Fraud is rife across the UK and Irish corporate world, proclaimed a slim volume published by Oak Tree Press earlier this year. The book attracted no great interest from the public at the time. For one thing, it costs £18.95 for 102 pages - hardly a bargain.
Now, however, politicians and bankers are furiously looking for copies. The author is Tony Spollen, former group internal auditor of AIB, who informed bank management in 1991 that he reckoned they might be looking at a liability of £100 million in unpaid or underestimated DIRT tax.
The book this week makes for riveting reading. Spollen said: "Organisations which are most at risk (from fraud) include those that have a domineering chief executive, are reducing staff, are introducing new technology, are diversifying, have a complex Treasury function, have a number of overseas locations, are growing at a very fast rate or are setting too demanding targets." Spollen is talking, of course, of internal fraud. Jim Mitchell and the Committee of Public Accounts is more concerned that AIB may have short-changed the Revenue Commissioners.
Flynn's way with words
Padraig Flynn expounded the EU position on labour market reform at a press conference in Brussels. The man from the Daily Mail was so taken by Pee's gift for exposition that he said he wished he could have had the Commissioner as a school teacher. "I can arrange private lessons," said Pee. Turning to the Commission president, Jacques Santer, he added that he would not charge for these lessons, and a proper contract would be drawn up. Later, Flynn repeated his line to the Irish hacks that he would talk only to the Flood Tribunal about the allegation by a builder that he once gave Flynn £50,000 for Fianna Fail. Wonder if Jacques Santer has heard about the Flood Tribunal?
Fresh from Belgrade
The new British ambassador, Ivor Roberts, comes to us from Belgrade. There, it is said, he forged very close links with the Yugoslav president, the euphoniously named Slobodan Milosevic. In that case, the Dublin wags are saying already, he probably won't be that concerned about IRA arms decommissioning.
A spokesman for the British and Foreign Commonwealth Office told Quidnunc that Roberts was judged to have done an outstanding job in Belgrade. As ambassador, it was his job to gain access to the highest levels of government so that Britain could play a valuable part in the mediation process between Milosevic and the various factions who consider him to be an unscrupulous and devious warlord. The spokesman said Roberts has been giving the British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, "invaluable advice on how to deal with Milosevic".
Diplomatic manoeuvres
The Sinn Fein office in Washington was too small for the Capitol Hill reception to introduce the new boss, Rita O'Hare, to Washington and say farewell to Mairead Keane. Some friendly congressmen arranged for the well-attended event earlier this month to take place in the Rayburn Building, where many of them have offices.
O'Hare was welcomed to Washington by Senator Edward Kennedy, and co-chairs of the Irish Ad Hoc Committee, Congressmen Richard Neal, Tom Manton and Ben Gilman as well as the Irish Ambassador, Sean O hUiginn, congressional staffers and others in the Irish-American community and the media.
O'Hare, in a short, businesslike speech referred to the Sinn Fein office as the party's "diplomatic representation" in Washington, but the ambassador was too diplomatic to take issue with this claim.
She told the gathering she would be dividing her time between Dublin and Washington for the present. This may have been a reference to the fact that the matter of her full-time visa has not yet been resolved by the State Department.
A report in the British media that the wealthy benefactor, Chuck Feeney, who has been paying the Sinn Fein office rent of $20,000 a month for almost three years, has had a row with the party are dismissed by informed sources. Feeney's commitment was not open-ended and seems to have ended, but the party is now well able to pay its own way as can be seen by the frequent fund-raising tours by Gerry Adams.
Thirsty work for farmers
The Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh, is looking warily over his shoulder at Minister of State, Ned O'Keeffe, a fellow Cork TD. O'Keeffe is a pig farmer from Mitchelstown and sympathises greatly with the plight of the sons of toil. So much so that on Tuesday he sent down most of the contents of his drinks cabinet in Agriculture House, Kildare Street, to assuage the thirst of the IFA delegation camped in the lobby of the Department in protest over the crisis in the industry. "What can I do for you?" asked O'Keeffe solicitously of the farmers, in contrast with the attitude of his boss, who after all is not a working farmer but a former co-op manager.
Dublin faces a day of misery courtesy of the farmers later this month. A monster demonstration involving more than 10,000 farmers will descend on the capital. The good news is that farmers will be handing out food to demonstrate to the townies how prices have collapsed.
Not a novel rezoning plan
Towards the end of Tuesday's marathon meeting of Fingal County Council to consider the latest spate of land rezonings, Marian McGennis (FF) made a brief but fateful intervention in the debate on a motion to rezone a patch of land south of Malahide. "I think it should be recorded this is the first time in two hours that Cllr McGennis has looked up from reading her novel," said the querulous Socialist Party TD, Joe Higgins. She held up the paperback to reveal that it was, in fact, Fergus Finlay's memoir, Snakes and Ladders.
"Ah, a novel written by a snake," snorted Higgins. "Well, what did you think I was reading, Mills and Boon?" asked McGennis. Ah, the intellectual repartee we enjoy at Fingal County Council.
Name change
The official chaplain of the Garda Siochana, Father Hilarion Cleary, has finally thrown in the towel. After years of being addressed by irreverent members of the force as Father Hilarious, he has told the Passionist Order he is relinquishing his taken name and wishes to be known from now by his given name, Dermot Cleary.
Trimble's tribulations
David Trimble was asked recently why he bothered to attend the Labour, Tory and Lib Dems conferences. "At least there I had a chance of a standing ovation," he is supposed to have said, a possibility which might be distinctly dodgy at the Ulster Unionist Party conference in Derry next week.
Trimble has attempted to bring the young UUP MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, on side by offering him a job. Donaldson accepted, but later reverted to his anti-Belfast Agreement position. "The problem with Jeffrey," said one caustic unionist, "is that he's never quite sure which fence he's sitting on."
A Turkish delight for Adams
The first International Freedom to Publish Award has been given to a Turkish publisher, at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Ayse Nur Zarakolu of the Belge publishing house was prevented by the Turkish government from travelling to Frankfurt to receive the award. The award was accepted by her husband and co-founder of Belge, Ragip Zarakolu.
Afterwards he said: "I came to the Book Fair with two purposes: to accept the award and to acquire the rights to publish the books of Gerry Adams." He met Irish publisher, Steve MacDonogh and they agreed that publication of Adams's books in Turkish will begin next year, starting with Falls Memories, his first book (Brandon, 1982). "I am very happy to see the exemplary courage of Ayse Nur Zarakolu recognised in this way," said MacDonogh. "As regards the commitment to publishing Gerry Adams, this strikes me as very appropriate and very welcome indeed."
On schedule
Cityjet is to launch a scheduled service from Dublin to Malaga and Faro, the airline announced this week. One guaranteed regular customer to the Portuguese airport will be Cityjet shareholder, Paul Coulson, who has a palatial villa in the Algarve.
Setting the Tone
Virtual canvassing has come to Irish politics. The Fianna Fail Web site has introduced an old technique to the new technology: the soapbox meets cyberspace. Writers are invited to contribute their thoughts on matters political via www.FiannaFail.ie. The chosen writer this week is - surprise, surprise - Sinead Behan, the party's candidate in the Cork South Central by-election. A Fianna Fail spokesman says she has been getting lots of email response, especially in Cork.
Bertie Ahern will have an opportunity to get in a plug for his candidate tomorrow when he is guest speaker at the Wolfe Tone commemorations at Bodenstown. The BBC's Fergal Keane will be there with a camera crew. Keane is doing a documentary on the significance of Tone in Irish history.