EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers you a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
€2,133,708 - The total value of the settlement reached between M and J Wallace Ltd – the construction company 99% owned by Mick Wallace TD – and the Revenue Commissioners, reached this week after the former underdeclared its VAT to the tune of €1.4 million.
9 – The number of companies in which Mick Wallace is a director and secretary. One of them is Wexford Youths FC, which in turn is 100 per cent owned by M and J Wallace Ltd. Wallace’s colleagues in the technical group believe he should settle his Revenue bill with whatever assets he has – potentially including the football club. Our Mick Wallace coverage in full >
3 – The number of Euro 2012 tickets that Damian Coughlan left behind in the Champion Sports outlet at Dublin Airport yesterday. After a frantic nationwide search, some of his mates – who were heading to Poland a few hours later – were able to pick them up and bring them over.
40,000 – The approximate number of Leaving Cert students who will now be listening to a secondary, back-up Leaving Certificate Irish aural exam next Monday. The State Examinations Commission yesterday moved to circulate a replacement CD after the first one was inadvertently distributed to a small number of schools for a Junior Cert exam.
€210,091.27 - The total amount in expenses returned by TDs at the end of 2011, having not used the entire amounts they were given. That’s about 3.5 per cent of the Oireachtas’ total expenses bill of €6,041,540.76 to cover members’ phones and office expenses.
30+ – The number of potential sites for the National Children’s Hospital considered by the Dolphin Group, which yesterday handed over its report on the future of the project to James Reilly.
€13 - The penalty that a householder might expect to pay if they decided they now wished to pay the Household Charge.
945 – The number of householders who had their €100 payment rejected and returned to them because they didn’t include that penalty. Phil Hogan has pledged to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
0 – The number of things which are known to travel faster than the speed of light. CERN this week acknowledged that its neutrinos weren’t, after all, moving quicker than light could fall on them.
309,000 - The number of Irish people who are out of work. The CSO’s latest Quarterly National Survey put the unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2012 at 14.8 per cent – the highest it’s been since the economic downturn kicked in.
806 – The number of people who have been waiting more than four years for a consultant appointment, according to HSE figures published earlier this week. Over 5,000 people have been on hospital waiting lists for over three years; there are in total over 200,000 people awaiting appointments.
11 per cent - The proportion of the costs of raising a child that’s actually covered by Child Benefit in some cases, according to a survey published this week. Children attending an urban secondary school, and who are part of larger families, are the ones most likely to have their costs left uncovered.
116,531,800-to-1 - Your odds of winning the main jackpot in the Euromillions draw, which hit €150 million last night.
