Republic nets different sort of transfer funds: Outgoing An Post boss and National Lottery chairman Donal Curtin readily confessed yesterday that the Euromillions lotto has confirmed him as a stout Europhile.
As everybody knows, the first Euromillions jackpot winner was a Limerick woman, Dolores McNamara, who won €115 million last July.
The European lotto is the result of a pool shared by nine EU states, including the Republic. Our contribution is proportionate to the tickets sold here, according to Mr Curtin.
When Current Account asked about how the liabilities for prizes are shared out, he said it was on much the same basis.
"You've got to admit that it's been a pretty good deal so far," he said.
And he added that it was yet another example of how European money has benefited Irish people.
Greenspan enjoying fruits of exuberance
The former US Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan is certainly coining it for an 80-year-old who is meant to be enjoying his retirement.
His book deal with Penguin is believed to be worth about $8 million (€6.7 million). The price paid has raised eyebrows throughout the book world in the US. Some observers have even joked that Greenspan's 18 years at the helm at the Fed might have the makings of a movie script. If Joaquin Phoenix can play Johnny Cash in his younger years, why not Greenspan, asked one critic this week.
The advance picked up by Greenspan is one of the highest ever paid for a non-fiction work. Only former president Bill Clinton can boast a higher advance at $12 million. A book about super investor Warren Buffett is also expected to trigger an orgy of bidding by the main publishing houses.
While Greenspan will no doubt tell an interesting tale in his book, the hyper-inflation when it comes to book advances is ruffling some feathers. Some critics point out that Greenspan was once famous for warning about "irrational exuberance" in the stock market. Maybe he needs to issue the same warning about book advances.
Turning on Channel 6
At least 20 reporters and five photographers were gathered in the august surroundings of the Royal College of Physicians building on Kildare Street, Dublin on Tuesday for the launch of Channel 6's new schedule.
The promoters of the station had two large screens set up to show the assembled media the station's cutting-edge dramas and award-winning sitcoms. A quick flick of the remote control was meant to get proceedings underway.
The lights dimmed, the screens flickered and . . . nothing.
As the two senior Channel 6 executives tried to keep smiling, the station staff poked a few buttons while reporters sighed and waited. And waited. And waited.
Eventually the technical gremlins were banished and the two screens jumped into life. Michael Murphy, the former TV3 and Eircom executive, was heard to quip: "Better to get the technical problems out of the way now I suppose."
Channel 6 goes on air on March 30th.
Turning off Christmas
As everyone knows, the demand for electricity is galloping ahead and supply is barely keeping up. So far the ESB has not cut anyone off in order to balance local supply and demand but someone may have to be sacrificed for the greater national good at some point.
At least that's how people in Galway must have felt this week. Householders from Oranmore to Moycullen received an ESB letter telling them it would be necessary to cut off their electricity from between 9am and 5pm. That was bad enough, but the cut-off day was even more alarming - December 25th!
The ESB has since re-assured customers the letters were sent out because of human error. A spokesman was recorded as saying: "We are not planning an outage on Christmas Day and we apologise to everyone who received these."
Current Account would draw the attention of Galway readers to the word "planning" in that sentence.
