There is a new ranking of business schools by EdUniversal.
Seven Irish institutes make it into the top 1000 (2 in the top 100, 4 in the top 700). The methodology is particularly vague, so I do not know what it means. The ranking is based on a composite of other rankings plus a survey among deans. It seems to be mostly about teaching quality.
Anyway, two Irish universities come out well, so that is good.
There has been a trickle of news on flood management (or lack thereof).
The Examiner has an op-ed by Minister Gormley, in which he claims that his only role is to provide money. The Oireachtas report (discussed here) notes institutional failures and a lack of leadership. Hickey reached the same conclusion (see here). Others have noted a lack of progress (here, here, here, here), although there are some positive, private developments (e.g., a flood alert system).
Flood management is one of those areas in which the authorities should take the lead — but different priorities were set.
The Guardian has various live blogs: Twitter-like updates of the news as it develops. It has devoted one to Ireland’s debt crisis. It has all the latest about who is talking to our dear leaders and about what.
The Guardian also started a new blog on Ireland. Brian Lucey and Stephen Kinsella will contribute regularly. Here’s Lucey’s first.
There are a few place open still at tomorrow’s event which focuses on higher education (rather than at university-based research).
Minister Ryan has come out against the privatisation of state-owned energy companies, for three reasons.
First, the minister states that these companies are investing, and implies that these investments would disappear if the companies would be privatised. That suggests that part of the current investment plans make no commercial sense. It would therefore be good to scrap those investments.
Second, the minister states that the companies paid a 320 mln euro dividend in 2009. The return on capital of ESB and BGE is a respectable 9.4%, but the return to the owner is only 4.3%. Ten year bonds are at 8.1% now, so a sale would be profitable to the Irish taxpayer.
Third, the minister states that splitting the companies would increase their cost of capital. A split is necessary because the network infrastructure is a natural monopoly that should remain in state ownership. Essentially, the minister claims that ESB and BGE use capital cross-subsidies between their activities. The value of the parts is therefore greater than the value of the total.
In sum, the minister has given three excellent reasons why the state-owned energy companies should be privatised.