METRO Wednesday, October 21, 2009 D TODAY: Heavy showers with strong, gusty winds. Max: 14C TOMORROW: More showers, but wind will ease. Max: 13C METRO Weather Irish duo for Berlin Wall celebrations TWO students have been selected to represent Ireland at celebrations marking 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. After a search for people born the day the wall fell, November 9, 1989, Kevin Comiskey from Portlaoise and Susie Koumarianos from Dublin were selected as the Irish ambassadors for celebrations in the European Parliament in Brussels. MENU THE Home Digest 4 Guilty Pleasures Celebrity gossip 6 World Digest 10 Letters 12 MetroLife Arts and entertainment 14-15 60 Second Interview Singer Martha Wainwright 16 TV 16-17 Classifieds 19-20 Sport 21-24 Help keep Dublin clean and tidy for everyone by taking your Metro with you and recycling it Bebo tan pair caught red handed A MAN and a woman have admitted stealing 30,000 worth of fake tan and beauty products from their employer and selling them on Bebo and wholesale to salons. John Monaghan, 29, of Crann Nua, Edenderry Road, Portarlington, Co Laois, pleaded guilty to stealing Fake Bake tanning products and other products, including fake nails and makeup from Eurosales International, Ballymount Business Park, after they were caught last January. Sinad Doyle, 29, of Hillsbrook Avenue, Perrystown, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to handling stolen similar goods. Monaghan was a logistics manager at the firm and Doyle had worked there in the past. They claimed they only made about 1,500 each. The pair presented 24,000 in court between them as compensation. Judge Tony Hunt told the two at the Circuit Criminal Court he would not send them to jail if they paid back the rest of the money, and he adjourned sentencing. Launching the Imro Live Music Venue Of The Year Awards were Coronas frontman Danny OReilly and 2006 Choice Music Prize winner Julie Feeney. The shortlist is announced this month Picture: Patrick OLeary COMING TO A VENUE NEAR YOU Unions to ballot for strike actionTHE second-largest trade union in the country, Unite, is to ballot its members for strike action over proposed public-sector pay and spending cuts. The ballot, seeking a mandate for action up to and including strikes, has been agreed at a meeting of union officials, shop stewards and workplace representatives in Dublin. The actions are to be held over two-weeks starting next week as part of the preparation for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions National Day of Protest on November 6. Unite represents 60,000 members across the education, government and health sectors. Jimmy Kelly, Unites Irish regional secretary, insisted the campaign was about the right of every person to be paid a fair wage for a fair days work. This is not just a political campaign which will make noise and get nowhere, Mr Kelly said. Its not about public or private sectors. It is about the right of every working person in Ireland to be treated with respect, to have the pensions theyve paid into protected and to be governed by leaders who put people first. The Government has signalled there will be public-sector cuts in the upcoming budget. bY bRIAn HuTTOn Bank fat cats remain despite State bail-outTHE Labour party yesterday said most Irish banking chiefs remain in their powerful posts de- spite promises of sweeping reform in return for multi-billion-euro taxpayer bailouts. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said there was little or no evidence of changes at the helm of the banking industry more than a year after the 400billion State guarantee of six Irish banks. Theres little or nothing changing at the top of the banking tree, he told the Dil. All thats happening is that the taxpayer, time and time again, is being invoked to put up [more cash] to keep the banks going. Banks rescued from the brink by the guarantee were Allied Irish Bank, the now nationalised An- glo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, EBS Building Society, Irish Life & Permanent and Irish Nation- wide. Mr Gilmore said all ten directors of AIB at the time the emergency measure was brought in, overnight in September last year, remain in their top positions at the bank, which the State now has a huge stake in. Eleven of the 13 directors at Bank of Ireland are still there, eight out of 11 EBS directors remain, as do six out of eight IL&P directors. Unfortu- nately, we dont seem to have seen very much of this change at the tops of the bank, Mr Gilmore added. Taoiseach Brian Cowen insisted there had been changes but argued there was a need for continuity in the senior to ensure an orderly transformation. The billions of euro being stumped up by tax- payers to rescue banking system was an invest- ment, he claimed. Mr Cowen also refused to be drawn on rumours of a stand-off between the Government and AIB over the replacement of outgoing chief executive Eugene Sheehy. Mr Gilmore asked if AIB chairman Dan OConnor and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan were at loggerheads about the banks reported plan to parachute an insider into the top position, against the wishes of the Government now a major AIB shareholder. Which is the dog and which is the tail? asked the Labour leader. But Mr Cowen would only say discussions were ongoing. Daughter of Irish Fritzl tells story THE daughter of Irelands Fritzl has said she cannot understand why her rapist father has never been charged. Speaking on Newstalks Moncrieff show, Aoife (not her real name) described how her mother was imprisoned, abused and raped by her stepfather for more than ten years, and how she struggles to come to terms with the fact that she is a product of one of those rapes. Im very angry, very angry with everything. Im completely disgusted with our legal system, she said. I think its an absolute outrage that they allowed this man walk free for so long. And he is still walking the streets, that baffles me. They have statement, after statement. [My mother] went through every single possible system youre supposed to go through in this country, she went through and every single one turned their back on her. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html