LAURA SLATTERYlooks back on the week in business
Nama-watch
As headlines go, “Nama prepared to knock down buildings” promises much, largely because it generates images of National Asset Management Agency executives donning hard hats and plunging the ignite switch on monstrous vanity projects with no commercial or social merit. In a simpler world, pay up, Mr Developer, or we’ll send in Bulldozer Brendan McDonagh wouldn’t be a bad threat to discourage loan delinquency. McDonagh, aka the Nama boss, appeared to be mainly talking about unfinished buildings when he mentioned the “d” word (demolition) at an Oireachtas committee. But why stop at the half-built ones? It’s a glorious opportunity for Nama to shed its image as the toxic debt agency and rebrand as public service demolishers. No job too big or small.
Pay day
Aidan Heavey, Tullow Oil chief executive, kicks off an occasional slot devoted to the recession-resilient pay packages enjoyed by boardroom bosses. Heavey earned a slick £3.4 million last year, it was declared in Tullow’s annual report – salary and bonuses of £1.7 million and a long-term incentive payout worth another £1.7 million. It’s enough to make Kerry chief executive Stan McCarthy (2009 pay package worth €1.75 million) feel poor. Amazingly, this £3.4 million represents a major drop in income for Heavey compared to 2008, when he cashed in share options worth £24 million. Meanwhile, the maximum annual bonus for Tullow directors has increased from 150 per cent of salary to 200 per cent. Really, who needs a Lotto rollover?
€200m
- Value of London 2012 Olympics contracts awarded to Irish firms, from software developers that track real-time attendance to reinforced steel cage manufacturers.
"The regulator has the Government's full confidence and support in the various steps he has taken"
Brian Lenihan backs Matthew Elderfield's actions against Quinn Insurance
Status update
Stellar ambition: "Astronaut" has made it into a UK careers guide for the first time – in space, no one can hear you scream as your pension goes supernova.
Padded sell: Primark hastily withdrew padded bikinis from its children's range after child protection specialists accused them of chasing the "paedophile pound".
Spot the royalty: It's been claimed Lady Gaga earned just $167 from a million Spotify downloads of her hit Poker Face. That's not going to keep her in Philip Treacy hats.
THE QUESTION:
Nama-watch Pay day Should Government divert money from “elite sports” to fund swimming pools? €200m
Dublin City Council is set to close swimming pools at the end of August because their €600,000 budget has run out. Councillors have voted to “actively seek financial and grant aid from all funding agencies” to keep the pools open – as well they might. According to Sport and the City, a recent analysis by ESRI economist Pete Lunn, the most common sporting activity among residents of the Dublin City Council area is, indeed, swimming.
Lunn has criticised the way in which the Government distributes its sport grants, which he says are too heavily weighed in favour of “elite sports” (national and international level team games), with not enough of the budget allocated to individual sports at grassroots level. As people are more likely to participate in individual rather than team sports once they hit their mid-20s, he argues that this approach undermines the stated aim of sport policy, which is to promote public health.
Given that active participation in sport is higher for Dublin residents with higher incomes, the importance of keeping pay-as-you-go public facilities open would appear to increase during a recession. And despite the work of the Local Authority Swimming Pools Programme (LASPP), there remains “unmet demand” for pools, says Lunn.
The Department’s own review of LASPP notes how no other piece of sports/recreational infrastructure can provide all-weather access to people of all ages and fitness levels for up to 18 hours a day. If public health really is the aim of sport policy, closing three pools is a retrograde step.
