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Category: Politics

The Irish Bailout Bill

01/10/2008

Sent this email to my TDs in Cork East last night: Sean Sherlock (Lab), Michael Ahern (FF), Ned O’Keeffe (FF) and David Stanton (FG).

Sir,

I’m a contituent from Ladysbridge. Please vote against the bailout bill that will be put before you tomorrow, rushed legislation is ALWAYS bad legislation.

I’ll be watching your voting record with interest, it will affect mine in future.

Yours sincerely,
Adam Beecher

Thus far, the only one to respond has been David Stanton. His email seems to be saying “we know best” but “I may not vote anyway”. Brilliant.

Dear Adam,

Thank you for your email. We are all very concerned at the current banking situation and the need to provide adequate, extensive and robust legislation to protect any measures being taken. If the banking system were to collapse, this would have major repercussions for everyone in the country.
You may be aware that no vote is being called on the Bill today as the debate is ongoing with Committee Stage being taken in the Dail. This procedure gives the opposition parties a chance to put forward amendments to the proposed legislation. I may not, in fact, get an opportunitty to vote on the Bill at all, if a vote is not called.
Finally, Richard Bruton TD, is out Fine Gael spokesperson for Finance and is responsible for tabling our amendments at committee stage. I can assure you that he is very knowledgeable and well briefed on the issue and the legislation put forward.

Best regards,
David Stanton TD

Unemployment numbers not that bad…

22/09/2008

…actually they’re worse…

Irish Examiner: The scale of unemployment is far worse than official figures show because another 38,000 people are stuck in a backlog waiting for their dole claims to be processed, the Irish Examiner has learned.

Place Your Bets: Integrated ticketing in Dublin by IBM, over budget by how much?

22/09/2008

Times are tough so we can’t be completely screwed to the wall these days, only partially. Traditionally in Ireland we go over budget by multiples, but I don’t think IBM would get away with that with this one.

However, going over budget by less an 100% in Ireland would probably result in IBM being bullied in the playground, so I’m betting on 100% over budget, plus or minus 10%. What’s your estimate?

ENN: IBM is to develop and implement an infrastructure for an Integrated Ticketing System ITS across all public transport in the greater Dublin area. The tech heavyweight was chosen by the Railway Procurement Agency RPA to develop and roll out an e-payment system to enable commuters to use a single pre-paid smart card for travel on all buses, trains, trams and coaches in the city. The integrated IBM back-office system will provide ticket and smart card management, central reconciliation and settlement services to all public transport providers. The system is part of Ireland’s “Transport 21” project. Work on the project will begin immediately and a phased deployment of the system will start in late 2009. Financial details of the contract were not revealed.

Breathing Earth

14/04/2008

Think I found this on Damien’s blog, but I’m not sure. Anyway, it’s a flash-based visual representation of CO2 emissions by country, plus births and deaths. Have a look.

And so it begins…

15/01/2008

Obama’s Name Misspelled On 2,000 Ballots

As Florida’s primary approaches, there are already reported problems concerning ballots in Central Florida

Some 2,000 absentee ballots in Volusia County have been mailed with Barack Obama’s first name misspelled.

On the ballot, the candidate’s name is spelled B-A-R-A-K, Local 6 News reported Sunday.

Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall assured people that the voting equipment will be able to read the ballots despite the error and all votes for the misspelled name will count for Obama.

Yeah right Ann. We believe you because your state has such a trustworthy electoral history.

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