Author: Ken Foxe

An Air Corps crew were ordered not to leave an airbase in Abu Dhabi because of a Covid-19 testing fiasco as part of the evacuation mission for Irish citizens fleeing Afghanistan.

The government Learjet had been dispatched to the UAE to support the evacuation but was diverted at the last moment to a military airbase where the crew were told they were confined to an area with no sleeping facilities and only couches.

The last-minute hitch in late August caused chaos in the Department of Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs with diplomatic staff saying they were reluctant to intervene with the UAE government.

It also caused havoc with flight plans because of concerns the Air Corps crew would not have the required rest periods before flying the aircraft back to Ireland.

Internal files from the Department of Defence detail how the plane was first diverted to a military airbase with “no reason” provided.

In 2017, the Department of the Environment issued a tender for a company to review the guidelines for implementation of the AIE [Access to Information on the Environment] Regulations.

The review took place, and the guidelines were at least substantially finished by the end of that year. They have never been published since.

Through Right to Know, we sought a copy of them under the afore-mentioned AIE Regulations last April.

The Department refused the request saying the material was in the course of completion, and that it constituted unfinished documents or data, which were therefore exempt.

We appealed that decision to the Commissioner for Environmental Information.

In submissions, the department made a number of arguments about the risk of releasing draft records, delays over ministerial sign-off of the guidelines, and that it would not be in the public interest.

It emerged at that stage that the department no longer even intended to publish the records, because a separate review of AIE was now underway which meant the guidelines themselves would need another review.

Ultimately, the Commissioner decided in our favour, in a decision that was particularly strong on the public interest.

In the decision, Peter Tyndall wrote: “I do consider that there is a public interest in disclosure of the draft Guidelines in circumstances where they have been in preparation since 2017 and where, according to DECC, a final version of the Guidelines will not be published until revised AIE Regulations are enacted.”

You can read that decision here.

You can see the guidelines for yourself below.

A motorist has run up an unpaid parking bill of more than €2,100 in one local authority area.

Shameless drivers have in some cases been hit with more than a dozen tickets each but simply refuse to pay any of them.

The problem is most pronounced in Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown in Dublin where four different motorists owe more than €1,000 in unpaid fines.

Figures from three separate councils have also shown that in one of Dublin’s local authorities – more than one in three tickets went unpaid last year.

In Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown, a single driver with a UK or Northern Ireland registered car owes the council €2,140 relating to fifteen separate unpaid tickets.

Two Dublin-registered cars have each amassed €1,552 in parking debts with the local authority, covering sixteen tickets each.

Another ‘D-reg’ car has twelve outstanding tickets and a bill of €1,164, according to the records.

A row has broken out between Greyhound Racing Ireland and RTÉ over the station’s decision to cease broadcasting and coverage of the sport.

Greyhound Racing Ireland (GRI) have also hit out at national tourism agencies Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland for halting promotional activity around the sport.

The outgoing GRI chief executive Ger Dollard said the greyhound industry was being held to a different standard than other sports, including horse racing.

He said it was “unacceptable” that coverage and engagement with greyhound racing had ended and that they had taken it up “at the highest levels of government”.

Internal records from GRI detail how the industry has battled with significant reputational issues ever since an RTÉ Investigates programme in 2019 about greyhound welfare.

A briefing document was prepared for an economic analysis that Greyhound Racing Ireland had commissioned from economist Jim Power.

It said: “The change in public perception has also been reflected in the refusal of a number of media outlets to cover greyhound racing, most notably RTÉ and the withdrawal by Fáilte Ireland/Tourism Ireland from including [it] it its promotional activity or permitting [us] to participate in promotional activities relating to the greyhound industry.”

• Full statement on these records from outgoing GRI CEO Ger Dollard.

Gardaí have received 76 complaints of harassment, bullying, and sexual harassment from members over the past five years including eight complaints so far this year.

A detailed breakdown shows that seven male gardaí and one female officer have alleged they were the victim of bullying at work in 2021.

However, An Garda Síochána said there had been no complaints of either harassment or sexual harassment in the first nine months of the year.

The supply of some blood types dropped so low this summer that introduction of a national emergency blood management plan was feared, which would have led to widespread cancellation of medical procedures.

Internal records from the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) detail how stocks of O negative blood had fallen as low as 2.3 days-worth of supply and had been running below three days for several weeks.

Minutes of an executive management team meeting said that the Covid-19 pandemic had increased reliance on what was described as an “increasingly tired donor panel”.

It suggested that direct donor text messaging needed to be looked at to “better convey the urgency of the situation” according to records released under FOI.

The IBTS ended up importing blood products from the United Kingdom, the first time it had done so since the late 1990s.

Back in June, Minister Michael McGrath promised that a review of the Freedom of Information Act was to take place.

Given added impetus by the fallout from the controversy over deletion of records during ‘Zapponegate’, this review has now been brought before Cabinet.

Right to Know is publishing this discussion document on some of the areas we believe are most in need of reform.

We do this because of our concerns about any review of information access that would be driven primarily by public bodies themselves and poorly informed ‘cost of FOI’ concerns.

This happened in 2003 and resulted in the gutting of the FOI Act and the introduction of €15 ‘up-front’ fees for requests.

The number of requests being made each year was effectively halved as a result; other restrictions were also introduced.

The abolition of the up-front fee in 2014 by then Minister Brendan Howlin helped restore the act closer to its original form.

Yet problems persist in how FOI operates in Ireland, with widespread non-declaration of records and some public bodies repeatedly failing to meet their obligations.

This is a working document. It is based on our experience as users of the act, and the many emails and messages we receive from the public and the media about their own experiences.

Not everything in it will be possible; there are other problems that we may not have identified here.

It is published to help inform the debate on what kind of Freedom of Information Act Ireland should have … from the perspective of those who make requests.

The Department of the Taoiseach has paid out almost €100,000 for the provision of secretarial services for two former Taoisigh already this year.

The €98,231 in payments were made by the Department on behalf of Enda Kenny and Bertie Ahern during the first seven months of the year.

However, with the Covid-19 pandemic reducing travel and the number of official events – no costs were incurred in the provision of VIP airport services, or state cars.

The department said they had received no correspondence in the first half of 2021 seeking use of a state car from any of the former Taoisigh.

Supports for the retired politicians had been ended in 2012 by then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny as the Celtic Tiger crash bit hard.

However, five years later, they were signed back into place personally by Leo Varadkar who was told the estimated annual cost would be in the region of €300,000.

The HSE has reported more than 1,000 posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccination programme.

The majority of the complaints – or 739 in total – related to posts on Twitter, many of which remain on the popular social media platform.

Another 291 reports were made about comments and posts on Facebook, while just three complaints related to posts or stories on Instagram.

The level of reporting by the HSE has fallen dramatically since earlier this year and was hit markedly by the cyberattack on the health services in mid-May.

In March, there were 439 reports made to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, about content on their platforms according to monthly logs.

However, by last month – the number of reports had fallen to just 70.

Low numbers were also recorded during May and June, when the HSE grappled with getting its computer systems back online, with 91 and 35 reports made respectively.

An analysis of the latest two months of reports made by the HSE reveals that many of the offending posts remain online still.

In the early days of August, of the 44 posts and comments that were flagged by the HSE, 30 of them remain online with one still available but marked “misleading”.

Of the 70 posts reported in July, there are 53 of the posts or comments still active.

In some cases, tweets and comments have been deleted, or accounts have been suspended but it is not possible to determine if that was directly because of the HSE reports.

The original database, as released by the HSE, is available below to download or view:

The Oireachtas plans to spend up to €1.2 million on hosting a series of conferences as part of plans for “fostering international and inter-parliamentary relationships”.

An internal memo also recommended the expansion of the Leinster House protocol section to help run them saying Ireland had not been “active” in hosting these events for some time.

The four conferences, which will run between 2022 and 2024 will see large international delegations visit Ireland for planned events at the Convention Centre and Dublin Castle.

An internal memo said the estimated cost of holding the events would be €1.2 million although only a €20,000 booking needed to be paid this year.

Members of the Oireachtas Commission were told the benefits of the events “far outweigh” any risks involved in hosting them.