A glance at the week that was
Give me a crash course in . . . selling State assets
The McCarthy Review Group report published this week recommends selling such State assets as RTÉ’s broadcasting network, the ESB and Bord Gáis supply businesses (power generation and sales) and parts of CIÉ, but keeping such thing as the gas and electricity networks (the wires and pipes that deliver the power).
Whose idea is this?A review group made up of economists Colm McCarthy, Alan Matthews and senior Department of Finance official, Donal McNally. They were appointed last July by the then Government.
What does the State own and how much are they worth?Everything from power plants to sawmills and broadcasting companies to buses. On paper, the value of the assets that the review group thinks could be sold is about €5 billion, but we don't know what anything is worth until somebody says what they will pay.
So what's on the block?Bits of RTÉ, CIÉ and the energy companies, the State's remaining 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus, Bord na Móna and the right to harvest timber from Coillte's forests, but not ownership of its land. Dublin Bus could be sold, once they work out how to fund its unprofitable routes. The port companies could also go, but the review group says they should be reorganised under three companies: Dublin, Cork and Shannon.
Is anything ruled out?An Post should not be put up for sale for the moment, strategic assets such as the energy networks should be retained, the Dublin Airport Authority is unlikely to be ready for sale in the long term, and we should keep RTÉ's programme-making businesses.
S urely we risk selling companies that provide important services?Well, the McCarthy group, says that it is mainly recommending that we sell those companies that are already competing with the private sector, which means that the private sector is happy to provide those services, so the State doesn't really need to get involved.
What are strategic assets?That's a phrase the Government has been throwing around a lot. The politicians are not being clear about what they mean, but in general it refers to assets that are so vital they should remain in State hands. The big example is the national grid, but even that could stop being "strategic" a few years down the road.
When is all this going to happen?Not straight away. An immediate disposal would amount to a fire sale, and would not be worth our while. Selling these companies means working out what they are worth to a commercial organisation, and dealing with issues such as their debts and, in some cases, their pension-fund liabilities.
How do the companies themselves feel?The executives are playing their hands close to their chests for the moment. The trades unions representing the workers have come out largely against it.
Aren't workers in State companies overpaid, and isn't it all a bit of a gravy train?Well, some chief executives are very well paid, but the McCarthy group says that we need to start comparing pay and conditions in our State companies with similar operations in Ireland and Europe to establish once and for all whether this is true. McCarthy himself says we should look at the evidence first before taking action. BARRY O'HALLORAN
Lost without your iPhone?
Apple iPhones and 3G iPads secretly store details of their owners' movements, researchers claim. Location data is recorded in an unencrypted file which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronised, according to security experts Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden. With a simple program, it can map out where the user has been. Apple has yet to comment on the claim, and while the practice appears to be covered in the company's terms and conditions, there is no suggestion that Apple has been sharing or using such information.
We now know:
Real Madrid player Sergio Ramos (far left) dropped the Spanish cup under a bus while celebrating his team’s victory.
The Last Supper was on a Wednesday, not Maundy Thursday, according to research at Cambridge University
First World War spies engraved messages on toenails and used lemon juice to write invisible letters, according to newly released CIA documents.
Golden Oldie Spider
A fossilised spider from China’s Inner Mongolian region is the biggest ever found, scientists claim.
The spider was a female that lived 165 million years ago and has been classified as a golden orb weaver – a creature whose webs are made from a hardened, golden silk. Researchers have named the specimen, which would have had a leg span of 15cm, Nephila jurassica, according to the journal Biology Letters.
The numbers
€202,000
The price a collection of Michael Collins’s letters fetched at auction
11,000The number of audits carried out by the Revenue Commissioners last year, yielding €434m
112 millionThe number of times Rebecca Black's song Friday has been viewed on YouTube, overtaking Justin Bieber's record
6,882The number of medication errors by doctors and nurses reported to the State Claims Agency last year
7,000The number of cars stolen in Ireland last year
Next week you'll need to know all about . . . the Seanad elections
Next Tuesday and Wednesday there are 60 seats up for election in the Seanad, the upper house of the Oireachtas. Its main purpose is revising legislation sent to it by Dáil Éireann, though it can only delay laws rather than veto them.
Its composition is riddled with complexities. The Taoiseach nominates 11 members while six are elected by a registered university graduate electorate of 134,000 – shared between the NUI and Dublin University (Trinity College) – though less than half of them vote.
How the remaining 43 seats are decided is even less simple. They are elected from five panels representing specified vocational interests: culture and education (five seats), agriculture (11), labour (11), industry and commerce (nine) as well as public administration and social services (seven).
The 113 candidates, who must have appropriate qualifications for their panel, are elected by 166 incoming TDs, 45 outgoing members of the last Seanad who are not TDs, and 883 members of county and city councils. Each has a vote on all five panels. Got all that?
This could be the last Seanad. Its abolition appears to be on the horizon, after the Taoiseach announced last week that work on a constitutional referendum has begun.
