The Irish Government – Lizard Brains

April 5, 2010 in Other Stuff with 0 Comments

When writing about the current Your Country, Your Call idea generating campaign, I was particularly focused on the fact that out countries leaders (both political and business) have more to gain by maintaining the current status quo than they do in supporting a couple of “truly transformational” ideas that might challenge their comfy position.

Tim Dunne and Maggie Dugan wrote some years ago about what they called “Lizard Brains”. According to them:

The Lizard Brain is concerned with survival. It sits at the base of the skull, at the top of the spine. It’s our old brain. Evolutionists will tell you that we’ve had it since we were – well – Lizards. The Lizard Brain’s reaction to everything, if it has one at all, is limited to the following…eat, attack, run away, or mate.

Recently, on his blog, Seth Godin write about Lizard Brains under the title “Modern Procrastination”:

The lizard brain adores a deadline that slips, an item that doesn’t ship and most of all, busywork.
These represent safety, because if you don’t challenge the status quo, you can’t be made fun of, can’t fail, can’t be laughed at. And so the resistance looks for ways to appear busy while not actually doing anything.

Is there anything more appropriate to describe our current government? And if there was a phrase to best describe the Your Country, Your Call (and Ideas Campaign, and Global Irish Economic Forum) ideas gathering exercise, it’s:

ways to appear busy while not actually doing anything

What’s a share in Anglo Irish Bank going to be worth?

April 1, 2010 in Other Stuff with 0 Comments

Back in January 2008 when the government nationalised Anglo Irish Bank, it was announced that an independent assessor would be appointed to determine if there was to be any value at all in the company as it stood at that time.

That would have an impact on the Anglo shareholders of record at that time as it would dictate whether or not they would get anything for their shares – then worth 21.7c, down from a record high of €17.53 in 2007.

The process to appoint that assessor has only started recently, according to this story from the Sunday Tribune – Government to appoint assessor to value Anglo Irish Bank shares.

One can only guess how long that process will take, and how long it will take the assessor to come to their final decision.

If the UK is anything to go by (Northern Rock was valued at 0), and based on everything we’re seeing coming out of Anglo since privatisation, the bank should be valued at 0, and shareholders should receive nothing. A company that makes losses as big as Anglos is surely worth nothing.

However, as you can probably guess, I’m a little sceptical about whether or not that will actually be the case.

The government and the Financial Regulator have jumped through hoops in the past few years to prop up Anglo Irish Bank, and by extension, it’s beloved shareholders.

And it’s those favoured shareholders – particularly the better known ones such as those in the “Golden Circle” and more particularly, the Quinn family and related companies – and their needs, that will probably dictate that Anglo Irish Bank will actually have been worth something when it was nationalised – and thereby triggering a payout by the government to those shareholders in exchange for the actually worthless shares.

But that’s just me speculating.

What have you done with your ECB interest rate windfall of up to €8000 in two years?

March 30, 2010 in Spend Less, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

At the end of February last, the ECB announced that they were leaving interest rates at their historical low of 1%.

I first wrote about this “ECB interest rate windfall” back in November 2008 when, at that point in time, certain mortgage holders were up to €150 per month better off because of cuts in ECB rates.

My question at the time was what were mortgage holders who were benefiting from these rate cuts going to do with their money:

How’s your “rainy day” savings looking? Or are you planning a big Christmas and going to need a bit extra? Do you need to pay down other debts – credit cards, car loans, etc? Or could you overpay on your mortgage to reduce the term?

And yes, I appreciate that this article is limited to anyone who has a tracker mortgage in particular. However, the key thing was:

Whatever you do, don’t let this welcome extra money to be assimilated into your day to day spending. This money should be seen as a bonus, and should be treated differently to your “normal money” – make sure you get a decent longer term benefit from it.

Then, in May 2009, rates were cut again to the 1% rate they remain at now.

Depending on the size of your mortgage, you’re now paying between €5,000 and €8000 better off because of reduced monthly payments.

Where’s that money gone? Do you have any of it saved, or have other higher expenses and a higher tax take taken it all?

Overcharging by the banks – our regulator still only talking a good game

March 29, 2010 in Uncategorized, Watch Out with 0 Comments

I wrote on Monday about the fact that “naming and shaming” banks and businesses that steal money from their customers isn’t having any effect on either encouraging customers to go elsewhere, or to shame these businesses into not doing it again.

When it comes to banking overcharging, it seems like stronger and more intrusive regulation is the only thing that will truly protect consumers fully.

I should declare though, that I’m not all that in favour of this though – there’s enough information available, for example, to illustrate to consumers that doing business with AIB may not be the best thing for their finances. In such situations, I believe in buyer beware rather than bringing in stronger regulation.

Not that we’ll get any regulation changes anyway

It would have been nice if our new Financial Regulator, Mr. Matthew Elderfield, took the opportunity of the first overcharging incident of his new reign to show that he meant business and acted with purpose on AIB for thieving money from their customers.

So what did he say? Well, according to this report, he didn’t really say much. He sort of whispered, whimpered even. He said he “was concerned that financial institutions “continue to experience control failures” that result in customers being overcharged”.

He also probably scared the pants off the bank executives when he said that “it was clear from recent cases that “change is needed” in how companies handle charging and pricing issue”, and more importantly, that “the regulator was conducting a review “to strengthen its approach concerning the timeliness of resolving overcharging in firms and the grounds for enforcement actions against such failures”.

Wow. We’ve such a better regulator in place now. Much better than his predecessor Patrick Neary who merely, when faced with similar banking overcharging back in 2007, “warned banks that they would be subject to ongoing checks to make sure they were not continuing to rip off customers”.

Who really is the cheapest supermarket? Don’t expect the NCA to tell you!

March 25, 2010 in Uncategorized with 7 Comments

Splashed across the Aldi website at the moment is the headline “Ireland’s Best Value Discounter”, while available on many of the Lidl special offer pages is a banner that advertises that discounter as “Ireland’s Cheapest Supermarket”.

And both are basing their claims on the July 2009 National Consumer Agency grocery survey.

One could initially say that this further highlights the uselessness of the NCA grocery surveys in that both chains are able to make broadly similar claims (on the face of it) based on the outcome of the same survey.

It also highlights how ridiculous the NCA were to not include these chains in their grocery surveys from the very beginning – it wasn’t until ValueIreland.com carried out the NCA survey in both Aldi and Lidl that both stores were included back in 2008/2007.

But who is cheapest?

Well, the title of “Ireland’s Best Value Discounter” does actually go to Aldi, when comparing Aldi and Lidl only, and only when comparing “own brand results” rather than “branded results”.
But that’s when comparing a basket of 52 items “own brand” items purchased in both stores – all other stores (Tesco, Dunnes, Superquinn etc) are not part of this particular survey (table 2).

The title claimed by Lidl as “Ireland’s Cheapest Supermarket” is sort of incorrect as it only refers to that the part of the survey where “own brand” items are purchased rather than any “branded”. It should really read “Ireland’s Cheapest Supermarket for Own Brand Items”

Technically, it should really read, “Ireland’s Cheapest Supermarket for Own Brand Items in a basked of 19 items, rather than 52”.

With me still?

If you buy 20 listed “own brand” items in Lidl, they are cheaper than all other stores. However, if you buy a basket of 52 “own brand” items in Aldi, they’re cheaper than all other stores – including Lidl.

So that probably means that the “Ireland’s Best Value Discounter” claim made by Aldi is also incorrect – since if you bought 20 items instead of 52, then Lidl would be cheaper.

Confused – you should be, and that’s exactly what supermarkets want – confused consumers. This is why the National Consumer Agency also had to give up on their plans for their “grocery price comparison” website (which I’ll be coming back to soon).

Its unfortunate then that in a grocery market where the chains depend on consumer confusion, the organisation that is supposed to help consumers by reducing that confusion are only serving to increase it with their useless grocery surveys.

Edit 22/03 - Since I originally drafted this article, Conor Popes Pricewatch column in The Irish Times has touched on this topic, Lack of price information costing consumers a packet. In his article, he refers to the NCA grocery price surveys, and the fact that it seems like we thankfully won’t see any more of them:

Speaking at a recent media briefing to promote the amalgamation of the Financial Regulator’s information and education functions within the NCA, the agency’s chief executive Ann Fitzgerald confirmed that the general surveys had been knocked on the head. She expressed disappointment that they were being abandoned but said that obstacles being put in the way of the agency by retailers had made them next to impossible to carry out.

Edit 23/03 - Following on from the Pricewatch article above, CheapEats.ie have followed up also with their article, Pricewatch: The cheapest supermarket?.

Check out their discussion in answer to the question – In the absence of in-depth price comparisons, which supermarkets do you find the cheapest?

Maintaining the status quo – Global Irish Economic Forum and Your Country/Your Call

March 23, 2010 in Other Stuff with 0 Comments

In my post yesterday, Status Report of the Global Irish Economic Forum, I referred to the review of the status report written by Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev.

One point that Dr. Gurdgiev highlighted at the end of his report was as follows:

Which brings me to the revelation that was not made before (to my knowledge) about Farmleigh. In months of preparation for Farmleigh, DofFA took over the lists of invitees, prepared by the idea originators and mercilessly cut out all potential invitees they did not approve of.
From that list gone were a number of public figures very active in policy debate in this country and internationally. They then added a number of those, deemed by the bureaucrats as representative of the Social Partnership. How do I know this? The original owners of the Farmleigh idea actually told me this a week before Farmleigh took place!

So, an idea originally devised by David McWilliams but which enrolled some government involvement, eventually became hamstrung by that government involvement.

And it’s not like anyone could be surprised by this revelation.

And after discovering a couple of weeks ago that the government has effectively funded the €200,000 prize money in the Your Country, Your Call idea generating competition (they’re investing €300,000 of the total €2m fund), we should now be expecting a very strong government involvement/interference in this campaign as well.

As I said in my very first post about YCYC – the status quo that currently exists in this country will only be maintained through this competition – rather than seeing anything of the supposed “truly transformational” ideas they’re looking for.

As the saying goes, “he who pays the piper, calls the tune”. And the piper in this case will ensure that the tune (and the two winning ideas) are not too revolutionary to change the status quo.

Interesting dilemma for Taxi Advisory Council member, Michael Kilcoyne of SIPTU

March 22, 2010 in Other Stuff, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

The Advisory Council of the Taxi Regulator is made up of members appointed by various different interest groups who are appointed by the Minister for Transport to advise the Commission for Taxi Regulation or the Minister himself as appropriate in relation to issues relevant to small public service vehicles and their drivers.

You can see the current membership of the Advisory Council here.

Breaking news last Friday evening was that SIPTU was to withdraw from this Advisory Council and would be boycotting further meetings of the body. This presumably is related to the ongoing taxi dispute and protests. This news story from The Irish Times explains:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0319/breaking57.html

The decision follows yesterday’s meeting of the Siptu taxi drivers branch where members complained they have derived no benefit from participation on the Advisory Council over the past six years.

“The decision to boycott the Council is based on the evidence that at no time have our members or taxi drivers generally derived any benefit from participation on this body,” said Siptu branch official Jerry Brennan.

“Nothing of any benefit has emerged from the Advisory Council. Any positive recommendations we have made have never progressed to any form of action,” he added.

The SIPTU appointee on the Advisory Council is Mr Peter Rogers – who as far as I can find out is the vice president of the SIPTU taxi branch.

I wonder what the other member SIPTU on the Advisory Council will be doing?

Though a nominee to the Taxi Advisory Council on behalf of the  Consumers Association of Ireland, Michael Kilcoyne is also a member of SIPTU – being the Sectoral Organiser of the Galway No. 1 Branch.

I wonder will Mr. Kilcoyne be standing beside his SIPTU brethren and also leave the Advisory Council and boycott future meetings, or will he stay on and continue to represent consumers (and keep pocketing the cash that he (and the CAI) gets for the gig)?

Your Country, Your Call – the promised website updates are not forthcoming

March 20, 2010 in Other Stuff with 3 Comments

It’s been a number of weeks now since representatives of Your Country, Your Call on Twitter said that they would update their website with the details that they were drip-feed releasing via comments made on different blogs, including my own here.

Some of the information sorely lacking on the site were details such as who the members of the Steering Committee were, who exactly were the financial backers of the scheme and how much were they contributing, and more details of the government involvement in the whole thing.

When I asked recently when this update would be done, I was told that there was some issues over who had update rights over the website, and that it would be done soon – that was about a week ago, but still no such updates have been made.

Yet other information has been updated on the website since Monday – including details of their upcoming workshops on innovation.

I find myself wondering what reasons might exist that prevents the Your Country, Your Call people from updating their website to provide the promised clarity on their whole campaign including their financial backers and government involvement, but does allow them make updates to promote some workshops.

In the absence of the promised website updates, it’s unfortunate, but you’ll have to keep track of the Steering Committee members and the different blogs and websites that they post morsels of information on. Here are a list of links to some more reading about the Your Country, Your Call ideas gathering exercise. I’ll keep this page updated as I find more items written about one of my current favourite topics.


ThinkIrish.ie – A new “Buy Irish” campaign

March 18, 2010 in Other Stuff, Uncategorized with 3 Comments

You may already have seen the press coverage of the new internet based “Buy Irish” campaign being promoted by an organisation called ThinkIrish.ie.

I’m including below a press release that was sent to me announcing the launch of the campaign. They say that they’re not a commercial campaign – that their interests are purely for the benefit of Irish consumers and creating Irish jobs.

One can’t but support such noble intentions, but you know my suspicious nature – I’m going to reserve judgement on the specifics of the campaign and the people behind it until I learn a bit more.

Though the campaign has enough funds to engage a PR company, and models for a launch photoshoot, the website is quite basic and missing some key information to help understand who’s behind the campaign.

Like the Your Country, Your Call idea generating campaign, you have to wonder why people will build a campaign, put themselves into the public arena, yet be coy about providing full information on who they actually, and who’s funding them.

Anyway, here’s the press release. It’s your call:

ThinkIrish.ie on-line campaign launches to help generate 20,000 new jobs and fast-track economic recovery
Online product directory empowers consumers to make an informed choice with information on Irish goods
Dublin, 9 March, 2010 – A new online initiative designed to help consumers make informed choices in their buying decisions to support jobs in Ireland and economic recovery has launched today, Wednesday. ThinkIrish.ie is a consumer-driven campaign and on-line resource which is designed to empower consumers with the information they need to identify and source Irish products.
Launching the ThinkIrish.ie campaign, Alan Graham, campaign Director, said: “ThinkIrish.ie seeks to consolidate and channel consumer power to drive economic recovery and empower ordinary people to take an active role in our economic recovery through their buying decisions.  By switching just €20 of their weekly purchases to Irish goods and services, consumers can help to generate 20,000 new jobs across the country.
He said: “The cornerstone of ThinkIrish.ie is an on-line presence where consumers can access and share accurate and relevant information about Irish sourced goods and services.  This includes Ireland’s first online directory of Irish products that will allow consumers search for Irish alternatives for the everyday products they buy.”
Promoted by a group of Irish business people who believe that Irish consumers have the power to make a positive impact on economic recovery and job generation, Thinkirish.ie seeks to leverage this collective buying power of consumers with the encouragement and information we all need to make a difference.
Mr. Graham said:“ThinkIrish.ie is different to other ‘Buy Irish’ campaigns. It’s not a commercial tactic, it’s about Irish consumers finding a voice and a platform to effect change, and raise awareness about how powerful consumer spending can be,” continued Mr. Graham.
He said: “We want consumers the length and breath of the country to get involved, share information and make more informed purchasing decisions.
“ThinkIrish.ie has no commercial agenda – the only groups we want to support are the Irish consumer and the thousands of workers whose jobs are dependent on industry in Ireland,” he said.
ThinkIrish.ie is a not-for-profit initiative developed by Jonathan Stanley, the well-known retail entrepreneur. He is joined by Dublin accountant Eamonn Freaney, Paul McArdle of The Panel, Peter Kruseman of Mindstars and Alan Graham, a senior marketing executive with considerable retail experience.
ThinkIrish.ie advocates playing to the strengths of the Irish economy by supporting domestic Irish business and producers. “It is not a question of protectionism, we know imports are a critical part of this country’s success and in particular our export success,” said Mr. Graham.
“We’re not advocating support for any domestic product that doesn’t offer equivalent or greater value to the imported one.  Switching €20 need not cost a cent extra – provided people are equipped with the right information.  For example, we still import 25-30% of the bottled water we drink, yet it’s often more expensive to drink imported bottled water than a domestic brand – so switching will actually save you money.”
“Irish people have a basic in-built desire to support local manufacturing and the farming community. We want to tap into this national trait and empower consumers to decide for themselves what they can and want to do to help support Irish business and Irish jobs. Thinkirish.ie is ultimately about helping people to help themselves,” concluded Mr. Graham.
For more information and access to the Irish Product Directory please log on to www.thinkirish.ie.

Happy St. Patricks Day – check out my new “Buy Irish” resource

March 17, 2010 in Other Stuff with 2 Comments

Todays the day that we celebrate all things Irish.

As I said this time last year, maybe we can take a few minutes today to consider how we can support and develop our country into the days, months and years to come as well.

In the past year, I’ve written a fair bit about buying Irish. In the same time frame, we’ve seen some other developments on the “Buy Irish” front – such as the Love Irish Food campaign and the more recent Think Irish campaign.

With all this in mind, I’ve put together a “Buy Irish” resource page . This new page will bring together all of the posts I write on buying Irish here on ValueIreland.com as well as links to various other “Buy Irish” resources such as newspaper articles and links to other campaign websites.

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