie Ahern - one of the last socialists in the Dáil, remember - it seems there'll always be room for errant multimillionaires.
Law-abiding, compliant taxpayers and businesspeople who don't break the rules must wonder why the Taoiseach is willing to tolerate this unedifying state of affairs. But Bailey is part of the Fianna Fáil family. If a party can choose its friends, it seems it cannot choose its family.
Thirst goes unsatisfied
If the next-best thing to being the in ice-cream game in the middle of a heatwave is to be in the cider business, then C&C must be having a high time as it puts a big push behind Magners cider in the British market.
Simply put, the sunny summer there means conditions could not be better for a rollout. But there is a flipside. If the heat tends to stimulate demand, then that demand must be managed thoroughly. On the evidence of Observer columnist Alex Clark last Sunday, C&C has room for improvement on that front. Particularly in London's west end.
"After a hard day at the coalface, I rocked up to the bar and confidently ordered a bottle of Magners Irish cider," wrote Clarke. "But disappointment ensued. Not only was there no Magners left, but there would be no more for a further 36 hours."
Clarke says popularity is the midwife of scarcity. "When one considers that Magners is traditionally drunk over ice, all one sees is the spectre of a cider crisis that coincides with an ice-cube ban. In other words, an end to enjoyment and a clear incitement to outbreaks of savagery everywhere."
Time for C&C to increase production, eh.
