CIE fuel consumption 2005 to 2009

A very long time ago I sent a request to Coras Iompar Eireann, the operator of Dublin Bus, Iarnrod Eireann and Bus Eireann seeking information on how much fuel they consumed, its cost, and the estimated carbon footprint. They have replied, finally, to my request.

In the five years from 2005 to 2009, CIE consumed 546,257,128 litres of diesel. This equates to approximately 1.747 billion kilos of carbon (at 3.2kg per litre), or 1,747 metric kilotonnes. The numbers are broken down as follows:

Dublin Bus consumed 168,940,369 litres from 2005 to 2009 (31% of total)
Iarnrod Eireann consumed 234,874,458 litres from 2005 to 2009 (43% of total)
Bus Eireann consumed 142,442,301 litres from 2005 to 2009 (26% of total)

The carbon dioxide emissions amount to over five times the mass of the Empire State Building.

CIE refused to give costs information on the basis of commercial sensitivity. The process of getting this information was an interesting one in itself and I will write more on this and give a further analysis of the data soon.

Phone numbers

A reader has commented that coincidentally perhaps, the phone numbers of Ivor Callely and his son Ronan are almost identical. According to his Facebook page, Ronan Callely’s number is 086 2571489. According to the Oireachtas documents, Ivor Callely’s number is 087 2571489 – a one digit difference which applies usually when your provider is different. Curious.

Callely phone claims – original documents

Luke Byrne of the Mail on Sunday, who penned the original story related to the mobile phone expense claims of Senator Ivor Callely on Sunday, has been kind enough to pass on the original documents received from his FOI request. I have run an OCR process on the documents, and combined them into one PDF.

A declaration on the claims form states:

I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE EXPENSES CLAIMED HAVE BEEN ACTUALLY AND NECESSARILY INCURRED BY ME IN RELATION TO MY MEMBERSHIP OF DAIL EIREANN AND THE PARTICULARS FURNISHED HEREIN ARE IN ALL RESPECTS TRUE.

This is signed and dated by Mr Callely on each claim form.

The company on the headed paper, which gives its company number at the bottom of the document (150878), put out a notice in February 1994 that a liquidator was being appointed. You can read the company’s submissions on the CRO website. The company was subsequently dissolved. The claim forms were stamped by the Oireachtas on November 21 and 22, 2007. Another document is the certificate showing that the company was wound up by the Examiner’s Office.

Here are the documents:


MoS investigation into Callely claims

In the past I’ve spoken about the odd – unfortunately, odd – position the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday occupy in the national conversation… please Ireland, don’t sleep this time.

Luke Byrne knocks it out of the park. Cracking journalism.

A two-month investigation into the Fianna Fáil senator’s expenses claims show he was paid the cash on foot of invoices indicating he had bought four mobile phones in five years from a north Dublin firm. But the MoS has established that the company, Business Communications Ltd, went bust over a decade before Callely’s claim.

A former director told the MoS the invoices had not been generated by his company – and that Business Communications Ltd had never sold a mobile phone to Ivor Callely.

While Callely this weekend refused to comment on the damning revelations, they seem certain to spell the final chapter of his ignominious political career.

Can Callely come back from this one? More to the point, does anyone want him to?

All is not well in Galway City Council

Guest post: Enda Cunningham is a news journalist with the Connacht Tribune Newspaper Group in Galway, where he has worked on a freelance and full-time basis since 1997. He is also a regular contributor to several national newspapers and radio stations and while he is an ‘all-rounder’, he has particular interests in the areas of planning, property, business and finance. He can be contacted at ‘enda AT ctribune DOT ie’. We have previously covered his work on this site. – Mark

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Environment Minister John Gormley might be wasting his time with the remit of his ‘planning review‘ in Galway County Council, when a probe into their counterparts in Galway City Council could throw up some real gems, as I discovered.

There’s a lot of info in this post, so please bear with me.

When it comes to paying Development Contribution Levies, some builders in Galway City have been a bit lazy, and it’s taking the Council up to three years to chase up some of the debts, such was the leeway being given.

In fact, the Council is currently owed around €5.4m in unpaid development levies, €1.3m of this is being chased up through the District Court and High Court, while the rest is the subject of enforcement orders or is being paid by installment.

The single biggest debt relates to the abandoned Crown Square development in Mervue – headed up by Padraic Rhatigan of JJ Rhatigan and Walter King of GK Developments – where almost €2.1m is owed.

I had a lengthy sift through a couple of dozen Galway City Council planning files which turned up some very interesting information on several of the biggest developers in Galway during the boom years, but the real golden nugget that emerged from my investigation that must surely be a real cause of embarrassment for officials – a typo on a planning condition which could cost the Council €468,389.29.

Basically, where the Council should have sought development levies for all 120 residential units in one particular development, they instead specified ‘apartments’ – of which there are only 28. Continue reading “All is not well in Galway City Council”

OECD/Transparency International report – Ireland

The OECD/Transparency International Progress Report into international bribery passed the world by there yesterday. Pity, it’s broadly positive.

On the Irish angle though, not so much. What’s new though, hey?

On the international comparisons Ireland is ranked in the lowest category for its efforts to deter the payment of bribes in the export/import markets. We’re categorised as having “little or no enforcement”. The experts of OECD/Transparency International point out that we do have ‘jurisdictional limitations’ (i.e. a porous border) but find that we lack sufficient legislation for criminal liability for corporations anyway; and once again that we’ve no whistleblower protection. The OECD also found fault with Ireland’s level of sanctions for foreign bribery and false accounting. Furthermore they question whether “the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigations is sufficiently trained and resourced to enforce the prohibition of foreign bribery”.

More worrying however is the country report. As you can see in table B and C or the PDF, Ireland is the only country examined with ‘null’ figures. This is because the Gardaí outright refuse to provide information to the OECD/TI team in relation to investigations carried out during the year.

The claim is any report would tip-off subjects that they are being investigated. Stunning; a ‘1’ – no further details! – on a TI report published annually would tip-off an person paying bribes? Gimme a break.

In compiling their figures Transparency International experts do also attempt to glean information from relevant media reports on investigations, but none were available for Ireland. This shows just how secretive the Garda Siochana is by international standards. Figures were calculable for Turkey, Estonia, Bulgaria, Chile and South Africa but not Ireland. We alone are the country with null figures in table B and C. This reflects poorly on the Gardai, the State and, to an extent, the media.

OECD/TI also express concern that the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill has yet to be enacted despite being due for implementation in January of this year. They recommend it be enacted as soon as possible. Who wouldn’t? Here’s hoping.

Previous posts from this website on Garda secrecy and unaccountability: ‘Gardai and Freedom of Information‘, New details relating to the Terence Wheelock case; Deaths in Garda Custody.

Maybe Paul Williams could look into international bribery for Transparency International’s 2011 report?

Anglo Irish Asset Finance PLC

I’ve been leafing through the company accounts of several interesting Anglo subsidiaries. The numbers would make you ill.

Anglo Irish Asset Finance PLC stands out (AIAF for short). The company directors have changed somewhat, but for most of the relevant period the directors were:

Brian Linehan (Not the Minister for Finance)
Gordon Parker (FG Parker)
J Brydie (Jim/James Brydie)
TP Walsh (Thomas Walsh)

AIAF, under cashflows, in the 12 months to September 30, 2008, had losses before tax of £116,805,450.That was before the bank guarantee.

In the 15 month period between September 30, 2008 and December 31, 2009, the company had losses before tax of £1,197,670,982, or almost £1.2 billion. (In an interim management report in March 2009, the company reported a loss of £972m, including £613m on a Yen deal that went badly wrong). The majority of the £1.2bn loss was from UK investments, £88m was from Mainland Europe. The company had £5.34bn in liabilities up to the end of 2009. Interest and similar income fell from £399m in the 2008 period, to £290m in the 2009 period. Trading losses would make your brain melt. In the 2008 fiscal year it lost £99m in “trading losses”, in the 2009 fiscal year it lost £613m. Provisions for impairment went from £124m to £974m in the 2008 to 2009 period.

Now for derivatives – and as far as I can tell, the taxpayer still holds these.

As of December 31, 2009, AIAF held £2,148,360,000 total derivative financial instruments, of which £1.74bn was interest rate swaps.

AIAF held £3.16bn in loans classified for sale to NAMA at year end 2009. Less provisions for impairment this is £2.3bn. But it was the £3.16bn that was designated on December 31.

Share capital was increased from 300,000,000 shares in 2008 to 3,300,000,000 in 2009. On November 18, 2008, 1,000,000,000 ordinary were issued at par for a consideration of £1 billion and subscnbed by CDB (U K ) Limited, the parent company, thereby increasing ordinary share capital by £1,000,000,000 to £1,220,000,000. Note 28 states:

In order to further strengthen the capital position of the Company, on 18th November 2008, the issued ordinary share capital of the Company was increased by £1,000,000,000. In addition AIBC agreed to the irrevocable write off of £200m of the intercompany loan between AIBC and the Company which has further increased the capital of the Company through the creation of a capital reserve of £200m.

Note 29 is on NAMA (in relation to AIAF’s parent in Dublin):

The transfer of assets to NAMA is a fundamental aspect of AlBC’s restructunng process. AIBC estimates that NAMA will acquire land and development loans and certain associated loans with a value of approximately £3,166m on a gross loan basis (i e before taking account of £864m of loan loss provisions) from the Company. AIBC and the Company have no control over the quantity of eligible assets that NAMA will acquire or over the valuation NAMA will place on those assets. NAMA has not confirmed to AIBC or the Company the total value of eligible assets it expects to purchase or the consideration it will pay in respect to those assets.

NAMA appear to have applied the following (Note 29):

Total assets as classified for sale, neither impaired or past due: £451m
Past due but not impaired: £176m
Impaired: £2.538bn

So let’s put it this way. NAMA have said that 80% of the loans are impaired as of December 2009. And 87% of all loans (either impaired or not) are related to just three sectors, retail (10%), residential development (37) and commercial development (40%).