26,820– the number of new houses that were built in Ireland in 2009, according to new figures, meaning Ireland's residential construction output is still ahead of the European average.
300,000
– the number of homes lying empty in Ireland – equivalent to half of all homes in Dublin – according to the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“There was a temptation throughout my investigation to view it as an accident investigator coming across a corporate plane crash.”
– High Court inspector Bill Shipsey SC manages to lift the nose of Jim Flavin (above), former DCC chief executive, away from its crash trajectory.
“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards.”
– Matthew Freud, husband of Elisabeth Murdoch, disses the head of Fox News – in other words, the trusted lieutenant of his father-in-law, Rupert.
GOOD WEEK
Tablets
Nothing to do with scariest documentary of the week, Horizon’s pill-popping special (the average person takes 14,000 pills in their lifetime apparently), but rather the dawn of the tablet-computing era. According to technology analysts at Deloitte, “tens of millions” of tablet computers will be sold in 2010 and will be the top consumer trend of the year. Deloitte describes tablets as “the Goldilocks of devices (not too big, not too small)”. Techies will find out if Apple’s imminent tablet is “just right” or not when it unleashes it next week. But, just like Goldilocks, the timing of the tablet launches is not entirely innocent, as the companies behind them seek to prevent eBook specialists such as Amazon from gaining traction.
BAD WEEK
Air passengers
Some 20,000 travellers had flights disrupted by the air traffic control dispute (although surely this is a strike we can all get behind, given the alternative would be disgruntled air traffic controllers), while Ryanair said it was planning its first fare increases in four years. Then Air France-KLM was reported to be forcing passengers who are too big to fit into a single seat to pay 75 per cent of the fare for a second. It later denied this and said people who chose to buy an extra seat would be refunded if it turned out the plane was less than full. But given that the hips of everyone except small children and Kate Moss skirt the armrests on a typically cramped seat, it can’t be long before the “two seats” policy becomes a nice little earner for airlines.
Cadbury
After the board of the 179-year-old company crumbled in the face of takeover pressure from Kraft like a Flake in a handbag, it was clear that they weren’t going to win too many fans. Bournville’s residents feared the slow decline of their town. Local MPs described it as “a kick in the stomach”, while Siptu sought “assurances” about Cadbury’s presence in Ireland. The Fairtrade Foundation was none too pleased, citing Kraft’s hostile attitude to the movement. Even Warren Buffett, Kraft’s largest shareholder, said he felt “poorer” as a result. The only people who were happy were the bankers, lawyers and top brass at Kraft, who are set to reap millions from the deal.
