A glance at the week that was
The end is nigh, maybe
Harold Camping, a preacher from California, has this week predicted the end of the world and the Second Coming – at 11pm GMT today. Most of us look set to miss out on salvation and eternal life: Camping says only 2 per cent of people will be immediately lifted to heaven. He spoke to his followers on Family Radio Network, a religious broadcaster funded by listenerdonations, which has assets of more than €80 million. Camping previously predicted the Second Coming for September 6th, 1994, and hundreds of followers gathered to await what turned out to be a heavenly no-show. This time Camping is convinced, pointing to natural disasters in Japan and New Zealand as proof that the Lord is vexed and on his way. “God has given us outstanding proofs that it really is going to happen.”
The numbers
€11,886 - The value of a tax rebate that Revenue paid to the former Anglo Irish chief executive David Drumm.
$3,000 - The amount paid for a suite in the Sofitel Hotel in New York where IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn stayed and an alleged sexual assault took place.
300m - The estimated number of smokers in China, now banned from smoking in indoor public places.
19 - The number of league titles Manchester United have won, overtaking the record of 18 held by Liverpool.
49,400 - The number of Irish men who gave their lives during the first Word War, commemorated by the President and Queen Elizabeth at a ceremony at Islandbridge this week.
We now know
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that AIB has not asked for permission to pay future CEOs a salary over €500,000 a year.
Just 36 mortgages are being approved on average each day in Ireland, compared with 519 a day in early 2006.
‘Shifting pages’ are increasingly popular on social-networking sites; they show college and university students kissing and engaging in foreplay. The pages have drawn criticism from the National Parents Council.
Most read this week on irishtimes.com
1 Boyle in hot water over IMF tweet
2 Queen Elizabeth lays wreath at Garden of Remembrance
3 Violence at Dublin protests
4 Schwarzenegger admits child is his
5 Queen visits National Stud
6 Queen arrives for start of historic visit to the Republic
7 Girl (8) dies after bouncy castle fall
8 Former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald dies aged 85
9 France hardens stance on rate cut for Irish bailout
10 Full text of speech by Queen Elizabeth II
Next week you need to know about . . . Slane Castle
Next Saturday Kings of Leon perform at Slane Castle, in Co Meath, 30 years after Thin Lizzy headlined the first concert at the venue, in 1981.
The estate covers more than 600 hectares; the concert site covers almost 10 hectares.
The concert takes place five days after the 60th birthday of Lord Henry Mount Charles, the eighth Marquess Conyngham.
Lord Mount Charles studied history at Harvard, returning to Ireland in 1976 to become Sotheby’s first representative in Ireland.
He ran as a Fine Gael candidate in Co Louth in 1992, receiving 4,163 first-preference votes.
The castle was the setting for a historical romance between King George IV of England and Elizabeth, the first Marchioness Conyngham, in 1821.
Slane headliners over the years have included David Bowie, Queen, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Madonna.
U2 recorded part of their album The Unforgettable Firein the ballroom of the castle.
When Thin Lizzy played in 1981, tickets cost £8, and about 18,000 people attended the gig. Tickets for Saturday’s sold-out concert are €79, and capacity will be 80,000.
There will be space this year for 2,000 VIPs in front of the castle.
Give me a crash course in . . . the National Car Test
The drea ded car test: what now?Irish motorists are feeling like mugs for fretting over their car's number-plate alignment and malfunctioning dashboard lights while others can seemingly ride roughshod over the rules by paying backhanders.
So what's the controversy about?Last Monday's Prime Time Investigatesgot blood boiling as the team put two unroadworthy bangers through the NCT. They claimed a €100 backhander paid to an intermediary for each car tested meant the vehicles passed with flying colours. Independent inspections before and after the tests showed the cars were too dangerous to be taken out on the road.
How did they beat the system?Where humans are involved there are always potential opportunities for shortcuts or worse. One NCT inspector, speaking to Prime Timeunder the cloak of anonymity, suggested incidences of bribes to let bangers pass the test are not confined to the test centre featured in the programme. According to the NCTS website: "The testing system is computer-controlled and highly automated and provides maximum test security and accuracy." The programme seemed to suggest otherwise.
Does anyone oversee the NCT?Officially it's under the bailiwick of the Road Safety Authority (RSA), but the AA and accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers are tasked with independently supervising the 46 test centres. In relation to the cars featured in the documentary, the use of an intermediary contact may have bypassed any on-site controls. The AA was also at pains to point out that its role is primarily to check and verify the equipment.
Red faces at the NCT then?Seemingly so, particularly at Applus, the firm awarded the €400 million, 10-year contract to carry out the tests. The firm's managing director, Grant Henderson, spoke to Prime Timeonly after being doorstepped in a Tesco car park and even then declined to look at the video evidence. Since then the firm has said it will interview every staff member about the allegations. It has also sacked three operators and suspended seven others. But it will take more than this to force a U-turn in public perceptions that the system is flawed.
So should the NCT be scrapped?No one likes handing over €50 for a mandatory test that doesn't fix anything, or being forced to return because the rear number-plate light bulb is broken. Yet without such mandatory inspections, cars like the Prime Time bangers would be commonplace on our roads. The national car fleet is in much better shape these days thanks in large part to the test, and that in turn has contributed to some extent in the reduction in road deaths. Cars are complex pieces of engineering that can hurtle along motorways at 120km/h with squishy humans on board. It's not too much to ask that they be checked over every two years as they age, and every year when they are 10 years or older.
So if not scrapped, then what?One idea is that, along with inspecting the accuracy of the equipment, those tasked with policing the system, such as the AA, should get down and dirty, randomly inspecting cars that have passed the test. These inspections should be frequent and done off site, with the cost falling on the NCT operator. There also needs to be better supervision in the centres. One of the bangers on the programme took less than five minutes to pass the test. Prime Timedescribed the test as farcical and said it would have been funny if it were not so serious. Clearly, supervisors and managers on site need to be more alert to such unorthodox tests. MICHAEL McALEER
