December 10, 2009

Ringsend Death Risk is 20-80 Times Higher With Poolbeg Incinerator.




Added Air Pollution From Poolbeg Incinerator 
May Increase Deaths Twenty To Forty Times.





Chart: Relative risk of deep vein thrombosis from fine particulate matter.







Interpretation


Bord Pleanála acknowledges that the current air pollution burden in Poolbeg from PM-10 air pollution particles is already at the dangerous level of 50 µg/m3.  A Poolbeg Incinerator will increase air pollution above 50 µg/m3, increasing the number of deaths from heart problems and possibly from various cancers.


For Ringsend/Poolbeg the existing air pollution level causes the risk of death from deep vein thrombosis to be ten to twenty times higher than in a relatively clean-air suburb (see chart: read this science).   Added air pollution from an incinerator will increase the relative death risk towards the 20 to 40 times higher level.


Politicians have ignored the science, ignored the scientists in Bord Pleanala and EPA-Ireland, recklessly sidelined Health Impact Reports and decided Poolbeg is an excellent location for further toxic air pollution from a Waste-To-Toxics incinerator!  It's a safe bet the politicians did this via the director level political cronies they appointed to Bord Pleanala and in EPA.   


  • Dublin City Council's Poolbeg Sewage Factory is managed by politicians.  A Poolbeg incinerator managed to the same incompetent standard will increase the relative death risk by20 to 40 times (even 80 times).
  • You can not prove air pollution particles have damaged your health.





Deadliest Particles are Smaller Than PM-10


The May 2008 Italian research is for PM10 particles.   Governments make sure not to measure the even more deadly PM2.5 and PM1.0 particles.   This is cynical preparation for the "no evidence" excuse used by industry experts, a tobacco industry best-practice.


The EPA-Ireland website does not list site-specific-sources of deadly PM pollution at Poolbeg.  The EPA-USA has similar data on-line. 

Footnote:  The Irish Independent reported in early-2009 that the former Ten Year Director of EPA-Ireland had been hired by Covanta/Energy-Answers.  That West Dublin incinerator was cancelled.


__________________________________________
Science


Vol. 168 No. 9, May 12, 2008
Original Investigation

Exposure to Particulate Air Pollution and Risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis

Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD; Ida Martinelli, MD; Antonella Zanobetti, PhD; Paolo Grillo, MD; Li-Fang Hou, PhD; Pier A. Bertazzi, MD; Pier Mannuccio Mannucci, MD; Joel Schwartz, PhD

Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(9):920-927

Result
Each increase of 10 µg/m3 in PM10 was associated with a 70% increase in
deep vein thrombosis risk.

___________________________________

The chart demonstrates the observed relationship between the relative risk of DVT and the level of particulate matter of less than 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) in the year preceding the diagnosis.

These results suggest a linear relationship between exposure and risk, though the 95% confidence intervals (shaded areas) are wide at the extremes of exposure. Risk is depicted in comparison with a reference value of 12.0 µg/m3 (minimum observed PM10 level).

The histogram in the bottom part illustrates the density of exposure distribution for air pollution. 


Risk estimates are adjusted for age, sex, year of diagnosis, area of residence, body mass index, education, current use of oral contraceptives or hormone therapy, Leiden V or prothrombin mutations, season, and ambient temperature.

__________________________________________
Check It Yourself at:    http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/168/9/920



Reposted December 2009.

December 5, 2009

Absurd Puff Piece on Dublin Docklands "Governance Expert".


Pitched by DDDA Governance Expert's Fired-PD Husband. 

Coming Soon: Purpled Schools. Pinstriped Taxpayer Cash, Fools Ethics. Crooks Governance.


The Irish Independent has a piece of spin which could have been written by the farcical DDDA itself (Saturday December 05 2009). Or NAMA.  Or Anglo-Irish Bank.  Or any other capitalist tool still looking for a socialised multi-billion Euro taxpayer killing in Poolbeg's flood-plains. 

Newspapers in Ireland are in serious financial trouble.  During the Property Pyramid Scheme mid-week newspapers had 50 pages of guff posing as journalism.   A regenerated Pyramid Scheme in Poolbeg would generate extra advertising revenue from speculators and from NAMA-DDDA.


" with the financial support of the government  ... the project can be restored to financial health and our mandate completed".  - Absurd DDDA Hierarchy.

DDDA's mighty fine work with Anglo-Irish created a €250 million taxpayer liability - this totally removes any mandate DDDA once possessed.  The alleged governance expert seems to possess the unbelievable view that even more taxpayer money should be diverted from hospitals to restart DDDA's scheming in Poolbeg.  DDDA has already lost €250 Million.  Under the one remaining PD electee Hospitals are closing wards (Mullingar).

Absurdly for an investigative newspaper the article on the alleged governance expert totally omits and does not explain why the governance expert and DDDA's Hierarchy permitted DDDA's account to be withheld for 320 days until the very day of publication of Judge Murphy's Report into the cover-up by the Church Hierarchy of Child Rape.  It takes a totally unreformed hierarchy to manage the news by cynically taking cover behind the cover of another dodgy hierarchy.  Lots of fine words - but apparently nothing beyond the purely cosmetic has changed.  Ask Bob Geldof about The Purple & The Pinstripe of The Banana Republic.

The purple and the pinstripe
Mutely shake their heads

A silence shrieking volumes
A violence worse than they condemn

Stab you in the back yeah
Laughing in your face

Glad to see the place again
It's a pity nothing's changed



Curiously a sister paper (Herald:Friday, Dec 4) just regurgitated some very old news about Lar & Seanie and the well known story of an expensed trip to the City with the Banana Bar (DDDA's reformed board now trains staff with mangoes; bananas are out in the brave new world of ethical governance).  Lots of names are mentioned by the Herald.  Why?  To divert attention from something more important?  Have whistle-blowers been fired or scapegoated?


The Irish Independent's unnamed author does not mention these sample and continuing perceived or potential conflicts of interest at DDDA:
ARUP paid by DDDA for consulting at IGB

ARUP within DDDA's labyrinth governance structure.

McNamara's sisters company with partner within DDDA's labryinth governance structure.
McNamara a speculator with DDDA at the IGB site (€450 million taxpayer hit).
No doubt the organisations are fully above board.  However how can DDDA with its record take this risk with public perceptions? 


"Ireland's leading corporate governance expert"
Is this oxymoronic spin?  The article repeats the sound-bite that "Brennan, professor of accountancy at UCD, has long been recognised as Ireland's leading corporate governance expert".

This may or may not be true.  No evidence is presented for this opinion.  This apparent spin is continuously trotted out by Green-FF spin-meisters without supporting evidence.  Perhaps it is Ireland's Financial Regulator who holds this opinion.  However in the current context of national bankruptcy surely the fired financial regulator would acknowledge that 'Ireland's leading corporate governance expert' is a seriously unfunny oxymoron.

Without validation the statement is simply perceived to be a part of The Big Lie technique.  It only serves to reinforce the established perceptions, however fair or otherwise, that DDDA is rotten to the core.   DDDA still appears to treat the public with contempt, like their sister hierarchy.


"She plans to introduce a draconian ethics code for board members "
.
The article does not examine why sometime-in-the-future standards appear to be restricted only to board members. What about the Tamanny Hall challenge - the perception or possibility that DDDA-embedded councillors or their parties will trade votes for 'social housing' allocated by DDDA in sites where DDDA has total power to issue non-contestable planning permits. The social housing will rescue developers using taxpayer money.




"In fairness to Brennan, she isn't afraid to practice what she preaches".

There is again no evidence for this statement.  Is it true?   Forensic accounting and corporate governance demand evidence.


"Soon after being appointed to the DDDA she quit as a director of Ulster Bank."

How is that a virtue?  The article omits to mention why it took several months before the minimal action finally happened, and there is no examination about the possibilites that non-formal relationships will continue.

There is no mention that Ulster Bank financed a large property in Poolbeg (The Fabrizia site which ZOE Developments acquired for a song from AIB after AIB curiously acquired the 12 acres of public beach for an 'AIB sports field').



Associations with the PD-lead salty-dream for turning Poolbeg's flood-plains into the local Island of Ireland by Dubai World are not examined at all.  This is most curious.



Perhaps Shane Ross could take another look at the DDDA to follow up on his excellent work in early 2008 exposing the DDDA's now accepted to be dodgy governance.

The perception of a PD-related person leading governance standards at Poolbeg is absurd.  [This is a non-sense statement linking to non-sense youtube video, much like DDDA's withheld 2008 accounts].


Banama Republic of Poolbeg


 _____________________

The Puff Piece on DDDA Governance

Practising what she preaches

Accountancy professor is putting her stamp on a troubled semi-state

Saturday December 05 2009
The disastrous results from the Dublin Dockland Development Authority, which has written off €186m against bad property investments, has turned the spotlight on its chairman, UCD professor Niamh Brennan. With its balance sheet wiped out, the DDDA will need state support if it is to survive.
When she was appointed DDDA chairman last March it was widely believed that the semi-state body, which was established in 1997 to oversee the regeneration of Dublin's docklands, was in trouble. However, it was not until it belatedly published its 2008 results last week that the full extent of the docklands disaster became apparent.
The DDDA's results weren't bad. They were utterly catastrophic. On top of operating losses of €27m, it wrote down its property assets by a massive €186m to bring its total 2008 losses to €213m. As a result, its assets now exceed its liabilities by €48m.
If the DDDA were privately-owned it would have long since gone bust. It is only the prospect of state support which is keeping it in business, something Brennan herself implicitly acknowledged when she stated that: "Despite the steps we're taking, the situation is clearly very serious.
"However, with the financial support of the government and with a radically different approach to the job in hand, the board believes that the project can be restored to financial health and our mandate completed."
So how did things go so utterly wrong at the DDDA?
The DDDA is a unique hybrid. Not alone is it a state development agency like the IDA or Shannon Development, it is also, uniquely, its own planning authority. With 1,300 acres of prime real estate to redevelop, conferring planning powers on the DDDA might have seemed like a good idea in 1997.
Unfortunately, this combination of virtually unfettered planning powers and the greatest property bubble in Irish history, something which could not have been foreseen in 1997, was to sow the seeds of the disaster which has overwhelmed the authority.
What could and should have been foreseen were the potential risks of appointing not one but two directors of Anglo Irish Bank, Lar Bradshaw and Sean FitzPatrick, to the DDDA board. Bradshaw, who served as DDDA chairman until April 2007, was also a director of Anglo from 2004 to 2009, while FitzPatrick, who also stepped down from the DDDA board in 2007, was Anglo chief executive from 1986 to 2004 and chairman from 2005 to 2009.
Both were forced to quit the Anglo board in December 2008 when huge concealed loans from Anglo to FitzPatrick came to light.
However, it wasn't until January 2007 when the DDDA teamed up with Bernard McNamara, Derek Quinlan and Davy Private Clients to pay an astronomical €412m for the 24-acre former Irish Glass Bottle factory in Ringsend, that the full risks posed by the DDDA's incestuous relationship with Anglo became apparent.
The consortium, which was called Becbay, subsequently paid a further €30m to decontaminate the site.
Even at the time it was widely reckoned that the DDDA and its partners had massively over-paid for the Glass Bottle site. Even more worrying was the fact that Anglo, lent Becbay €288m to help fund the purchase. It has emerged that both Bradshaw and FitzPatrick, while declaring their interest in advance, participated in the October 2006 DDDA board meeting which approved its involvement in the deal.
Now the chickens have come home to roost. The 2008 DDDA annual report reveals that estate agents Lisney recently valued the Irish Glass Bottle site at just €50m, a mere 12pc of the original purchase price. As a result, the DDDA, which has a 26pc stake in the Becbay consortium, has written down its Glass Bottle site investment by a massive €117m.
Almost three years after the deal was completed important questions still remain unanswered. Appearing before the Oireachtas Environment Committee this week Brennan didn't pull her punches, remarking that it was "absolutely clear that there were systematic conflicts of interest".
She then went on to say: "I'm not fully clear myself as to what was going on behind the scenes".
Ever since details of the Irish Glass Bottle site debacle began to emerge in 2008 it has been clear that the DDDA was in urgent need of some serious house-cleaning. Unfortunately, things didn't exactly get off to a good start.
Bradshaw's successor as DDDA chairman, Donal O'Connor, followed him on to the Anglo board in June 2008. When FitzPatrick was forced to quit as Anglo chairman he was replaced by O'Connor, who resigned from the the DDDA board.
O'Connor's replacement as DDDA chairman, businessman Gerry McCaughey, lasted all of three weeks before being forced to resign when it was revealed that he had, perfectly legally, avoided paying capital gains tax on the €67m sale of his business, Century Homes, to Kingspan in 2005.
With the affairs of the authority threatening to degenerate into a farce, Environment Minister John Gormley couldn't afford to get it wrong again.
Instead, he crossed party lines and appointed Niamh Brennan, the wife of his long-time political rival Michael McDowell, to the DDDA chair.
Brennan, professor of accountancy at UCD, has long been recognised as Ireland's leading corporate governance expert. During the boom years not many people in either business or government took the subject terribly seriously. Brennan, whose personal style is best described as earnest, could expect a respectful hearing whenever she called for higher corporate governance standards -- which was quite often -- but not much more.
Now that the true cost of our lackadaisical attitude towards low standards in high places has become apparent, Brennan's calls for higher standards of corporate governance no longer seem so quixotic.
In fairness to Brennan, she isn't afraid to practice what she preaches.
Soon after being appointed to the DDDA she quit as a director of Ulster Bank. Having once been described as someone who never served on a committee that she couldn't dominate, Brennan quickly moved to put her stamp on the DDDA with chief executive Paul Maloney announcing his "early retirement" in July.
She plans to introduce a draconian ethics code for board members. They will in future be barred from accepting any hospitality from or socialising with people who might have a business relationship with the authority.
Whether this will have any real impact or merely amounts to closing the stable door after the proverbial horse has bolted remains to be seen.
With the DDDA's Becbay partners being beaten dockets, it is likely to find itself on the receiving end of several legal actions. With its implicit state guarantee the DDDA offers those who lost money on the Ringsend deal the best chance of recovering at least some of their investment. Already the Davy investors are suing McNamara and he, in turn, is suing the DDDA.
Stand by for plenty more legal activity in the months ahead.
Having lectured us for decades on the need for higher standards of corporate governance, Brennan now has the opportunity to put her theories into practice.
Irish Independent





December 3, 2009

Gormley Lies In Dail About Poolbeg Incinerator Process?



The Gormley

In The Dail on Dec 2, 2009, referring to the proposed Poolbeg Incinerator, Mr J Gormley stated:




Is the above statement tresspassing on a lie? Or simply not fully truthful?  Or just part of the spin process known as The Big Lie?


  • The Greens have stated the "EPA is utterly compromised" [Boyle]. EPA's "independent" Board contains a former industry employee (Burke of Indaver).  An ex-EPA Director has worked to promote the Poolbeg Incinerator and the failed West Dublin Incinerator.
  • In office Mr Gormley has not corrected EPA's apparently dodgy corporate governance.

  • RPS represents Dublin City Council's incinerator team and has a former RPS employee on the Board of Bord Pleanála 
  • In office Mr Gormley has not corrected Bord Pleanála's apparently dodgy corporate governance. 

    • Compare & contrast:  DDDA and Anglo-Irish Bank.
    • In office Mr Gormley has apparently not corrected DDDA's dodgy corporate governance and supports the non-bankruptcy of the cowboy Anglo-Irish Bank.  Serious potential conflicts remain in place

    _______________

    Green Party Press Release, Issued: 18 July 2004

    http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/search/label/EPA%20Compromise...

    Green Party TD Dan Boyle said today, The appointment of Ms. Burke, having worked with Indaver Ireland, the company proposing the development of a domestic waste incinerator at Carranstown, County Meath and a toxic waste incineration at Ringaskiddy, Cork, utterly compromises the position of the EPA as a body seen by the public as being independent and impartial.

    ______________________________

    http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-12-02.789.0&s=poolbeg+incinerator#g790.10

    Dáil debates

    Wednesday, 2 December 2009

    Poolbeg Incinerator

    Photo of Lucinda CreightonLucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

    I thank the Acting Chairman for the opportunity to raise this matter which is of great importance in my constituency. It is also significant for the people of Dublin and nationally. It relates to the implications of the decision by Dublin City Council, through public private partnership, to commence the construction of an incinerator in the Poolbeg area on 14 December. 

    I am more than disappointed with the Minister, Deputy John Gormley’s behaviour concerning this proposed incinerator in the past two years since he entered the Department of the Environment. When he took up office, I had high hopes and expectations. The high standards he set for his predecessor in Government in our mutual constituency, the then Minister, Michael McDowell, made it very clear that the Minister, Deputy Gormley, expected nothing less from Mr. McDowell, as a member of Cabinet, than to put a stop to the proposed incinerator. In March 2005, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, said the time had come for the Minister to stop bleating and deliver to his constituents as promised.

    It is clear to me there is more than one sheep in Dublin South-East because there has been plenty of bleating from this Minister over the course of the past two years and many years prior to that when he was a very vocal and outspoken Opposition Deputy who was clearly opposed to this incinerator. It is a pity that the high standards the Minister set for the former Minister when he was in office appear not to apply to him in his high office now.
    He has had two opportunities. The first was in the original programme for Government which was negotiated in 2007. I put it on the record then and I called on the Minister to seek agreement from his colleagues in Cabinet to commit to stopping the incinerator at Poolbeg. He failed to do so, but he had a second opportunity some months ago. Again, I hoped and expected that something would be achieved on that occasion, but, yet again, no agreement was secured at Cabinet level. On two occasions the Minister has failed the people of Dublin South-East and has failed me as his colleague because I held him in very high regard.

    On 26 November, the company which was contracted to build the incinerator, Covanta Europe, lodged a notice with Dublin City Council to begin construction. The plan is to start on 14 December. I would like to know what the Minister plans to do about this. There were plenty of reports in the media in recent weeks stating that Dublin City Council has threatened legal action against the Government if it acts to interfere with the process as set out by the council. Has the Minister given any consideration to whether there is an opportunity for the Government to initiate legal proceedings, for example, with an injunction to prevent this preposterous monstrous incinerator from going ahead? Has he consulted the Attorney General?

    I reiterate my point. The approval to build this incinerator will create a monster. The Minister, Deputy Gormley, was very vocal on this issue until 2007 when he became a member of the Cabinet. It is intended that the incinerator will have the capacity to burn 600,000 tonnes of waste on an annual basis. That is far too much. The report carried out by An Bord Pleanála inspector recommended to the board that the capacity of this incinerator should be reduced and, at very minimum, that it should not go ahead as a 600,000 tonne-eating furnace in its proposed format. That was ignored by the board of An Bord Pleanála.

    If we are to take the Minister seriously in his role, both as a constituency Deputy for Dublin South-East and as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, surely the blatant and flagrant ignoring of the recommendations of the internal inspector’s report to An Bord Pleanála merited investigation by him. The Minister had the power and authority to do this but failed to act. I am very disappointed by that. The Minister is in the process of appointing somebody to initiate a review under the powers afforded to him by section 224 of the Local Government Act. Clearly, however, this is an investigation that will be carried out after the horse has bolted. According to a response the Minister gave less than two weeks ago to a parliamentary question I tabled, he had not appointed anybody to carry out the review at that point. I am not aware that he has appointed anybody since then. He may enlighten the House now. Does the Minister propose to appoint somebody after the trucks have trundled down to Poolbeg to begin construction? Will it be in January after the foundations have been laid?

    I do not understand the Minister’s motive or purpose, which appears to be futile. If something is not done before 14 December, we can hang up our boots and regard the development as going ahead. That the Minister has failed to address this is a shocking indictment of him, bearing in mind that he has been in one of the highest offices in the land for more than two years.

    The Irish Waste Management Association agrees with my point on this matter. Any objective observer will see quite clearly that, by having an incinerator of this magnitude, we are disincentivising recycling and waste reduction and negating all the values the Minister’s party and he, as its leader, have espoused for many years. That is very disappointing.


    Photo of John GormleyJohn Gormley (Minister, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Dublin South East, Green Party)

    I was on a television programme some nights ago being harangued by members of Fine Gael who were telling me I should do more about floods. In the audience was a Fine Gael councillor who had rezoned land in a flood plain. I now feel like I did on that night because, as Deputy Creighton will know, it was her party that introduced the legislation to provide for incineration and her party, along with other Opposition parties, that voted for this proposal in 1998. Those are the facts and the difficulties with which I must deal.
    As the Deputy is aware, waste management infrastructure projects are advanced by private sector service providers or by local authorities. It is a matter for the promoters of such projects to seek and obtain the necessary regulatory approvals, i.e. planning permission and a waste licence. In carrying out their functions, planning authorities, including An Bord Pleanála, and the EPA in regard to waste licensing, act independently of the Minister.
     
    Similarly, the commencement notice is a matter for the local authority concerned and its private partner.
    Since taking office, I have continually stressed my twin environmental priorities of dealing with climate change issues and ensuring that we make the necessary quantum leap in how we manage our waste. We must explore the full range of technical solutions in addition to modifying our behaviour in support of sustainable waste management. Undue emphasis on incineration as the cornerstone of waste management policy is detrimental to the development of alternative solutions and the transition to sustainable management of waste and resources. In particular, I am concerned that the provision of excess incinerator capacity can create an economic incentive to send waste to incineration which could effectively have been dealt with by reuse or recycling.

    As a first step in my approach to modernising and reorienting the waste management sector, I arranged for an international consortium of consultants to undertake a comprehensive study on the waste sector, to cover a wide range of issues which will help identify how best to proceed with further efforts to reduce waste levels, improve recycling rates and deliver equitable and cost-effective waste management solutions. On 19 November, I published the consultants’ report. This will be the launching pad for the policies we now need to mark a new departure in our approach to waste management.
    I am discussing with my colleagues in Government proposals to give effect to recommendations of the waste management policy review which will, inter alia, ensure the proper ordering of the waste collection and wider waste management market. I want to provide certainty for those in the waste management sector and a framework within which the necessary legislative changes can be brought forward.
    The quantities of residual waste currently being collected by the Dublin local authorities would not be sufficient to meet the put-or-pay requirement in the incinerator contract into which Dublin City Council has entered. We have recently seen further increases in recycling rates in Dublin with a corresponding drop in residual waste volumes. Importantly, the recommendations of the report published on 19 November, which I intend to implement, will have the effect of further reducing the volumes of residual waste generated and driving more waste towards recycling.
    I am, therefore, concerned that the proposed incinerator will prove to be seriously oversized and that a liability for the ratepayer and taxpayer may ultimately arise. Dublin City Council is in a 25-year contract in regard to the incinerator and any liability is, therefore, potentially very substantial. In these circumstances, I have decided that the most appropriate course of action is to appoint an authorised person under section 224 of the Local Government Acts to conduct a full review of the financial implications of the project for the State in the event that the incinerator is oversized vis-À-vis the quantities of residual waste available in the Dublin area and the quantities controlled by Dublin City Council.

    December 2, 2009

    Mr Quinlan




    Quinlan was one of the best-known faces of the property boom, leading investors such as Riverdance pair Moya Doherty and John McColgan into a series of mega deals across the world. In 2004 he famously wiped the eye of Saudi prince AlWaleed bin Talal when he paid €1.1bn to buy the Savoy Hotel Group.



    Subsequent deals saw Quinlan-fronted groups buy the €1bn-plus Jury's Inns as well as taking a stake in the controversial €412m Irish Glass Bottlers site in Ringsend.




    Quinlan also made enormous personal investments. As the credit markets snapped shut in 2007, he bought a stake in the €1.1bn Citigroup tower in London's Canary Wharf.



    Quinlan has put a number of his personal investments on the market in recent months.

    Last July, he stepped down as chairman of his investment firm Quinlan Private to concentrate on "private investments".



    He then moved with his family to Switzerland.



    - Nick Webb
    http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/quinlan-considers-sale-of-836419bn-santander-hq-1957889.html
    Sunday Independent

    December 1, 2009

    Shock News. Dublin Docklands Arschbishop Announces New €250 Million Taxpayer Liability.

    More Withheld News From Dublin Docklands Developers Autocracy!

    A fair & balanced government report is pasted below this rant.







    where's me banana mango.
    Board Dynamics Have Totally Changed At DDDA.

    'There is no magic wand for DDDA's Board of Monkeys' 
    - Said The Charwoman of the Hanover Quay Monkey House.

    [Accurately Misquoted]



    Last week the publication of DDDA's dodgy accounts exploited Child Rape.  So this week who would expect additional bad news withheld by DDDA's Arschbishop of Governance?  After all DDDA clearly signaled its high Governance Standards by holding back DDDA's 2008 "Accounts" for 320 days until Ireland's Child Rape Day (November 26, 2009).  Will professors teach this progressive democratic standard of governance to the future leaders of Ireland at university?



    Just a few days after the 2008 accounts, DDDA is back spinning.  Or possibly totally lying in line with DDDA-Anglo-Irish-Bank practice.  DDDA says taxpayers must cough up only €250 Million to cover 2010 losses engineered by the Fools & Crooks.  Using government-approved NAMA-Enron-accounting the true figure is thus exactly €999.99 million plus interest, a liability which in no way will be withheld from the public.





    Like the other obstructionist arschbishops DDDA's arschbishop freely admits to feeling the pain of the people.  DDDA's Governance Arschbishop freely admits DDDA is laced with conflicts of interest.  But that's all OK because the conflicts of interest are not really serious because they 'do not result in financial rewards to board members' none of whom has ever owned or directly profited from a flying pig.



    So as implied, who outside the board actually gets the money and other benefits from the finally acknowledged conflicts of interest?

    • Architecture friends-of-friends of the board?
    • ARUP's friends?
    • Who gets the insider tips on autocratic planning diktats?
    • Who gets the insider jobs?
    • Which TDs and Councillors control social housing for supine local votes?
    • What about the deaths from €250 Million worth of closed hospital beds?
    • ETC.




    The conditioned-monkey culture at DDDA has not been rooted out, said the bishop in De Bananen Bar.  Nevertheless in the total absence of even a shred of evidence the governance arschbishop brass-necked this absurdity:




    'the dynamics of the [DDDA] board had changed and was different to how it was in the past.'





    The governance arschbishop thus admits the monkeys are in a different tree looking for mangoes instead of the usual bananas.






    [Image: KPMG Executive Channel Search For DDDA CEO].

    As we speak DDDA is looking for another CEO for the scapegoat opportunity.  The 'dynamics of the board of monkeys has changed and is different to how it was in the past'.    Because this time they will be much more careful.   








    ______________________

    Above Rant As Reported by Theocracy's The Fair & Balanced Broadcaster




    Building and property

    DDDA chair signals further losses

    Tuesday, 1 December 2009 18:12
    The charwoman of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority has told an Oireachtas committee the organisation has written down the value of some of its property by millions of euro and that the body will be in deficit to the tune of nearly €250 million next year.

    The huge losses come after the Authority ,whose board included by directors of Anglo Irish Bank, engaged in massive property speculation. The losses will now have to be picked up by the taxpayer.

     
    Charwoman Niamh Brennan told a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Heritage and Local Government that with time, effort, commitment and focus the business of the DDDA will be brought back on track.



    She said, though, that this would not happen overnight, and there was no magic wand for the DDDA.
    Ms Brennan said no final decision had yet been made on planning regarding the new headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank. She also said the DDDA has new pension liabilities of €6.5m, which she said is less of a deficit than last year, when it amounted to €7.3m.


    She said the dynamics of the board had changed and was different to how it was in the past. Ms Brennan said that, while there are some conflicts of interest, they are not systematic and do not result in financial rewards to board members.


    The meeting was called following the publication last week of the DDDA's annual report and accounts which revealed that the Authority ran an operating deficit of €27m in 2008 as opposed to a €3m surplus in 2007.




    Story from RTÉ Business:
    http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1201/ddda.html





    .

    November 30, 2009

    Footnote on Abusing Working Class Ringsend

    "Poolbeg" is a handy euphemism for Ringsend and Sandymount.  It is noteworthy that "Poolbeg" has apparently been targeted for degradation by Dublin City Council & DDDA, with Ringsend also targeted for abuse by the Catholic Church.  A pedophile priest was transferred to working class Ringsend via working class Donnycarney after deep initiations in Wicklow.

    The hierarchies of these organisations seem to practice a contempt for their flocks.  They flock the flock.

    Institutions such as Dublin Port Company, Dublin City Council, Dublin Developers Autocracy DDDA, EPA and Bord Pleanala are apparently openly acknowledged to be stacked with friends-of-friends of Barftholemew.  DCC and Zoe Developments have even used the same lawyer (absolutely legally of course).    DCC's 'independent' adviser has a former employee placed onto the board of Bord Pleanala.  ETC.

    With some exceptions the walls of obstructionism, stunts, spin and possibly even outright lies, red herring 'reports' and legal threats are fronted by local politicians.



    ___________________
    Bad Joke Of The Day:  Enron's auditors Arthur Anderson Consulting have not been rebranded by the hierarchy as Assenture or Assenter.

    Poolbeg Scams Now At €950 Million.



    A conservative estimate places taxpayer liabilities for shell games in "Poolbeg" at €950 Million.



    Taxpayer liabilities for the "Fabrizia" site owned by Zoe Developments are a Fianna Fail state secret.  Zoe Developments and a myriad of associated companies are in the hole for €2 billion to €4 billion.  So let's guess the taxpayer-NAMA-liability for Fabrizia is only €200 Million.

    The sale of the publicly owned Glass Bottle Site to a private company cost the taxpayers €300 Million.

    DDDA's losses on its "investments" at IGB have cost €100 Million.   This sum excludes the costs in Billions grandfathered by NAMA from the Property Pyramid Scheme for which DDDA was the catalyst.   DDDA grooms locals with bribes labeled 'Community Gain' for which the bankrupt DDDA now conveniently has no more money, apart from the €11 million given to bankrupt Zoe Developments a few months ago.

    Apparently Dublin City Council's secret put-or-pay contract with New Jersey's Covanta, in effective cooperation with an at best supine Minister,  is being used to threaten taxpayers with a €450 Million taxpayer liability for the incinerator.


    Add the numbers up anyway you like.  To be fully professional you must use NAMA's totally accurate off-balance-sheet SPiV accounting, a secret methodology developed by Enron's Special Purpose Entities.  The total then becomes whatever you like.  Or exactly €950 Million.  The independent auditors at Arthur Anderson Consulting will confirm this.

    The United States's EPA decides projects by sticking $8 million into a spreadsheet for each life sacrificed for the common good.  For Poolbeg you can reach an eye-candy €999.99 Million by adding on $8 million for each life lost to the Waste-To-Toxins incinerator.




    ___________________
    Bad Joke Of The Day:  Enron's auditors Arthur Anderson Consulting have not been rebranded by the hierarchy as Assenture or Assenter.

    Dublin Docklands Authority is Nauseous - Irish Times

    Finally The Irish Times has woken up to the DDDA Developers Autocracy.
    • DDDA Exploiting Child Rape Report (paraphrased)
    • DDDA is an example for how NAMA will operate (indirectly stated).




    This Irish Times article mentions DDDA's nauseous tactic of exploiting The Child Rape Report to hide its fully truthful 2008 accounts. 

    Cartoon (C) Steve Bell, The Guardian. 2006


    This view agrees with many articles posted here, including the view that DDDA errors or scams will be repeated by NAMA on an even more massive scale.

    Irish Times Views:
    • The decision to publish the DDDA accounts on the same day as the Murphy report into the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child abuse in Dublin was released only adds to the cynicism.

    • Ministers were so incompetent, naive or "whatever"  (Does the author mean wholesale fraud?  'Were' or 'are' ?)

    • The Government is shortly to announce the membership of the board of Nama. If they are not up to the job, the consequences for Ireland are potentially cataclysmic.


    Honourable mentions include:
    • Howlin 
    • Dempsey  
    • Martin Cullen, 
    • Dick Roche
    • John Gormley   
    • FitzPatrick
    • Bradshaw




    ____________

    Docklands disaster serves as warning on Nama

    Mon, Nov 30, 2009
    BUSINESS OPINION: Having two Anglo Irish directors on the docklands authority board was a big mistake, writes JOHN McMANUS

    IT’S A measure of how conditioned we’ve become to failure and incompetence in public life that the revelation by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) that it has blown €213 million of taxpayers’ money is met in the most part by weary shrugs and eye-rolling.

    The decision to publish the DDDA accounts on the same day as the Murphy report into the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child abuse in Dublin was released only adds to the cynicism.

    Some might argue it is the only clever thing the Government has done with respect to the authority in years. But of course it’s not really clever, it’s just nauseating.

    When confronted with the enormity of the disaster that is the authority, the impulse is to start calling for a public inquiry and to send in the Director of Corporate Enforcement.
    There would doubtless be much for the director or any other investigator to ponder at the authority.

    First and foremost is the way in which the organisation became involved in the Glass Bottle Site deal and is now being set up to be the patsy for the whole thing. It has gone from being some sort of junior partner to the prime target of the raft of litigation surrounding the collapse of the billion-euro project.

    This leads of course to what is arguably the bigger scandal: how the authority was granted and allowed to exercise draconian planning powers without anyone bothering to check if they were legal or at least bullet-proofing them against legal challenge.

    Instead, following a successful challenge to one of its rulings, the docklands authority has been found to have been acting outside its powers and facing all sorts of litigation. The only saving grace is that presumably the rights to the litigation will pass to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), along with the bankrupt developments in question.
    But in truth, we probably don’t need an inquiry to tell us what went wrong at the authority, although it would be nice to see the perpetrators of this piece of financial and social vandalism held to account.

    We already have an explanation and it’s to be found in the Chinese proverb about the inevitability of getting up with fleas if you lie down with dogs.
    With hindsight, what else might you have expected if you put people like Seán FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw on the board of a State company with carte blanche to develop some of the State’s most valuable real estate?

    It was a gamble to appoint FitzPatrick in particular. He brought with him drive, dealmaking, contacts and, above all, ambition. These are not qualities usually associated with State agencies and held out the prospect of something special happening in the docks.

    It is now apparent that the same blind spots and personal failings that caused so much damage to Anglo Irish Bank wreaked havoc at the docklands authority.
    If you follow this chain of argument, the real question is, who appointed him and his fellow board members and why?
    Step forward the Minister for the Environment and the Government. For the record, Bradshaw was appointed in May 1997 by Brendan Howlin, while FitzPatrick was appointed the following year by Noel Dempsey. FitzPatrick replaced Jim Lacey, who resigned over the scandal at National Irish Bank.

    Howlin and Dempsey can argue that it was unreasonable to expect them to see the danger inherent in appointing FitzPatrick.
    It’s a fair point, although the truth is that FitzPatrick had the whiff of sulphur about him back then too, but nobody cared because he was so successful.

    But even if you cut Howlin and Dempsey some slack over the initial appointments, there is nowhere for Dempsey or his successors – Martin Cullen, Dick Roche and John Gormley – to hide over the appointment by FitzPatrick of Bradshaw to the board of Anglo in 2004 (on Roche’s watch).

    The failure of successive Ministers to question the sense of having two Anglo directors on the board of the docklands authority is the crucial mistake. It was the equivalent of handing over the keys to a toyshop to a couple of children.

    The error appears to have been compounded by not appointing other directors with the judgment or stature to rein in Bradshaw and FitzPatrick. The failure to address this problem put the authority in a different league from most other State agencies and boards, populated as they are with unqualified placemen and other beneficiaries of political patronage.

    There are two broad explanations that can be put on this, neither very palatable. The first is that the Ministers were so incompetent, naive or whatever that they did not see the danger.
    The other is that they were alive to the problem, but did nothing for some reason, political expediency being the most likely.

    The Government is shortly to announce the membership of the board of Nama. If they are not up to the job, the consequences for Ireland are potentially cataclysmic. They had better do it right this time.

    © 2009 The Irish Times
    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/1130/1224259710165_pf.html

    November 28, 2009

    Dublin Docklands Autocracy Exploits Child Rape Day


    Poolbeg Scams Now at €950 Million


    After waiting patiently for 330 days, Dublin Diocese Developers Autocracy DDDA chose Child Rape Day to publish its dodgy 2008 accounts.



    November 26, 2009:  Government published Child Rape Report (30 year delay).   
    • November 26:  Media totally focused on Child rape.
    • November 26:  Covanta requested construction permit for Poolbeg Incinerator.
    • November 26:  After waiting patiently for 330 days, Dublin Diocese Developers Autocracy DDDA chose Child Rape Day to publish its dodgy 2008 accounts.

    November 27, 2009:  Media still totally focused on Child rape.
    • November 27:  Dublin City Council granted final permission for Covanta's waste-to-toxins incinerator.

    Dublin Council Exploits Child Rape Day

    Dublin City Council Incinerator Team Exploits Child Rape Day

     
    Hierarchy Spins "Independent" Report


    Dublin City Council's secretive hierarchy granted final permission for Covanta's waste-to-toxins incinerator the day after Publication of the Irish Child Rape Report.



    November 26, 2009:  Government published Child Rape Report (30 year delay).   
    • November 26:  Media totally focused on Child rape.
    • November 26:  Covanta requested construction permit for Poolbeg Incinerator.
    • November 26:  After waiting patiently for 330 days, Dublin Diocese Developers Autocracy DDDA chose Child Rape Day to publish its dodgy 2008 accounts.

    November 27, 2009:  Media still totally focused on Child rape.
    • November 27:  Dublin City Council granted final permission for Covanta's waste-to-toxins incinerator.

    Covanta Exploits Child Rape Day


    Waste To Toxins Industry Meeting - New Jersey


    Covanta requested the construction permit for the Poolbeg Incinerator on the day of Publication of the Irish Child Rape Report.



    November 26, 2009:  Government published Child Rape Report 
    • November 26:  Media totally focused on Child rape.
    • November 26:  Covanta requested construction permit for Poolbeg Incinerator.
    • November 26:  After waiting patiently for 330 days, Dublin Diocese Developers Autocracy,  DDDA chose Child Rape Day to publish its dodgy 2008 accounts.



    November 27, 2009:  Media still totally focused on Child rape.
    • November 27:  Dublin City Council granted final permission for Covanta's waste-to-toxins incinerator.

    November 27, 2009

    Poolbeg Incinerator To Import Waste Using Dublin Docks

    Guess why the proposed Poolbeg Incinerator is located beside a shipping dock?



    DCC says the ships in its montages are for exporting ash.  So based on DCC's history of truthfullness about their third world Sandymount Dump obviously there's a strong possibility of a lie spin.    

    Contracts in New Jersey are serious business.  The only way Dublin City Council can meet the conditions of the secret and thus possibly reckless contract they signed with New Jersey's Covanta outfit is by importing waste.  Otherwise the public servants or the IMF will possibly threaten to screw extort liberate a Ringsend Glass Bottle sized four hundred and fifty million Euro penalty from taxpayers (25 years at €18 million per year).  And Pontious Pilate in The Custom House can hardly intervene in planning as he conveniently claims to be  'restricted by the legislation' - which his Green-FF patriots control.


    Irish Times: The Irish Waste Management Association report said a facility with a capacity of 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes per annum would be more than adequate to meet Dublin’s requirements until at least 2037.

    Minister for the Environment John Gormley said this afternoon he was unable to intervene in planning decisions.

     


    Even the gloriously clean Swedes have to import waste to keep incinerators financially above water.  Incinerators in Germany are so underfed that they have imported toxic waste from the mafia controlled incinerators in Southern Italy (not from New Jersey mafia).   Maybe you should avoid Mozzarella Cheese.  

    The bosses of all the incinerators in the southern Italian region were arrested in a swoop.   According to The Rutgers Law Center Covanta has been fined for toxins releases at all of its NJ incinerators.  The Covanta incinerators paid token fines, far less than a Covanta executive's million dollar bonus.




    Draw your own conclusions from this apparent strong-arm attempt by the hierarchy at Dublin City Council:

    Dublin City Council has insisted the project will go ahead, warning that if it pulls out of a contract with private companies Covanta and DONG to develop the facility the taxpayer will lose millions of euro in a breach of contract lawsuit.
     
    Strike or no strike, DCC's public-servants' pensions are protected from any penalties which may be caused by the curious contract. 


    There is no clause in the strong-armed contract to pay for health services - its estimated incinerators cause a significant number of premature deaths [100,000 man-years of lost life each 15 years].



    Cancer Causing Smokestack Particle Inside Human Liver

    Poolbeg Incinerator Announcement - Catholic Church Abuse Report

    NOVEMBER 27, 2009.


    The fast movers in Dublin City Council are now in on DDDA's good-day-to-bury-bad-news game.  With the airwaves full of stories of child rape the hierarchy of Dublin City Council has announced that the crew from New Jersey will start building the Poolbeg Incinerator on December 14, 2009.  

    Mr John Gormley is washing his hands and acting like the disgraced Archbishops - doing nothing.