Joe’s Blog

They are NOT the same family! Aldi North and Aldi South are run by two brothers and the international market has been divided up geographically by them. Aldi comes from “ALbrecht DIscount” and the brothers names are Karl Albrecht und Theo Albrecht. Legend has it that they separated because of a dispute over whether to sell tabacco or not in their stores, but this is not confirmed.

Here is a nice little map of Aldi North and South in Germany:

and the map of Europe. Note: Aldi South operates in Ireland, while Aldi North operates in Spain - those crazy Germans!

Meanwhile Lidl (pronounced Lee-dil, not Lie-dil or Lid-il) operates throughout Europe and the name comes from a man by the name of Ludwig Lidl but it is primarily owned by the Schwarz family. The company also owns Kaufland, KaufMarkt und Handelshof

Another tale of brotherly business competition though - Adolf “Adi” Dassler founded Adidas, while his brother later founded Puma. Both companies still have their headquarters in the small town of Herzogenaurach (population: 23,000)

Via Irland Inside and The Sunday Times
“HSE’s 4-star hotel bill for evicted travellers”

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is picking up the bill for a family of eight travellers who checked themselves into Dublin’s Citywest hotel after being evicted from their home in Clondalkin earlier this month.

The Doherty family booked into the four-star hotel on June 20 and the HSE has since agreed to fund the cost of at least €2,000 a week.

The easy and funny argument Spoofers guide to the Lisbon treaty HT: Paul Browne

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If we vote yes to Lisbon the EU will work better. It will work for us in the areas of energy, immigration and sport amongst others which are added as competences. In times where energy prices are rising and climate change needs to be tackled by EU member states together, these changes are needed sooner rather than later. Immigration is better dealt with together and things like people-trafficking and exploitation can be tackled. Decision making will be faster, more democratic, more open and transparent. A stronger EU is good for us economically, socially and culturally as it has been for the past 35 years and this is a step forward (albeit without a direct cash incentive). We are part of the EU and please vote yes to keep us part of it.

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If we vote no, Ireland may well be seen as eurosceptic, self-interested and obstructive. There is absolutely no guarantee that we can even renegotiate the treaty. This treaty has been negotiated for many, many years and each change has been fought for vigorously by 27 countries. Going back wouldn’t just be for us. Other countries could re-open negotiations too. As The Guardian notes

There is a strong view that after struggling to get this treaty for so long, the rest of Europe would simply decide to go ahead without the Irish.

If 490 million citizens wish to accept Lisbon via their elected parliaments - who are we to hold them back? We already do not participate in the Schengen Agreement (abolition of border controls), the UK is not part of the Euro Zone while Norway isn’t even in the EU but has access to the common market via the EEA, is oart of Schengen and implements almost all EU directives. Voting no (for the 2nd time) is a clear indication that Ireland is either not willing or able to ratify EU treaties and other states can bolster the argument that enhanced cooperation is needed to allow those member states that are willing to move forward. A no vote increases the likelihood of enhanced cooperation (Ireland isn’t excluded because a rule of enhanced cooperation is that it is open for any state to join when they wish)

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The NO arguments have not convinced me to date. If anything, they have convinced me that the biggest opponents of the EU don’t want this passed for various reasons - from the extreme left to the extreme right, the fundamentalists and the people who profit from a weak and divided Europe.

First off, corporation tax, arguably the most important factor for multinationals moving here, along with our access to EU markets and educated, english-speaking workforce. Without the EU market, the tax would be meaningless.
Our veto on our corporation tax rate is rock solid It is a direct tax and is a fiscal policy which the European Court of Justice has ruled is a matter for member states, not the EU.

Article 93 of the Lisbon Treaty opens another door to EU tax meddling. Where national differences in company tax lead to “distortion of competition”, it would enable the European Court of Justice to apply the internal market rules on competition, where majority voting applies, to matters of corporation tax thus bypassing our much touted “Tax Veto”, which is relevant to tax harmonization but not other key aspects of Ireland’s tax policy. - Libertas.org

Article 93 clearly states that it applies to indirect taxes, which corporation tax is NOT!

On Questions and Answers, Declan Ganley and Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein changed tack and claimed that enhanced cooperation would lead to our veto being bypassed. This is totally misleading and has nothing to do with the Lisbon Treaty. Lisbon changes nothing with regard to enhanced cooperation apart from increasing the minimum number of countries involved from 8 to 9. Approval of Enhanced Cooperation has been QMV for years and will be whether we vote yes or no afterwards. The Irish Times explains it well too

What is clear, however, is that the Lisbon Treaty doesn’t change the rules on enhanced co-operation or on corporate tax. Tax experts also suggest that groups of EU member states can already club together and try to renegotiate their bilateral tax treaties with Ireland outside the EU framework to create their own common consolidated tax base.

Furthermore, the common consolidated tax base as proposed refers to the method of how taxes are calculated as opposed to the rates. Other countries are opposed to this either in principle like Sweden and the UK or because of their own low corporation tax rates like many Eastern European states.
Rejecting Lisbon does nothing to protect our corporation tax rate unless pissing off our allies somehow helps…

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The commissioner debate is another red herring. In the next commission there will not be a commissioner for every member state, with or without Lisbon. This is because there are now 27 EU member states and Nice stated that once that number is reached, a system of rotation of commissioners must be agreed. Lisbon only defines how commissioners are rotated. Note that big countries like Germany, France and the UK have signed up to exactly the same rights to nominate a commissioner as us. They have even gone from 2 commissioners to 1 as recently as 2005. Furthermore, commissioners are not national representatives. The treaties specify that they must work independently of national governments and groups. Ireland is represented as a country in the Council where Ireland has a veto and a voting weight. Ireland resolves disputes with a commissioner such as Mandelson at the Council of Ministers where it can use its veto.

“The Members of the Commission shall be chosen on the grounds of their general competence and their independence shall be beyond doubt.

As Nice has been ratified already, any system of rotation could be agreed from my understanding of this text (with or without Lisbon)

The number of Members of the Commission shall be less than the number of Member States. The Members of the Commission shall be chosen according to a rotation system based on the principle of equality, the implementing arrangements for which shall be adopted by the Council, acting unanimously.

The number of Members of the Commission shall be set by the Council, acting unanimously” - Nice Treaty

Voting No does not prevent rotation of Commissioners

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Privatisation of public services, health and education is another argument thrown out to scare people. But the treaty explicitly states

The provisions of the Treaties do not affect in any way the competence of Member States to provide, commission and organise non-economic services of general interest.

and even if people argue over whether health and education are or aren’t non-economic services, the treaty states that the shared values of the Union in respect of services of general economic interest include

the essential role and the wide discretion of national, regional and local authorities in
providing, commissioning and organising services of general economic interest as closely as
possible to the needs of the users

Lisbon does not force the privatisation of public services
Also, the European Court of Justice reinforces the right of member states to provide things like health services - Case C-222/04 Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze [2006]

Health services are also part of the wider framework on services of general interest. Article 152 of the Treaty makes clear that Community action in the field of health services must respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the organisation, financing and delivery of health services and medical care

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Agriculture Veto - opponents often say we’re losing the veto on agriculture (or on the WTO talks). Fact is that the veto on agriculture has been gone for 10 years. This isn’t part of Lisbon at all! We have a veto on WTO talks because it relates to services too and because we have a veto in that area, we can veto a WTO agreement.
Voting no to Lisbon does not affect the WTO veto or agriculture ‘veto’. It only serves to piss our allies off, at a time when we need allies to get a good WTO agreement and there is a CAP ‘health-check’ coming up soon too. Things like milk quotas are also being reviewed and we need allies, not enemies in Europe!

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The nonsense about Lisbon leading to abortion, conscription etc. being introduced. I’m disappointed that people are using such wild and upsetting scare tactics.

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When I heard a lot of these arguments, I was surprised and concerned. Concerned enough to read the treaty and look for explanations. Time after time, the arguments have proven to be unrelated to Lisbon or distortion of Lisbon itself. The NO campaign has been deliberately scaremongering and the Yes side has struggled to clarify facts convincingly from an opposition that has been given the benefit of the doubt.

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UPDATE: How could I leave out the scaremongering about this being the last referendum because it’s a self-amending treaty…well that is stretching the truth more than a little.
From the referendum commission;

The Lisbon Treaty now proposes to give the European Council (Heads of Government) the power to propose changes to certain parts of the governing Treaties. Any such changes cannot increase the competence of the EU. Any such proposals must be agreed unanimously by the European Council. This means that any national government may veto such a proposal. If the European Council does agree a proposed change, then in order for it to come into effect, it must be ratified by the Member States in accordance with their own constitutional traditions. This may require a referendum in Ireland as happens at present.

UPDATE 2:And voting no because other countries aren’t having referenda! I believe we should respect the constitutions and elected representatives of other EU member states.

Should we have rejected past EU treaties because some countries ratified them without a referendum?
Should we keep rejecting treaties until we have forced every country to have a referendum on Lisbon?
Places like Switzerland have referenda on non-constitutional laws regularly. Are Ireland’s laws undemocratic or invalid because we didn’t have a referendum on each law?

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Finally, the text is complicated because it deals with a lot of complicated issues and life is complicated. It is taking account of the wishes and concerns of 27 member states. It is readable and a consolidated version makes it a lot easier. But the information is by no means hidden and there are lots of information booklets and sites explaining what it is. The NO side are confusing the electorate and scaremongering but I hope you’ve come to see that their arguments don’t hold up and their motives are questionable. The voices of reason are advocating a yes vote

When I was in Germany, I took part in a driving-safety course at the ADAC Centre in Linthe

The course covered some useful issues such as emergency braking in the dry and the wet, the effect of ABS and ESP and braking on slippery surfaces going downhill and on bends.

This video shows one of the participants trying to avoid jets of water that pop up randomly. You can barely see how the wheels lock up and ABS kicks in to unlock them. Unfortunately for that car, it was on “summer” tyres and wasn’t half as good as cars on the softer winter tyres. Whatever about electronics, the right tyres can make a difference of 40 yards when braking even at a reasonable speed.

One rather unusual thing about the German license too - it never expires! They have a date of birth, a date for when the card was issued and a simple dash for 4b (expiry date).

It also fits nicely into a wallet

Via Simon Coveney newsletter, 23rd May 2008

On Questions and Answers on the 12th May, when I was one of the panel of speakers, a Sinn Fein councillor claimed that under Lisbon Ireland would lose its ability to veto the World Trade Talks outcome, insisting that Article 188 if the Lisbon Treaty would mean that WTO talks would be approved by QMV, meaning that Ireland could be outvoted. If true (or if Sinn Fein manages to create the impression that it is true) it could do considerable damage to the support for the Lisbon Treaty among farmers and in rural Ireland.

I have checked with the Department of Foreign Affairs. They have confirmed the Sinn Fein claim is incorrect in two areas:

Firstly, even if the Treaty did change whether Ireland could veto a WTO deal (as explained later that does not change) the current deal, unless the talks are delayed beyond 1st January 2009 – which is unlikely – will come up for approval under current Nice rules.

Secondly, the World Trade Talks involves three different areas:

1. Agriculture
2. Industrial Products
3. Services

Under current Treaty rules, Agriculture and Industrial Products both already involve QMV, and have “always done so”. Services involves unanimity.

Under current European Community rules (the talks are carried out by the Community, not the Union, as the former not the latter has the legal personality to enable it to enter into contractual negotiations. That will change under Lisbon with the granting of legal personality to the Union) if one of the categories being negotiated on is covered by unanimity the final approval of the entire text must take place by unanimity.

That is clearly the case under WTO, as unanimity is used for the Services area. Therefore, while Ireland cannot itself veto the Agriculture segment of the deal, it can veto the entire deal, so axing the Agriculture deal in the process. That will not change under Lisbon. Ireland can block future WTO deal if it wishes once, as it invariably does happen, the negotiations contain a section covered by unanimity.

Quotes:

“Nothing in the treaty changes WTO negotiations and the EU stance on WTO negotiations will depend on the unanimous decisions of the member states.” Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, speaking in the National Forum on Europe, 14th April 2008.

“The Member States will decide by unanimity – if they support or not the Doha conclusion; the WTO agreement.” Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, speaking at the National Forum on Europe, 17th April 2008.

It is a sign of desperation when people try to excuse the behaviour of Bertie Ahern by comparing it with Garret FitzGerald having £200,000 written off by AIB like Eoghan Harris did on the Late Late Show (28th March ‘08)

What is not said, is how the Moriarty Tribunal investigated this matter including FitzGerald’s personal financial situation during their work. They found that FitzGerald had to effectively sell everything to pay his debts and the rest was written off.

To say that he acted improperly or dishonestly beggars belief in my humble opinion

Via Semper Idem and page 48 of The Moriarty Report

In summary it would appear that in compromising his indebtedness with the Bank, Dr. Fitzgerald disposed of his only substantial asset, namely, his family home at Palmerston Road, a property which would now be worth a considerable sum of money. As in Mr. Haughey’s case, there was a substantial discounting or forbearance shown in Dr. Fitzgerald’s case. However in contrast with Mr. Haughey’s case, Dr. Fitzgerald’s case involved the effective exhaustion of his assets in order to achieve a settlement whereas Mr. Haughey’s assets were retained virtually intact.

Although Dr. Fitzgerald continued to enjoy an income from writing, lecturing and consultancy work, he had considerable outgoings, particularly in relation to his wife’s declining health, and he was, in terms of the debt he faced, not a wealthy man. The sole asset of substance was the mortgaged family home at Palmerston Road, Dublin 6; an agreement was entered into with his son, Mr. Mark Fitzgerald, whereby the latter sold his nearby family home, and purchased the Palmerston Road premises, with a view to converting it into accommodation for both families.

An independent valuation had assessed the price with vacant possession at £200,000.00, but discounted to £150,000.00 if Dr. Fitzgerald and his wife took up residence in an upstairs flat. That sum was paid to Dr. Fitzgerald, but by the time he had discharged the mortgage, contributed to the re-conversion works and paid certain other liabilities, he was left with a residue of only approximately £30,000.00
…
Dr. Fitzgerald had initially been hopeful of discharging his indebtedness in full through income, but Mr. Dowling had had to dash those hopes as unrealistic, and was given reluctant permission to approach the Bank with a view to settlement.
…
He offered the £30,000.00 in settlement of the debt, in response to which the Bank concluded that a cash settlement was preferable to expending such limited assets as were available on legal costs, but sought an increase to a sum of £40,000.00. This was accepted, paid and, other than realising the very limited value of the shares pledged, the remaining securities released. Regarding the course taken by Mr. Mark Fitzgerald and his wife in ease of Dr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Dowling stated that he viewed it as one of the great acts of selfless family solidarity that he had experienced.

UPDATE:
Harris has printed his comments in the Independent

Second, how come the Mahon anoraks are so adamantly sceptical about Ahern’s finances and so mellow about how AIB, bailed out former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald in 1993 by writing off bad debts to the tune of IR£200,000 — ironically the same amount as the alleged IR£200,000 in Ahern’s account?

Via RTE: Trichet looks to Asian, oil crises for lessons

Trichet stressed repeatedly today that the ECB saw its role amid the turmoil as one of anchoring inflation expectations, making clear that an interest rate cut called for by some investors and politicians should not be expected in the near future

‘If we don’t learn the lessons of the past we will find ourselves faced with the same problems that we encountered during the first oil crisis,’ when countries responded to higher prices by raising wages and salaries, he said.

That had fuelled an inflation spiral, choking off growth and causing widespread, stubborn unemployment that dogged Europe for decades. ‘Never forget, mass unemployment in Europe started with the very bad reaction after the first oil shock’ in 1973, Trichet noted.

Note too that the German economy hasn’t slowed yet and the metal industry there is experiencing the strongest boom in decades. Even the Ifo index has increased this month showing that the business climate has improved in March instead of getting worse.

As flagged by the angry hedgehog and now there is a facebook event

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OUT IN UL-The University of Limerick’s Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Society presents ‘QUEERBASH V’

Out In UL, the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Society in the University of Limerick, will be hosting the 5th Annual Queerbash event on Friday 22nd February 2008 in Baker’s Place & Underground, Limerick. ‘Queerbash’ is a fundraising and social event for the LGBT community in Limerick and the Mid-West.

Queerbash 5 is geared up to be another success, as it has been for the previous 4 years. It will build on these achievements by continuing to use the event as a means for Outreach within the Lesbian, Gay & Bi-Sexual Community in the Mid-West, but also to those who are straight who just want to come along for a fantastic evening of fun in a safe and controlled environment. There will be 2 DJ’s downstairs battling it out, whilst a Charity Auction will take place, with all proceeds going to Rainbow Support Services-an LGBT resource Centre in Limerick City.

Out In UL, provides support for the LGB students on the campus of UL, as well as an active awareness program of LGB issues, chief among which lies the concept of Violence towards the Gay community. The title of the event, “Queerbash”, represents a recognition of this violence, which is still ongoing within our society-Some 41% of people in a 2006 survey on Hate Crimes claimed to be a victim. Of that group, nearly 50% suffered a Physical Attack. (Source: Johnny, Hate Crimes Report 2006, Dublin: 2006). Queerbash is about raising the profile of such attacks and reneging the victim status which becomes attached to a person who has been attacked because of their sexual orientation.

The Society is also involved with other LGBT’s across the country, many of whom will be in attendance at this event which is one of the longest run & premier student-run LGBT events in the country.

The Event will be run this year in conjunction with “Baby Blue Training” Conference, which is another LGBT event being hosted by Out In UL, with support from NUI Maynooth and Kildare LGBT this year. This Conference will feature workshops, discussions on various LGBT issues arising in Ireland including city vs country life, Civil Marriage Rights and Health Issues.

Tickets cost 5EUR before 11pm and 8EUR after. For further information contact outinul@yahoo.ie or see http://heaven.skynet.ie

Key Facts:

* Date: 22nd February 2008.
* Venue: Baker Place/Underground, Limerick.
* 5th Anniversary of ‘Queerbash’ which grows more successful and bigger every year.
* Event is for all persons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual or Straight, of an open mindset.
* Being run as part of ‘Baby Blue Training’, an LGBT Conference with NUIM & Kildare LGBT.

Because the West Link Toll Bridge has just been sold to the government for €420 million. It was built for €38 million.

Fred Barry, the Chief Executive of the State agency National Roads Authority (NRA), told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee in early 2006, that lawyers had advised the NRA that the 1987 contract was so vague that there were no remedies to take NTR to task on issues such as the standard of service.

Former EU Commissioner Padraig Flynn and disgraced ex-planning official George Redmond, signed the controversial deal for the operation of the West-Link Toll Bridge with National Toll Roads Ltd, in August 1987. - finfacts

If just one “mistake” like this can be prevented, it would pay for many, many tribunals