Current Account: Charlie McCreevy missed out on two speaking engagements in Ireland last Friday as he couldn't get back from the European mainland in time.
At one of the gigs, a conference in Kilkenny held by the Irish Taxation Institute and the Revenue Commissioners, the former minister for finance was due to speak about the benefits of having a low-tax regime.
Europe needs low-cost government as much as it needs low-cost airlines, he said in a speech read out on his behalf.
The reason he was stuck back in the European mainland was because his flight was grounded - on a Ryanair flight from Charleroi!
NIB quick to own up to €10m miscalculation
While we all relish that moment when you pull on an old coat only to discover a €50 note lurking in the pocket, Current Account tends to be less impressed when we open our wallets to find the €50 we thought was there isn't.
Similar emotions must have been running through National Irish Bank's head office yesterday when it issued a statement saying the cost of integrating with its parent was €15.5 million. Four hours later the bank issued a second statement saying the cost was actually €26 million.
Accurate tax estimates
Current Account has noticed a distinct similarity between the Exchequer returns for January and the estimates for monthly revenue intakes prepared by the Department of Finance.
The department expected customs duties to rise by 24.1 per cent. According to the Revenue Commissioners data, they rose by 24 per cent. And the department's expectation that excise duties will rise by 13 per cent compares with 13.1 per cent. Other categories are virtually the same.
Current Account expects the department's accuracy to deteriorate over coming months. The Exchequer figures for June will be the ones to watch. It is the month in which the department expects tax growth to start rapidly slowing down. It is also the month in which financial markets are expecting the ECB to implement the second of two interest rate hikes anticipated this year.
McArdle goes for three
Ulster Bank chief economist Pat McArdle has, for the third month in a row, correctly predicted the rate of inflation. Well, nearly.
Pat was spot on in predicting inflation for November (2.6 per cent) and December (2.5 per cent). Last month he forecast inflation to reach 2.9 per cent in January. But Pat didn't stand pat there. He later upped his forecast a fraction to 3.0 per cent, one per cent above the ECB reference value and widely seen as its target.
Not just a "hat-trick" - a "Pat-trick" perhaps?
Firm still a bargain
Almost two years ago, Newbridge Investments, the company jointly owned by developers Seán Mulryan and Seán Dunne that was developing a €175 million shopping centre in Newbridge, Kildare, was valued at €1.45 million.
That looked to be a bit of a bargain given that the company was developing the biggest shopping centre outside Dublin. At the same time, houses in some corners of the capital's leafier suburbs were selling for more than twice €1.45 million.
Mr Mulryan's Ballymore Developments just sold its 50 per cent stake in Newbridge to Bernadine Mulryan, his wife, for €725,000.
Newbridge has since fallen out of the picture and White Water Shopping Centre Ltd is now the company behind the development. However, Mr Mulryan and Mr Dunne are the principals.
