Witnesses for Meeting of 4 December

Committee Room 1 Leinster House 10.00 a.m.

FÁS
Mr. Peter McLoone, Chairman of the Board
Mr Christy Cooney – Assistant Director General, Human Resources/Organisation Development/Public Affairs
Mr Donal Sands – Assistant Director General, Finance & Information Technology
Mr Patrick Kivlehan- Director -Internal Audit
Mr. Niall Saul, Board Member, Chairman of the Board Audit Sub-Committee
Mr. Jim Coughlan, Director South East Regions
Mr Denis Rowan, ADG Employment Services
Mr Rody Molloy

Department of the Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Mr. Dermot Mulligan, Assistant Secretary, Labour Force Development

Department of Finance
Ms. Gráinne McGuckin, Principal Officer

Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Mr. John Buckley, Comptroller and Auditor General

The group has been covered, or mentioned by, TV3, the Irish Times, the Irish Examiner, the Irish Independent, the Belfast Telegraph, the Evening Herald and the Daily Mirror.

I have run an extensive advert campaign to achieve higher membership, and as far as I can tell from the stats, it has been highly successful. Membership growth (these are ballpark figures taken towards the end of each day). The invited numbers are also estimated, as Facebook does not show number of invites once it passes 6,000.

November 12: 255 members, 1,760 invited
November 13: 1,012 members, 5,534 invited
November 14: 2,122 members, 6,000+ invited
November 15: 2,987 members, 6,000+ invited
November 16: 3,815 members, 6,000+ invited
November 17: 5,685 members, 6,000+ invited
November 18: 5,900 members, 6,000+ invited
November 19: 6,850 members, 6,000+ invited
November 20: 7,120 members, 6,000+ invited
November 21: 7,450 members, 6,000+ invited
November 22: 7,567 members, 6,000+ invited
November 23: 7,900 members, 6,000+ invited
November 24: 8,100 members, 6,000+ invited
November 25: 8,464 members, 6,000+ invited
November 28: 8,938 members, 6,000+ invited
November 29: 9,245 members, 6,000+ invited
November 30: 9,400 members, 6,000+ invited
December 1: 9,500 members, 6,000+ invited
December 2: 9,700 members, 6,000+ invited
December 3: 10,000 members, 6,000+ invited.

To my knowledge, this makes the group that largest ever Ireland-specific single issue group ever. As you can see, in the first week of the campaign, 1,000 people were joining per day.

Furthermore it has led to people who joined the group going on to organise events off their own bat, inspired by events organised by the admins. Shauneen is organising a candlelit vigil for the Dáil on December 10th at 6.30pm. On foot of that vigil, a member in Cork is organising a similar event there. Another one in Limerick is also in the works.

Blogging has its place in campaigns like this one, and so does Facebook. But you have to say that Facebook is a great tool for this particular type of cause - and no doubt we will see a lot more like it in future. I guess the question is - where is this use of technology leading us, and second, how can the blogosphere contribute?

Via Dan.

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

World War Two cost an inflation adjusted $3.6 trillion.

And how much has the current bailout cost? Depending on where you read, it is anywhere between $4.615 trillion, $7.76 trillion and $8.5 trillion.

The bailouts this year have cost more than the above listed events combined.

And a full trillion dollars more than the Second World War.

And just to cheer you up a little bit more, here is a graph comparing the current trend of the S&P 500, with various other bear markets, such as the Dot Com bubble and the Great Depression.

Yes, the future is not looking rosy.

And just to depress you further. Peter Schiff was on Bloomberg again, and he was again reasoning that all of this bailout money will create more problems than it solves. When 4.6 trillion is pumped into the system, it takes time for its effect to be felt. 2009 could see “hyperinflation” he argues, along with gold doubling in price, and the dollar plummeting in value.

Via Cian.

I have no particular love or hate for Libertas, or for Ganley himself. I’m actually pretty neutral on the whole thing. Yes he campaigned in favour of a No vote at Lisbon, a position with which I agreed. But that’s sort of besides the point.

The question that RTE seem to be posing is that Ganley is somehow a different political animal than what we’re used to. That his funding is somehow mysterious. That he has connections - horror of horrors - to making money from the US military industrial complex.

Maybe I’m the only one. But I don’t see the big deal about this. Maybe someone can enlighten me as to why Ganley’s finances should be put under the spotlight, and not those of Fianna Fail, the party that has been in power for the last 11 years and has presided over a cataclysmic property bubble? Or that we have no idea from where Fianna Fail, or Fine Gael for that matter, got most of their funding?

I heard one over the summer about FÁS. It was around the time that Enda Kenny told the Dail that gardaí were investigating the alleged misappropriate use of funds by a senior executive within FÁS.

The rumour was unverified obviously, so it is was basically gossip - and therefore has all of the qualifications that should be attached to any gossip.

The scenario laid out to me was that certain Sunday newspapers were involved in accepting advertising from FÁS. So what you might say. I was told that staff within those newspapers would agree a price with an individual, or individuals, within FÁS. The price might only be known to a small group of people and, critically, the price would be inflated.

A percentage of this overall advertising spend would then be shared, personally, between respective staff in certain Sunday newspapers and staff in FÁS. I guess it would be called kickbacks. Or fraud. That is certain parties within FAS may have been engaged in fraud.

We have already heard of certain allegations around advertising spending - even that an advertising company was set up by staff in FÁS.

Another rumour I heard, widely circulated, was that Mary Hanafin went on trips to Florida.

Senator Shane Ross will have further revelations for us on Sunday, no doubt.

Yes it was rather comical.

In June, Cowen had this to say about Mr Molloy:

“the chief executive of that organisation is a person whom I personally hold in the highest regard, and whose integrity I would defend at all times, Mr Rody Molloy.” IT June 26, 2008.

Pretty straightforward. Mr Molloy was appointed director general by Mary Harney, then Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, to the position in October 2000. He is married to Noreen. He has been a civil servant since the days of Jack Lynch. He is from Crinkill, Co Offaly. He replaced Dr John Lynch, who went to CIE.

At the same time as Molloy’s appointment, Mary Harney appointed future husband Brian Geoghagen to be chairman of FAS.

(An aside: In October 1994, Brian Cowen was forced to sell shares in Arcon Resources, after it emerged they were seeking a mining licence while he was minister with responsibility in that area. Reynolds did not seek his resignation. In April 1996, in the first publication of politicians’ interests he said he held no shares, land, property, travel, renumeration or contracts.)

Curiously, Mary Molloy is herself related to the mother of Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan, Ann Lenihan (wife of the late Brian Lenihan).

Given the nature of these things in Irish politics, I can’t begin to imagine how deep the rabbit hole goes on this one. With the sums of money involved, this is probably the tip of the iceberg.

Update: Mr Molloy has resigned in disgrace. I can confirm Mary Molloy is not related to Rody.

It tops last week’s excellent spread on Dubai, which included a really high res and up to date image of the soon to be tallest structure in the world, the Burj Dubai.

Via Andrew. Things are not looking pretty. Run on the dollar. No sign of a bottom.