Industrial Relations Newsreports this week on the ballot of Fórsa members at Barnardos, which commences today.

IRN also reports this week that trade unions are increasingly concerned "about the development of an action plan on collective bargaining, and further to this week's figures published by the Parliamentary Budget Office, the IRN reports that the estimated gross payroll cost for the public service is almost €5 billion more than that in the revised estimates. Expect to hear more on that.

This week's slowly exploding news story puts that bike shed in the shade. Spending mismanagement at the Arts Council. The Irish Times reports today that the arts funding body may need at least another €1.5 million to replace its system for processing and approving grants, despite losing at least €5.3 million on a recent, expensive (and incomplete) IT overhaul. 

Hugh Linehan's recent analysis of the debacle is recommended, as the council will now be subject to an external examination at the request of the new Minister for Culture, Patrick O’Donovan. None of this is good news for the council's main stakeholder, the community of Irish artists and art organisations, none of whom were ever likely to express anything other than frustration with the Arts Council, whose funding application process is infamously enraging.

Elsewhere, having sold out the people of Ukraine earlier in the week, the US lobs a few hollow threats to secure peace on lousy terms, while the Bloviated Pumpkin has unveiled a new plan of reciprocal tariffs and has suggested those on pharmaceuticals (a significant chunk of which are produced in Ireland and account for quite a bit of the US deficit in traded goods) could follow in the months ahead. 

Zen 

Today's Zen is a love song.

Have a lovely weekend.

Niall Shanahan