It was an eventful week for Paul Allen, once David Norris’s presidential campaign adviser. On Tuesday a PR stunt he orchestrated for the wedding industry fell as flat as a hungover best man’s speech when a “large group” of brides-to-be failed to descend on Leinster House. Instead half-a-dozen young women in white summer dresses showed up to ask for the number of guests permitted at weddings to be increased from 50 to 100.
Oblivious to the bridezillas congregating outside, the cabinet inside was already signing off on the increase.
On the same day the Residential Tenancies Board, which adjudicates on disputes between landlords and tenants, published a determination ordering Allen to pay €1,800 to the former tenants of a property he owns in Sandymount. The crisis management expert was found to have “unjustifiably retained” a portion of their deposit. The board said he could keep €1,700 to cover “damage in excess of wear and tear” but ruled he must return the other €1,800. The blushing PR man did not respond to queries last week.
Gardai can’t put a foot wrong with Jerusalema
Someone became most exercised over gardai taking part in the Jerusalema dance challenge in February. They sent in a freedom of information request to find how much the force spent on organising, recording and publicity. They also asked if any professional dancers were slipped into the routine.
The gardai replied that travel and subsistence cost €732 and overtime €288, but they had no correspondence as it had been arranged by phone. The requester went to the information commissioner, arguing it was implausible that such a slick production could be organised with no records, but lost the case.
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TDs’ soggy bottoms will be here for a while yet
Change comes dropping slow in Leinster House. Ivana Bacik, the newly elected TD, has been campaigning for covered bicycle parking spaces at parliament for years. We hear that the wheels are finally turning on plans to add 36 enclosed bicycle spaces at Leinster House, although the Dail and Seanad’s cyclists aren’t over the finishing line yet.
The OPW said the bike parking would mean some “reorganisation of car parking spaces”, never popular with rural deputies. The proposals would have to go through the normal planning process, the Oireachtas said. “We have no timescale as yet,” said a spokesman. Nothing like a ride home on a wet saddle to keep our parliamentarians down to earth.
●A PR event to celebrate 15 years in business by the Gourmet Food Parlour was endorsed by Richard Boyd Barrett, that scourge of capitalism. “To see any Irish business start within our community and go on to great success gives us all in the local area a real sense of pride,” the People Before Profit/Solidarity TD declared.
UN envoy Zappone reveals her new commute
Kingspan lines up giant makeover for prime site
EuroGiant at No 25 St Stephen’s Green was always a little incongruous — a pound shop in a multimillion-euro building. A new planning application suggests the discount store’s days are numbered. Radiant Now, a company owned by Kingspan founder Eugene Murtagh, turns out to be the new owner of the building, which it bought together with Nos 14-15 Kildare Street last year for about €12 million.
In place of EuroGiant we will be getting Mayfair, a café, deli and wine bar with offices overhead. Meanwhile Nos 14-15 Kildare Street will become luxury flats. Expect them to be well-insulated.
Gerard Crowley
