Who remembers Irish Shipping? Throwing public money away is a hard habit to break.

[He3]

John Higgins has a trenchant letter in the Irish Times today, commenting on events surrounding the liquidation of Ireland's state owned shipping company 25 years ago.

Some of what he describes has a familiar ring.

There was well-founded suspicion in Irish Shipping Limited that the liquidation provided a very convenient smokescreen for the waste of taxpayers’ money in financing the building of the Irish Spruceat Verolme Cork Dockyard ordered by government decision in June 1980 but which was not required by the company. This ship was financed through a leasing arrangement negotiated by the Department of Finance which cost the exchequer over £60 million. The ship was subsequently sold for £3 million.

In evidence provided by senior civil servants before the Oireachtas Committee which dealt with the Irish Shipping liquidation, it was claimed that it would cost the State £220 million to keep the company in operation, an obviously outlandish claim but one which was not questioned by the committee. An equally erroneous claim was made that the liquidation would cost less than £50 million whereas according to the auditor and comptroller general’s reports for 1984, 1985 and 1986 the cost to the exchequer was well in excess of £100 million.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...252307056.html

The 273 workers were given the bare statutory minimum redundancy.

[He3]

irish_shipping_ltdcrew.htm

[Mar Tweedy]

John Higgins has a trenchant letter in the Irish Times today, commenting on events surrounding the liquidation of Ireland's state owned shipping company 25 years ago.

Some of what he describes has a familiar ring.

There was well-founded suspicion in Irish Shipping Limited that the liquidation provided a very convenient smokescreen for the waste of taxpayers’ money in financing the building of the Irish Spruceat Verolme Cork Dockyard ordered by government decision in June 1980 but which was not required by the company. This ship was financed through a leasing arrangement negotiated by the Department of Finance which cost the exchequer over £60 million. The ship was subsequently sold for £3 million.

In evidence provided by senior civil servants before the Oireachtas Committee which dealt with the Irish Shipping liquidation, it was claimed that it would cost the State £220 million to keep the company in operation, an obviously outlandish claim but one which was not questioned by the committee. An equally erroneous claim was made that the liquidation would cost less than £50 million whereas according to the auditor and comptroller general’s reports for 1984, 1985 and 1986 the cost to the exchequer was well in excess of £100 million.

The Irish Times - Letters

The 273 workers were given the bare statutory minimum redundancy.

Yes it was a very interesting piece in today's IT.
Amazing the decisions that are taken in the interest of 'progress', closing railways, selling off sugar factories, liquidating irish shipping.

When I was in school, a classmate's father worked on one of the ships so the teacher put a map of the world on the wall and we followed the ship around on its travels. That was when far-off places seemed extraordinarily glamourous (and i'm not that old really!) I can't remember if we watched the one ship, or all of the ships or the name of the ship. I forgot they were mostly named after trees which was a nice touch.

[He3]

Yes it was a very interesting piece in today's IT.
Amazing the decisions that are taken in the interest of 'progress', closing railways, selling off sugar factories, liquidating irish shipping.

When I was in school, a classmate's father worked on one of the ships so the teacher put a map of the world on the wall and we followed the ship around on its travels. That was when far-off places seemed extraordinarily glamourous (and i'm not that old really!) I can't remember if we watched the one ship, or all of the ships or the name of the ship. I forgot they were mostly named after trees which was a nice touch.

Follow the Fleet. Yes it seemed very exotic!

To your list of sell offs/shut downs, you could add selling off our telecoms infrastructure....

All hail the (Certain types of) Competitition God.

[hammer]

When you have a Government full of teachers, solicitors etc what do you expect ?

When you have a Dept of Finance with a massive shortage of accountants what do you expect.

Do you appoint a book keeper to finance director in a PLC ? No you bloody well do not.

[Catalpa]

I remember that one

- but was it not Garrett who pulled the plug?

[He3]

I remember that one

- but was it not Garrett who pulled the plug?

As the letter writer says, after explaining how the chartering in of ships proved to be financially disastrous:

A total of 273 shore-based and sea-going staff lost their jobs, many of whom had more than 35 years service with the company. To add insult to injury for the unfortunate employees of Irish Shipping, the government-appointed directors, who should have been aware of the chartering-in of vessels did nothing to prevent it.

The Fine Gael/Labour government, led by Garret FitzGerald, refused to pay the employees more than the minimum statutory redundancy although, in the previous two years, over £9 million in redundancy payments had been provided by the government for the employees of Verolme Cork Dockyard, in which the State had a minority interest. It subsequently transpired that the liquidation of Irish Shipping Limited cost the exchequer more than £101 million.

There is a saying that a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into.

Liquidators and examiners now seem to be a lot like boats in that regard. Remember the work of the copying staff that the employer charged out at €250 an hour?

http://www.politics.ie/justice/90201...al-worker.html

[Mar Tweedy]

Follow the Fleet. Yes it seemed very exotic!

To your list of sell offs/shut downs, you could add selling off our telecoms infrastructure....

All hail the (Certain types of) Competitition God.

I had forgotten it was an official scheme to follow the fleet. Its starting to come back to me the picture of the map and the pins. Did the pins have the name of the ships on them?

I see they have relaunched the scheme following merchant shipping:

Follow the Fleet Education Scheme Reborn Online

The note for editors is a classic....

Over €130 billion worth of goods travel in and out of Ireland by sea each year, representing over 90% of all traded goods. Ireland is an island. It is totally dependent on its maritime trade routes, which is an important message for the citizens of the future.

Did the political leaders of the 80s forget we are an island or what?

[myksav]

Oh yes, I remember Irish Shipping.
I also remember the sell off of Irish Shipping assets. And the rule that no Irish business or businessman was allowed to bid on any of those assets.

That was when I learned to despise and distrust Fine Gael and Labour.

Yah, I remember.

[Ah Well]

John Higgins has a trenchant letter in the Irish Times today, commenting on events surrounding the liquidation of Ireland's state owned shipping company 25 years ago.

Some of what he describes has a familiar ring.

There was well-founded suspicion in Irish Shipping Limited that the liquidation provided a very convenient smokescreen for the waste of taxpayers’ money in financing the building of the Irish Spruceat Verolme Cork Dockyard ordered by government decision in June 1980 but which was not required by the company. This ship was financed through a leasing arrangement negotiated by the Department of Finance which cost the exchequer over £60 million. The ship was subsequently sold for £3 million.

In evidence provided by senior civil servants before the Oireachtas Committee which dealt with the Irish Shipping liquidation, it was claimed that it would cost the State £220 million to keep the company in operation, an obviously outlandish claim but one which was not questioned by the committee. An equally erroneous claim was made that the liquidation would cost less than £50 million whereas according to the auditor and comptroller general’s reports for 1984, 1985 and 1986 the cost to the exchequer was well in excess of £100 million.

The Irish Times - Letters

The 273 workers were given the bare statutory minimum redundancy.

Yep I remember the Irish Shipping thingy and Verolme Dockyard too

Good basic details here -> Irish Shipping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and here with pics -> Google Image Result for http://www.irishships.com/images/ISL%20Ltd/IRISH%20PINE%201941-2.jpg