… dedicated to sharing documents, combing and combining data and promoting transparency in public life: An experiment in journalism and crowdsourcing hoping to shed light on the government. If you’re spending the Irish taxpayers’ money, you’re on the radar.
The views expressed here are those of the writer alone and relate in no way to the the views or lack thereof of their employers, past or present.
Thestory.ie was originally set by Gavin Sheridan and Mark Coughlan. Gavin is a blogger and journalist from Cork. He established one of Ireland’s longest running blogs, Gavinsblog.com and helped set-up Kildarestreet.com. Kildarestreet is designed to allow citizens keep tabs on what their TDs and Senators are up to in the Oireachtas. You might see his name pop up in the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Times the odd time too. (gavinsblog AT gmail DOT com). He works at a new media startup founded by former broadcaster Mark Little.
Mark Coughlan is a journalist, videographer and researcher. He ran the website alongside Gavin until December 2010 when he took up a full time contract with RTÉ’s Prime Time. For the time being he is ‘on sabbatical‘ from thestory.ie but you can find his posts throughout the archives. If want to contact him, he’s at coughlanmp AT gmail DOT com, @mark_coughlan or 087 9431203.
Methods:
Freedom of Information Act 1997/2003 (Ireland)
Access to Information on the Environment Regulations SI/133/2007 (Ireland)
Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
European Communities (Re-Use of Public Sector Information) Regulations 2005
TheStory.ie feedback
“Excellent”. Broadcaster and columnist Matt Cooper. Irish Examiner.
“…ferrets relentlessly through information obtained through Freedom of Information requests and publishes the results.” Hugh Linehan, The Irish Times, August 3, 2010
“…fantastic.” John Burns, The Sunday Times
“indispensible” Gene Kerrigan, The Sunday Independent
“Support them, shower them with breakfast cereals and all the gold they can eat.” Stephen Kinsella, Economics lecturer.
“….does for Irish political life what the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics does for the UK, except they do it better.” Peter Stafford, research analyst.
Best of luck guys, long overdue.
Well done you guys, excellent work. Most welcome too.
Galway Co. Co. is the only Local Authority to publish the council members “Declarations of Interest”. I wonder if anyone is really interested in monitoring these as surely real interest would generate pressure to publicise these.
See http://www.galway.ie/ethics/
go for it people ! good luck with all the work
Since Brian Cowen, on the Late Late Show, defended O’Donoghue’s use of the limo in Heathrow by saying it was supplied by the Embassy, wouldn’t it be a good use of FOI to request a list of TDs and Senators to whom they provided limo services in the years 2000-2001?
I’m just a Joe Soap, no inside info at all.
I was just wondering about NAMA.
If Liam Carroll is anything to go by ( in a
slightly different scenario ) – some developers
will fight NAMA in the courts.
Not to mention the legal administration of
NAMA….
Are there any decisions on legal fees??
Or is this going to be another bonanza for
our legal friends, at taxpayer’s expense??
Keep up the good work.
Could you confirm is it possibloe for a private citizen or group to pursue in Court against politicans for the misuse of public money that was not used wholly and necessary in the execution of their official functions.
I understand that this course of legal action is possible in the U K against politicans for the repayment of such money.
Await your reply with interest.
Thank you for your comments.
Good site, ye ever think of getting on to the great Chuck Feeney for funding? This site seems exactly what he was trying to establish when the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI) was set up. Everything on this site here seems above board, would be worth giving it a shot anyway? Atlantic Philanthropies, I believe, is the name of his organisation
Gavin can I send you an essay….
is it true that some union personnel eg chairperson ino are being paid by taxpayers through hse– on paid– by hse– leave from her permanent job–depriving another person of job. How can we have trust in this arrangement there is major conflict of interest
Some Union personel are on leave from their posts in various public sector positions. They are paid by the taxpayer, strictly speaking, but the Union then reimburses the department, as far as I know.
Of course, there are Union leaders who work full-time in the dept and part-time for the Union, but this is often switched in reality. This leads to the dept paying full-time wages for a part-time worker, and the Union – if they are paying the person for their work – vice versa.
We need to get rid of the fee to access certain state documents. It smacks of corruption and hiding information from the people/PAYE class/voters.
Just landed here for the first time – Thanks for setting up this website – this is EXACTLY what is needed in the Irish Blogosphere. The lack of transparency in Irish Governmental affairs is a major impediment when it comes to keeping tabs on the halfwits in Leinster Hse
New Moriarty Tribunal website launched http://www.moriartytribunal.com. This site has been created by Mr. Denis O’Brien to help explain and expose the inner workings of the Moriarty Tribunal of Inquiry.
Interesting quote from Developer Mick Wallace on Vincent Browne on Thursday (?)……he said he bought a property (€8m) in October 2006 and a month later he knew he had made a bad decision.
Thanks for all the good work. Sorry I can’t give more.
A rich source of nuggets. I always check before posting ottosbunker. Keep it up, never tire.
I feel very strongly that we need to embed Swedish-style Freedom of Information into our 1937 constitution as I set out here
http://politicalreform.ie/2010/06/21/freedom-of-information-and-corruption/
This was based on a BBC Radio Four talk by a London-based Swedish journalist who said
“But if you ask me for one example where my country shines, I would have no doubt what to choose. Sweden’s Freedom of Information laws are a beacon to the world….In 1766, when a new young radical government came to power convinced that only transparency could deal with the corruption that was looting the Swedish state and society Freedom of Information Act was passed…All documents within the public sector are in the public domain so people can actually check and hold the people in power accountable for their actions…. Freedom of Information… is still a bedrock for transparency and accountability in Swedish democracy…You don’t have to tell why they want to see a document or you don’t even have to give a name…You can even read official letters before they arrive in politicians’ intrays………Yea, Freedom of Information does mean you sacrifice some personal privacy…Of course, Freedom of Information isn’t universal in Sweden. If you really want to hide information you can. But you have to work quite hard to keep things secret. The exemptions are limited and very specific.”
In 1996, in a submission to the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, I proposed adding the following to Art 9 of our existing 1937 constitution
Art. 9.4.1 In order to encourage the enlightenment of the public and the free interchanges of opinion, every Irish citizen shall have free access to official documents.
For more detail on this seep.25-26 , p. 69 and ff, p.121 on http://www.2nd-republic.ie/files/1.pdf
All I could muster in protest against 2003 restrictions on the 1997 FoI act were letters in newspapers, which I circulated to elected representatives.
All this arises from some work that two friends and I did in response to the 1980s. We then said (http://193.120.95.144/politics/design-for-democracy.pdf)
“The media
‘From the clash of ideas – minds ignite’
We see a greatly enhanced role for the media under our proposals. At present, reporting is confined to the issues presented by the representatives. Partial release of information is used as a method of news management.
However, in most instances the available options are not known to the public. Under the proposed system, all the information necessary to make a decision would be in the public domain. The media would have a major role in bringing the debate to the notice of the public.
Although the system we are proposing is complex it provides sufficient information (as a matter of routine) to allow evaluation and control of its performance. The media could focus and
interpret this information to facilitate the public understanding of the processes of government. Our proposals would make these processes much more visible and extend serious and informed discussion by journalists and other commentators. This would give the media an important role in informing opinion about the real options facing society.”
I found your site by default (looking for a creative writing site) and now I’m addicted! Excellent well done a shot in the arm for jounalism. Jackie Cronin.
I think that your RSS feed is not working properly.
Hi, Im looking to get the full street addresses of NAMA buildings which have been repossessed (i.e. were enforcement action has been undertaken against the developer). The list published by NAMA a few months ago includes the street but not the numbers, so it’s difficult to identify specific buildings. I’ve been trying lots of places (namawinelake; NAMAlab) but nobody seems to know how to go about it. Any ideas??? Any help greatly appreciated.
I really like this site and its aims as we all know Ireland has suffered in all areas of public life from corruption due to a lack of transparency. I would like to be able to share these stories on facebook however I only see a link to ‘like’