Leo Varadkar gets Transport

spacetweek

runway16 wrote: »

You dont have to go as far as Frankfurt Hahn to see that: look at Shannon that has been decimated by Ryanair's part withdrawal. At Dublin, most of the traffic decline has been due to FR's cuts as well. Other Carriers have not cut back nearly as much as Ryanair.

I was in Hahn back in April 2010; did the cutback happen before or after that?

donkey balls

I think it was after that as my mate moved base to another country just before christmas.

Tech3

Varadkar moves to break up CIE's board structure

The new Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has decided to abolish the position of executive chairman of CIE, currently held by John Lynch.

The minister is replacing the old system of political appointments to key posts at the semi-state by advertising vacancies for non-executive positions. Mr Varadkar will appoint four separate non-executive chairpersons to the controversial semi-state.

Advertisements are to be placed in the national media shortly seeking chairpersons, not only for the parent company CIE, but also for its three subsidiaries, Iarnrod Eireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann.

Interviews to fill the posts will be held over the next three months. At the end of the 12-week process, Mr Lynch will be stepping down.

The move contrasts sharply with the last Government's decision to appoint Marian McGennis to the board of Dublin Bus, just 24 hours before it left office. Ms McGennis is a former Fianna Fail councillor, senator and TD.

CIE's board has been the subject of criticism in recent months because of the presence of several board members associated with Fianna Fail. Chairman of the audit committee Paul Kiely was an associate of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while board member Seamus Sheerin was a subscriber to ex-Taoiseach Brian Cowen's political funds.

The non-executive board members refused to appear before an Oireachtas sub-committee on transport to answer questions about corporate governance at the company.

Mr Lynch was due to retire at the end of March but has been given an extension until the new appointments are made.

Link

murphaph

This has the potential of being the single biggest improvement in Irish public transport ever. Fair play Leo! Get stuck in there

DWCommuter

It fails to address the fact that there is no actual need for the CIE holding company in the first place. Nearly 9 years have elapsed since it was first proposed to break up CIE and leave DB, IE and BE as independent semi states at the very least. That would be a real start on the road to damascus.

murphaph

One step at a time Derek, he's only in the job a wet week!

He has at least moved to break up the political nature of this whole shambles which has seen totally incompetent idiots running CIE and the daughter companies for far too long now.

DWCommuter

murphaph wrote: »

One step at a time Derek, he's only in the job a wet week!

He has at least moved to break up the political nature of this whole shambles which has seen totally incompetent idiots running CIE and the daughter companies for far too long now.

But I want it now!!:D

Judgement Day

Anyway Leo is still a prick of the 1st order.

dowlingm

DWCommuter wrote: »

It fails to address the fact that there is no actual need for the CIE holding company in the first place.

I hope the plan is to get stronger leadership at the subsidiaries so that when the eject button is pressed on CIE they are good to go. (The important thing is that it is not another DAA farce)

trellheim

Isnt CIE the main land holding company and for all the signboard advertising etc etc ?

Judgement Day

trellheim wrote: »

Isnt CIE the main land holding company and for all the signboard advertising etc etc ?

Yes, but that is no reason to retain them. Most of the advertising sites are on railway property and should be turned over to IE or its replacement. The property arm of CIE is beyond description and they own so much property that it would take a Tribunal to establish what. You're even talking property, trackbeds etc where CIE never even operated services such as the Galway/Clifden line and I know for a fact that they own a lot of the original Cavan & Leitrim Railway trackbed.

trellheim

turn it over to NTA perhaps ?

DWCommuter

trellheim wrote: »

turn it over to NTA perhaps ?

Just turn it over to the appropriate operator, be it DB, BE or IE.

The Celtic Tiger years saw CIE control the Spencer Dock site and enter into an agreement with Treasury Holdings to form the Spencer Dock Development Company. The last thing on CIEs mind, in this case, was aiding public transport. There is something fundamentally wrong when a semi state transport company can enter into property deals with private companies while EU funding supports development in their subsidiaries and parts of the group still draw down a subvention from the state coffers.

DWCommuter

Judgement Day wrote: »

Yes, but that is no reason to retain them. Most of the advertising sites are on railway property and should be turned over to IE or its replacement. The property arm of CIE is beyond description and they own so much property that it would take a Tribunal to establish what. You're even talking property, trackbeds etc where CIE never even operated services such as the Galway/Clifden line and I know for a fact that they own a lot of the original Cavan & Leitrim Railway trackbed.

The interesting factor here JD is that despite owning so much property they even failed miserably to cash in on it during the boom. While I not a fan of CIE engaging in such practice to the detriment of rail development, they totally and absolutely bolloxed up in an area where even a two bit tosser with 2 acres in the stix could get an apartment/retail block built.

So in essence a semi state company with vast land banks couldn't do much during this country's greatest ever building boom. Therefore we could never expect them to successfully run transport. Even when something was easy this bunch of inept wasters couldn't achieve anything beyond tearing up vital rail infrastructure in Spencer Dock with no thought to realistic recession proof rail development. I wouldn't trust them to pour the milk over my Cornflakes tomorrow morning.

lods

In relation to jobs on state boards, he was interviewed on Pat Kenny this morning. He'll advertise/interview for jobs but it will still be a ministerial appointment . Not sure how much will change.

On Metro North in the Times, he’s still”familiarising himself with it” . He's going to have to get off the fence soon.

Jayuu

lods wrote: »

In relation to jobs on state boards, he was interviewed on Pat Kenny this morning. He'll advertise/interview for jobs but it will still be a ministerial appointment . Not sure how much will change.

Lets wait and see what happens. I suppose what is meant is that the interview panel will come up with a recommendation which will then be approved by the minister. As a semi-state body the appointment probably has to be approved by a minister.