OUR SUNDAY VISITS to Burke's of Cashel normally cost around €12 because in addition to the Sunday papers, we get something else to fill the week. Today's visit netted us a small copy book for nephew Evan and we'll make it into a scrapbook for him to use creatively. I've never given a copybook to a two-year-old so this is the start of a remarkable educational adventure. As I tossed the Sunday papers away, I had 10 questions to answer during the short week ahead.
1. Are 3G Vodafone cards installed in Lenovo laptops? Vodafone 3G offers faster browsing speeds than my Eircom home broadband on most occasions. Adrian Weckler ran a Lenovo laptop through its paces in the Sunday Business Post, wrote a broadband story for the front page [1], and made me wonder if I can get a firmware work-around to the ransom payments that some Irish hotels now charge for Wi-Fi access. Previously, Weckler reported you might be able to get 3G cards in Dell laptops.
2. How many national politicians are availing of an indefinite leave of absence from their teaching positions which keeps their teaching jobs on ice until they leave political life? Kevin Rafter says there are 20 TDs and Senators availing of this job-for-life plan. [2]
3. Pound for pound, which Irish political party is the most influential in Ireland? The PDs. And regular readers of Irish blogs will know the PDs invoke as much passion down south as Sinn Fein does up north.
4. How much money will the Irish government spend this year to hire top-level consultants to fight benchmarking pay claims from government workers? That would be €2m for the government to fight the civil service. [3]
5. What percentage of the 122 people who have died on Irish roads since the start of 2006 are non-nationals? Gay Byrne has the answer: 15.5% and he also wonders aloud, "We are going to have to look at that in order to figure out why that is." This just in: If you don't grow up sharing roads with unlicensed Irish boy racers, you don't know how to anticipate their antics. Irish roads are infected with a scourge of discourteous louts seated behind the wheel of cars that they use as objects of intimidation. In no other country do people use roads as a rite of passage and a right of travel. In Ireland, the system looks the other way as people abuse their driving privileges. It's an endemic problem and if death on the roads is to be reduced significantly, a significant attitude shift must occur. It's not as simple as more enforcement because judges don't take away licenses if they think there's a mitigating factor (e.g, "I have to drop my two children at school four miles away and don't live near anybody else who drives."). All visitors to Ireland need to know it's a crap shoot on Irish roads. It's that bad. All oncoming drivers are suspect. And if you're badged with a foreign registration number, you'll be overtaken just because.
6. Is there any place for housing rights in Ireland's hothouse property market? There's no way that the tax system can continue offering free housing to people when starter homes in Dublin are on a trend line towards one million euro. Fiscal planners are not factoring in those kinds of numbers.
7. Wher can everyone easily see the inflation increase in Ireland on a monthly basis? The DIY sector. Just for grins, check out the price of coving every month in Atlantic, Woodies or B&Q. You will see the SSIA effect in full swing.
8. What happens when a plane with a bomb on board lands at a military-controlled airport in Britain? People are kept on board. If they try to disembark, they will be shot. I am not making up the anti-terrorism rules that the British military have imposed on military aerodromes. British Air Traffic Control make suspect aircraft land at military bases. To all pilots reading this, I suggest you divert to Waterford where there's a cuppa tea awaiting for every passenger and an airport dog that can sniff out your problem. I speak from experience as an instructor pilot and an aircraft security specialist.
9. What is a universal defence in front of an Irish judge? "I will lose my sole means of livelihood." This worked in teh case of Martin McDonnell from Ballycastle who was caught twice by gardai with ordinary household chairs in the rear of his school bus, once with a student sitting on one of them. He is still operating school buses because that's all he does. [4] The Raod Traffic (Public Service Vehicle) Regulations 1963 restrict judges in cases like this.
10. From which direction do Ireland's prevailing winds blow? From the southwest, which makes nuclear fallout from Sellafield as likely as a cold easterly wind from Russia.
[1] Adrian Weckler-- "Broadband market set for shake-up" on the front page of the Sunday Business Post, April 16, 2006.
[2] Kevin Rafter -- "Revealed: TDs who have their teaching jobs waiting on hold" on the front page of the Sunday Tribune, April 16, 2006.
[3] Martin Frawley -- "Top consultants go to war over contesting public service pay claims" in the Sunday Tribune, April 16, 2006.
[4] Aine Ryan -- "No ban for school bus with kitchen chairs" on the front page of The Sunday Times, April 16, 2006.
