The Front Pages
On the front page of the Sunday Independent is with ‘Bailout mandarin gets €725k,’ which isn’t the story of the world’s most expensive little oprange, but the news that the civil servant who advised Brian Lenihan to give the bank guarentee in September 2008 is getting his pension topped up.
David Doyle, who resigned down in February, recieved an initial €600,000 golden handshake, and will now get a very significant ‘top up’. His severance payments are among ‘a number included in a €10.5m pension lump sum payout to top civil servants by all government departments since 2005.’ Not bad if you can get it.
The Sunday Independent also has ‘Kenny is accused of “threats” to Creighton.’ John Deasy has accused the Fine Gael leader of being the Fine Gael source who commented that other candidates in her constituency.
The Observer has ‘Hurricane Higgins, snooker legend, dies aged 61. The Northern Irish legend who won the World Championships in 72 and 82, lost his long battle with cancer. Another headline is ‘20,000 girls in UK at risk from genital mutilation.’ Experts believe that between 500 and 2,000 girls will be victims this summer, with 20,000 girls at risk. An estimated 63,000 women in the UK have had been victims of genital mutilation. The practice has been illegal in Britain since 1985.
