Why Irish broadcaster Pat Kenny is worth every penny and more

Pat Kenny says goodbye to RTE to take on new role at Newstalk

The haters will hate, and the begrudgers will begrudge, but Pat Kenny’s million-euro move to Newstalk was a stroke of genius by the independent broadcaster, writes Paul Allen.

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” This no-nonsense philosophy underpinned Warren Buffett’s success throughout his career.

“Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks,” he said when quizzed about these words of wisdom, “I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.”

And when it comes to buying broadcasting gold at a bargain basement price, few offer the value Pat Kenny brings to the table.

Of course the whiners, will whine, complaining he was paid too much at RTE, never mind the fact Newstalk swooped in with what is believed to be a deal in excess of €1m.

But Newstalk will soon be laughing all the way to the bank.

He is the first superstar to make the leap from the RTE Mothership to a commercial radio station.

Sure, Ian Dempsey and Ray D’Arcy, both former RTE middleweights, made the move a long time ago, but neither had or has the pulling power of broadcasting heavyweight Pat Kenny.

The last listenership figures saw Dempsey’s Breakfast Show pull in 175,000 and D’Arcy’s mid morning talk show hit 243,000. However, both were blown out of the water by King Kenny’s 328,000.

This man, who hopefully will bring his own production team along with him, is not only going to revolutionize Newstalk, but commercial radio as we know it.

The show he is replacing, Tom Dunne’s middle of the road snoozefest, only manages a meager 55,000 listeners. Let’s face it, if you played the Angelus gong for that whole slot you’d pull in better figures.

The problem with much of Newstalk and other commercial radio stations is their schedules tend to be patchy. They have a mix of highly professional talent, interspersed with mediocrity.

In fairness, they sometimes strike gold and teach the national broadcaster how it should be done (the prime example being the revolutionary Off The Ball programme that fundamentally has changed sport radio in Ireland), but generally RTE rules the roost when it comes to the talent pool in Irish broadcasting.

However, this monopoly has now been blown wide open. And for good reason.

Just think of the hundreds of millions Ireland’s King of Broadcasting earned RTE over his 41 years. He will do likewise for Newstalk and that is why they are paying big bucks for him.

Advertisers and sponsors who would never have dreamed of investing their cash in Tom Dunne’s morning show, will now be beating down the door at Newstalk to get a piece of the action.

Of course public opinion will say he is getting too much money, but the fact is he is entitled to that money because of the multiples of that figure he will enable Newstalk to earn.

And while there are those that will foolishly believe RTE will be glad they no longer have to pay Pat Kenny’s salary, the dent in their advertising and sponsorship revenue is going to make them realise, and hopefully some members of the public, that they were paying him peanuts in the greater scheme of things.

Next on the Newstalk wish list could be Gay Byrne, to inject some much needed quality into the station’s weekend schedule. And you never know, Marian Finucane, could complete the coup.

The fact is, more will follow in Pat’s footsteps and the real winners will be the listeners and the independent radio market.

And after hearing on the grapevine rumors of a million euro advance that exchanged hands to smooth his transition, you’d better believe Pat Kenny is worth every single penny and then some.

Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com

The Royal baby and hidden agendas, blanket coverage an exercise in cynicism

Prince William and Kate Middleton and the Royal Baby (Credit: Getty)

The obsessive coverage on Sky News surrounding the birth of the future British king highlighted everything that is sour in the celebrity-driven media.

Ever since the Duchess of Cambridge went into labor, Sky News ramped up its already intense coverage of the royal birth to levels rarely witnessed.

Presenters and reporters stood in the baking heat outside St Mary's Hospital in Paddington and struggled to fill hours upon hours of broadcast time as they desperately waited for the pitter-patter of tiny royal feet.

During ‘silly season’ news is hard to come by so stories can often be stretched out of proportion to fill airtime and column inches. But why was Sky News, more than any other broadcaster, seemingly so obsessed with the royal baby?

Their agenda, which truly began with Lady Diana, is focused on maintaining the celebrity status of certain members of the Royal Family.

This not only helps fill endless hours of ‘royal’ coverage but feeds into the group’s other media outlets in print and online. It also neatly follows Sky News’ Conservative and royalist agenda.

So, presenters such as Kay Burley, will stand for days outside a hospital with little ‘newsworthy’ to talk about knowing full well in the long run they are helping give birth to a celebrity that will spawn many scoops and sensational stories in the future.

Irish people are avid consumers of media, but how many are truly aware of how much this media environment is manipulated everyday.

This results in crucial discourse, such as the abortion debate, being influenced by those on both sides less interested in truth and facts than they are about swaying public opinion.

The media if often thought of as the Third Estate, separate from the government and the judicial system, helping to make society more transparent and accountable. However, even television channels, newspapers and radio stations dictate the news we get to watch, read and listen to; and let’s face it the best spin-doctors are the media themselves.

They shape the agenda according to their own particular bias. And in an era of the ‘viewspaper’ where opinion is king, hidden ‘agendas’ can be far more influential.

Transparency in today’s media environment is nothing but a pipe dream, so it is up to us as consumers to be more shrewd, circumspect and cynical when it comes to digesting the news.

And while we all should welcome the birth of the royal baby, we should be aware that for the likes of Sky News, this is just a celebrity building exercise that will spawn stories during silly season for decades to comes.

Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com.

Anglo Irish tapes are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to other banks

A woman protesting outside the former Anglo Irish Bank in Dublin

The bravado of it all was shocking and scurrilous, but we should suspend full judgement until the Anglo bankers give us their side of the story, writes Paul Allen.

Their laughter and nonchalance brought the blood of a nation to boiling point. Not surprising given the fact that while former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm, and his senior executives, Peter FitzGerald and John Bowes, joked, mocked and cursed at the Irish tax payers’ expense, their reckless behaviour was crippling our economy and forcing their financial burden onto us all. A financial burden that today still casts a long shadow.

But even though their behaviour in those now notorious phone conversations has left the Irish public red with rage, there are far bigger issues at hand than the galling behaviour of a bunch of bankers as they dragged the Irish economy down a sinkhole.

Every source has an agenda, so why has the content of these recorded phone calls surfaced now? Every dealing and trading desk in every bank in Ireland has their phone calls recorded as a matter of strict procedure, not just Anglo Irish Bank, and this material has been available to the Irish government and the Gardai for a very long time. So why, as the content of the tapes is drip-fed to the nation by the Irish Independent, are politicians suddenly jumping up and down?

The other fact that needs to be considered is that while everyone seems shocked, the reality is that these tapes reveal little new.

The fact is people are playing politics rather than getting to the bottom of this debacle. This is underlined by the fact the government is planning to launch a banking enquiry on the eve of the next general election.

The Irish people need to know who the source behind these leaks is and what their agenda is. Why did they surface now? Who has to benefit? What is the end game?

Further more, it is not that they laughed while hammering the final nails into the coffin of the Celtic tiger that should cause us concern, but that they were able to dupe the Financial Regulator and Government into believing their lies.

Because while they joked that they were sticking two fingers up to Britain and Germany, they were actually sticking their two fingers up at the people of Ireland.

However, no matter how hard it may be to contemplate at present, every story has two sides. And while the snippets of their recorded sniggers still sting, we need to hear the full story.

The truth is that many bank officials were telling lies, and not just those in Anglo. And it is only when we hear the full and frank details of how Drumm and his fellow cronies felt this was not only possible, but that their lies were believable to the government’s financial ‘experts’, will Ireland Inc be able to ensure such skulduggery never happens again.

Indeed, while such an understanding is critical for both government and regulators, opening up and confessing all is the only option left open to the central protagonists at Anglo if they want to walk the long and lonely road towards redemption.

There is no point hiding like rodents lurking in the gutter. They have more value in helping making sure it never happens again rather than just being national punch bags on which we can relieve our pent up anger.

In fact, their full, open and frank cooperation could not only help solidify banking regulation here, but provide an invaluable service to the Irish people by finally giving them the inside scoop of how such a mockery was made of the Department of Finance and the Financial Regulator.

Regardless of what intrigue is at play here, it is time that we turned the leak to the benefit of the Irish people and found out how Anglo and other banks were able to pull off what is tantamount to the biggest financial fraud in our nation’s history.

Because until we know the full details of this latest scandal, Drumm and Co will not be the last ones to laugh at us for being gullible fools.

Irish are just smarter about multinational tax issues than other countries - U.S. and Europe are being taught a lesson as Ireland reaps the benefits

Rotten Apple?  Ireland simply enviable for their canny tax dealings

While U.S. politicians were eager to take a bite out of Apple’s reputation over its tax affairs, they also seemed only too happy to chew up and spit out Ireland’s.

But with the Irish Government denying the iPhone maker got any preferential tax deal, all this ‘tax haven’ subterfuge simply goes to show Ireland is envied for its ability to have solved the multinational taxation puzzle.

The only reason there is a gnashing of teeth in the US is because poor tax legislation allows major American corporations to file minimum tax returns at home while funneling taxable profits through operations overseas.

British authorities have also being huffing and puffing at foreign multinationals that seem to pay pittance in the UK even though they have substantial business interests there.

But while politicians play to the crowd, the simple fact is that these corporations are not breaking the law, but using the system.

And Ireland is also playing the game to its benefit rather than simply sitting back and watching from the sidelines as money flows elsewhere.

Indeed, this strategy has been a resounding and often remarked upon success. Our 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, not only kick started the Celtic tiger, but is helping propel the Irish economy back to growth after a ruthless recession.

The figures speak for themselves — in a country of just over four million people, over 115,000 work for US companies and countless others are involved in ancillary support operations. While many may argue that these profits will eventually leave our shores, the knowledge transfer to the local economy and boost to the exchequer will have long term payoffs.

However, even in an era of ecommerce and the growing global presence of massive multinationals, Ireland’s approach to attracting overseas business has raised the ire of not only the US but also our EU neighbours.

But as a tiny economy, operating in a tiny country, with a tiny population, situated on the most westerly point of Europe, Ireland needs all the home advantages it can muster.

Our tax rate compares with 35 percent in the US, 33 percent in France and 23 percent in the UK. But our multinational tax regime is open and transparent, unlike many other European countries.

Starbucks, for example, clocked up sales of £400m in the UK last year, but paid no corporation tax. Amazon, which had sales in the UK of £3.35bn in 2011, felt only legally obliged to file a ‘tax expense’ of £1.8m.

But the reason senators in the US were shaking their fists at Ireland is because, at 35 percent, America has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. So companies are effectively ‘encouraged’ to export jobs, investment and intellectual property to foreign soil.

It also discourages the repatriation of profits made on foreign soil back to the US. The most recently available figures show that US companies held $1.7 trillion in unremitted profits.

So rather than bash Ireland or the companies who legally use the tax system to their benefit, maybe the US, UK and our other European neighbours should focus on tax reform rather than moaning at how Ireland is, for the moment, one step ahead of the game.

* Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com.

Irish politicians would have been better off staying at home for St. Patrick's Day

Enda Kenny and his wife sign a girder at the World Trade Center (Photo: James Higgins)

In the supposed year of the Gathering, and with the country’s coffers still struggling, our politicians would  have been be better off welcoming the world to Ireland, rather than jetting away for St Patrick’s Day.

But as the world turned green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, the swanky five-star hotels and exotic locations in which many of the Government’s Ministers were raising a toast to St Patrick were be enough to make the rest of us green with envy.

While our politicians larged it up abroad on March 17 this year, more than any other, the spectacle is even more ironic.

The country is broke and we are all paying the price. Nonetheless, Leinster House, where parliament resides was almost empty.

Property tax, water charges, pay cuts — everyone has to feel the pain. But the Government still felt the need to scarper.

Yes, of course, they are going forth to tell the world that Ireland is still open for business. The platitudes glided off their tongues.

They told anyone who would listen how Ireland is the best little country around. But in an era of belt tightening, surely the best place for our politicians was to be by our sides weathering the storm we are all facing.

However, when it comes to those in power, it always appears to be a case of — ‘Do as I say and not as I do.’

In the year of the Gathering we have all been asked to mobilize the Diaspora to entice them to come home and embrace Ireland, while helping to boost the local economy.

So, given the year that is in it, surely it would have made sense for the Irish Government to invite dignitaries from around the world to join them in Ireland to celebrate St Patrick’s Day?

But this is not the way the ruling classes do business in Ireland.

Remember — ‘Do as I say and not as I do.’

This philosophy was underlined beautifully by Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan this week. The independent TD loves to fight corruption, except when he is looking in the mirror.

He had the chutzpah to lambast “a cohort of Gardaí” who he has accused of asking people if they want their penalty points cancelled, while at the same time begrudgingly admitting that he had points wiped off his license — twice.

Not only has he previously denied having points quashed, but he has also been merciless in his criticism of the ‘nod and a wink’ culture that permeates the country, which he now admits to benefiting from himself.

Again, as far as Mr Ming is concerned it is a case of — ‘Do as I say and not as I do.’

While the past few years have been painful, Ireland has received its biggest wake up call since the formation of the State. Our sharp economic shock is something that has forced us to get our house in order, no matter how painful it has been.

But now it is time for our Government ministers and even Ming, to take a long look in the mirror, because if they expect us to continue to ‘put our shoulders to the wheel,’ we should expect them  to be standing solid right beside us.

However, it seems some politicians love to dish out advice as it compensates them for their ability to set a bad example.

* Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com.

Ireland is bouncing back despite all the naysayers -- It is time we stopped wallowing in despair and started cheerleading

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore

In a media environment hungry for scandal, sensation and skulduggery, good news often seems like no news at all. Especially in a country stuck in a boggy mire of fear and self-loathing.

But just like the Mayans were proved to be overly pessimistic about the long-term survival of planet earth, the merchants of doom cheerleading the negative and ignoring the positive when it comes to Ireland’s revival look likely to be proved wrong in 2013.

Just several days into the New Year and many who have cut a figure of dourness over the past several years have now a noticeable pep in their step.

Tanaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Eamon Gilmore, who is not know for his exuberance, was telling all who would listen that we will finally be waving goodbye to the recession come the end of the year.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton believes the flood of job losses we have suffered has finally been stemmed. While, to top it all off, a rise in tax returns means that the Government coffers got an unexpected boost of €2.6bn.

Ireland is recovering. And while it will be a slow, gradual recovery, our economy is very well placed for long-term sustainable growth. And while we won’t reach the insane highs of the bubble, nor will we overly rely on the property and construction industry to over-inflate our expectations.

Indeed, over the past year the rest of Europe has been looking at the Irish economy with envy. We have learnt from our mistakes, took the harsh actions needed and now we are on the comeback. But Bill Clinton was right when he said that the world thinks more of the Irish than the Irish think of themselves.

“I know a lot of people in Ireland are discouraged,” President Clinton said back in 2011, “but the rest of the world thinks you’re pretty great.”

And now it is time for the rest of us to embrace this positivity and realize that post-Celtic tiger Ireland will be a leaner, and far fitter economic machine that is primed to thrive.

The core fundamentals of the economy are strong and will soon fuel growth once the burden of the banking crisis is eased. Foreign direct investment is also still as strong as ever, with a who’s who of the hi-tech and pharmaceutical elite doing business in Ireland, much to the envy of our international competitors.

And they are not just here for the tax breaks. With our well-educated, flexible and skilled workforce, companies like Google and Intel would not waste their time making such huge investments in innovation here. Indeed, while we were all crying a river for our demise, companies such as Twitter were busily setting up shop in Ireland confident of our bouncebackability (to rob a sporting term).

The Gathering will also provide us with the platform to embrace and strengthen our ties with the Irish Diaspora, whose importance has for too long gone unrecognized  This will give us the opportunity to re-energise and look to the future.

The rest of the world has been recognizing our success in turning things around. But while our Taoiseach was gracing the front of Time magazine and being presented with the Golden Viktoria European of the Year Award in Berlin, the rest of Ireland sneered.

But the fact is that despite our failings Ireland is the greatest little country in the world. But tell that to an Irish person and, sadly, they’ll ridicule you.

Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com.

Has Gabriel Byrne lost the plot by attacking the Gathering? -- Criticism of the tourism initiative completely misses the point

Gabriel Byrne

Damned if we do, and damned if we don’t. That must have been the thought running through Enda Kenny’s mind as his ears were stung from Gabriel Byrne’s tongue lashing.

The Hollywood star lambasted King Kenny and the Government’s marketing centerpiece for the tourism industry next year, The Gathering, which aims to bring an extra 325,000 visitors to Ireland.

Rubbing even more salt into the wounds was the news that The Gathering had actually part-funded Today FM’s Last Word programme’s visit to New York on which actor Gabriel Byrne lambasted the tourism initiative as a “sham”. From Byrne’s perspective it was probably tantamount to shooting a man with his own gun.

The acclaimed actor has made his living creating dramas, but his role in this charade was no Oscar-winning performance. Yes, it was full of passion and came from the heart, but in the end Byrne simply lost the plot.

The Gathering is little more than a global PR and advertising campaign. Indeed, in a time of beleaguered budgets, it is a clever ploy to try and boost much needed tourism revenue. So rather than being an attempt to unscrupulously profit from Irish Americans who, according to Byrne are fed up with being “shaken down,” it is merely a tourism campaign — no more or no less. It is, as they say, what it is.

Byrne is right that “the bridge between the diaspora and the people is broken.” Indeed, it is questionable whether a bridge ever existed at all. Once people leave these shores we tend to turn our backs on them. That needs to change. But The Gathering has never been about trying make up for years of neglect. It is however a beginning. And while next year will see whether The Gathering works to its full potential, it has already been successful.

In September it helped host the American Football game between Notre Dame and Navy in the Aviva Stadium, which saw 33,000 people travel to Ireland. This was the largest movement of American citizens during peacetime for one event. The day following the game was Dublin Airport’s busiest since it opened in 1940 and the visitors who travelled to see this unique sporting event spent an estimated €100m-250m in the Irish economy.

And rather than feeling as if they had just been ‘shaken down’ many extended their stay in Ireland for up to two weeks travelling around the country and soaking up their Celtic origins.

But it is not all about shaking shamrocks and being proud to be Irish. The historic game also attracted a Who’s Who from corporate America’s leading companies, which included nine of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, more that 50pc of world leading financial services firms, 17 of the top 25 medical devices companies, 8 of the world’s leading ICT companies and 10 of the internet’s top companies.

So I don’t think the Irish people, the Irish government or, indeed, Enda Kenny should be making any apologies for trying to forge such links. Do you Mr Byrne?

Paul Allen is Managing Director of Paul Allen and Associates PR, www.prireland.com.