27/06 The Front Pages

The Front Pages

It’s a mix-and-match on the front pages of Sunday’s papers with a host of different stories receiving the large-font treatment.

In the Sunday Business Post, the focus is on the paper’s latest opinion poll in conjunction with RedC, which sees Fine Gael and Labour surge in popularity once again.

Following the resolution of last week’s leadership heave in favour of resident party leader Enda Kenny, Fine Gael remain the most popular party in the state, up three percentage points to 33%. Labour are also on the up from the previous SBB/RedC poll, five points better off at 27%.

Fianna Fail are unchanged at 24%, with Government coalition partners Green Party devastated, dropping three points to just two per cent in the latest poll. Sinn Fein and Independents are also down to 8% and 6%respectively.

Also on the front page of the Post, there’s a report that a new Countryside Alliance representing a dozen groups involving hunting and shooting enthusiasts intends to select candidates to run in the next General Election.

Elsewhere a lot of the stories relate to the thorny subject of Nama and Irish developers. The Sunday Independent details the story of Bernard McNamara, the fallen millionaire developer, who has had his art collection and other valuables seized by the Dublin city sheriff. Everything will be sold in order to pay off some of McNamara’s mountainous debts.

The paper says that this “marks a new low for McNamara, once one of Ireland’s richest men but who now owes €1.5bn.”

There’s an intriguing story about political expenses on the front page of the Sunday Times, which outlines how TDs can now be in two places at the one time.

Documents seen by the paper, the report states, “show that TDs and senators travelling on overseas parliamentary delegations will be marked present in Leinster House for attendance purposes, and will still be able to claim the expenses incurred on their foreign trip.”

One would imagine they’ll get away with it, too, unless some of them actually try to claim travel expenses required to make it to Leinster House for the days they’re marked present for but when they’re actually out of the country. Which, given the events of the past, is not an impossible scenario to imagine.