A TD told a member of the Oireachtas Covid-19 compliance team that he would “sooner go to jail” than wear a mask in Leinster House.
Concerns were also raised about a lack of social distancing among ministerial drivers, who would then drive cars on lengthy journeys with Cabinet members.
The details are contained in a new tranche of documents released by the Oireachtas detailing reported breaches of public health guidelines as well as aggression and bullying towards compliance staff in Leinster House and the Convention Centre.
Other concerns flagged include:
a TD who claimed to have secretly photographed members of staff to gather “evidence” they were not wearing masks.
another TD who was aggressive and told a compliance team member to leave a party room.
a member of political staff who “laughed” when asked to wear a mask.
difficulties with gardaí on duty at Leinster House and the Convention Centre.
how a member of the compliance team felt they had to “psych” themselves up to face each working day.
These records – and a previous set relating to similar breaches – are under appeal where we are seeking identification of the politicians involved.
The Department of Public Expenditure lambasted a proposed deal for a new headquarters for the Data Protection Commissioner saying the rent being sought was “exorbitant”.
The department said the planned €1.4 million-a-year deal did not represent value for money and that it seemed like it was the only suitable available premises that had actually been costed by the Office of Public Works [OPW].
They also raised concerns over the impact of the pandemic, the implications of “hot-desking” or remote working by staff, and the decline of the commercial property market.
Internal records also reveal the department were wary of “sensitivity” around the decision given the high-profile nature of the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) internationally.
An internal submission said: “There is a sensitivity attached to this proposal given the significant public, political and media interest and support attached to the DPC and a possibility of a public kick back from any negative, however valid, determination.”
The records explained how 150 staff of the data regulator were at the time spread across three locations in Portarlington, Co Laois and two separate offices in Dublin.
A business case for a combined headquarters had said it was important the DPC had its own offices, which were not shared with other government agencies.
It said: “Sharing a large office building with other tenants, some of whom could be regulated or be under investigation by the DPC could give rise to perceptions of insufficient independence.”
The business case said the Data Protection Commissioner needed to be regarded internationally as a “credible organisation” and providing an appropriate office was key to this.
The Department of Public Expenditure however said they had concerns about the use of “reputational image” as a factor in selecting a location.
They also flagged the estimated €4.3 million refurbishment costs involved at the Pembroke Row property and said that the “own door, central Dublin location selection criteria” was not accepted by them.
Their recommendation concluded by saying: “I consider that a further building search should be carried out and that this should not be restricted to an own door, central Dublin, reputational damage criteria, and cognisant of value for money and attainable staffing levels.”
However, it left the door open for the deal to be reconsidered if “significant savings” could be achieved in rental and refurbishment costs.
Relations between the department and the OPW became frayed after sanction for the deal was refused late last year with officials in the Office of Public Works said to be “clearly irritated”.
One internal email from January said: “They [OPW] advise that our decision has undermined their credibility in the market, that they cannot [and] will not renegotiate unless they can guarantee completion.”
Negotiations for the property then ceased but were later reactivated in early 2021 with the department later sanctioning an improved deal despite continuing “reservations”.
An internal submission said there was now an “improved case” for sanctioning the project and that additional value for money “while not significant” had been achieved.
Improved terms included an additional rent-free month and an “extraordinary rent review” that would take place on year two based on prevailing market conditions.
It said: “We have reservations with regard to the initial consideration of this proposal and the limited criteria applied in terms of an own door and the Central Dublin location and the potential to acquire a suitable property outside of Central Dublin.”
The submission explained how of 38 properties initially identified, only five of them were ever costed – with four of those ruled out for unavailability or unsuitability.
“This was not considered an extensive building search,” it said, “only one suitable building considered as part of the business case is not sufficient.”
Most of these records were only released following an internal review.
The state’s budget watchdog accused Tánaiste Leo Varadkar of misrepresentation and a “slur” against their work.
Mr Varadkar had given a weekend RTÉ radio interview in which he said the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) had repeatedly failed to predict the government would run a budget surplus.
In internal emails however, the council’s chair described the Tánaiste’s version of events as “bizarre” and said sometimes they needed to show they will not “be misrepresented without putting up some resistance”.
Another council member described Mr Varadkar’s remarks as a very “weird angle of attack”.
Professor Michael McMahon wrote: “And I’m not sure I would take forecasting advice from the people who bring us budgets that don’t seem to be able to predict Christmas …. :-)”
There’s lots more colourful material in there.
These records were the subject of a decision by the Information Commissioner, which you can read here.
IFAC had claimed they were exempt under Section 29 of the FOI Act covering deliberative processes.
However, Right to Know successfully argued they were not, and that release was not contrary to the public interest (as is obligated by that part of the legislation).
Minister Michael McGrath was advised not to comment on the controversial deletion of records by Simon Coveney even as his officials were briefing colleagues that text messages had always been subject to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
Mr McGrath – whose Department of Public Expenditure are responsible for FOI – was told that if asked about Zapponegate and the deletion of text messages, he should say “I am not going to comment on the specifics of a particular case”.
At the same time, his officials were telling colleagues across the civil service that there had never been any doubt over the inclusion of text messages under the legislation.
Mr Coveney caused significant controversy in the late summer after saying that he deletes text from his phone, at first saying it was for storage reasons, but later clarifying that it was over hacking concerns.
An updated briefing on record retention was delivered to civil service decision makers in early September with one slide saying: “It is well established that text messages have always been a ‘record’ for FOI purposes.
“This may include messages held on non-official systems such as personal devices, WhatsApp, Gmail, etc.”
Dublin City council chief executive Owen Keegan hit back at critics of radio comments he made about homeless people sleeping in tents and safety on the streets of Dublin.
Mr Keegan – who was at the centre of more controversy last week over an ill-judged letter about student housing – had told a radio station that the number of tents in the capital added to perceptions of “edginess” in the city.
The city council chief executive responded directly to a number of people about his tent remarks according to emails released by the council, in one saying he totally rejected the “characterisation of my comments and your assessment on my motives”.
Mr Keegan said he fundamentally disagreed with people who “promote” the use of tents for homeless people and “seek to sustain this inferior form of accommodation”.
He said tents were removed on average of three or four times a week by the council and this only happened where “the occupant has taken up an offer of secure accommodation”.
“Sleeping in tents is dangerous, unhygienic and a poses serious public health risk to both the occupants, and at times to the general public,” he added.
In another response, the city council chief executive said while there were valid reasons for somebody to live in a tent, it was never the best option.
“Notwithstanding the potential difficulties with hostel accommodation, I believe living in a supervised hostel is much safer than living in a tent in the city centre,” he wrote.
Internal emails also reveal that the city council was advised not to make official statements on Mr Keegan’s tent comments for fear of “adding fuel to the fire so to speak”.
The local authority had received several media queries about his remarks, but their external public relations advisers had recommended letting the matter fizzle out.
An email to Owen Keegan from one of the council’s communications staff said: “In other words if we try to justify our position, media might just use this to keep the argument going.”
More than 260 Irish Rail services have been at least an hour late during the past two years.
Figures from Iarnród Éireann reveal that 237 trains were at least sixty minutes behind schedule, while 28 were more than one hundred and twenty minutes late.
Irish Rail had to pay out almost €17,000 to passengers and commuters for late trains, cancelled services, bridge strikes, and other operational hitches during 2020 and so far in 2021.
The rail operator said they had paid out €6,785 so far this year in refunds in 351 separate claims.
The majority, or 226 of the refunds, related to “train failure”, while timekeeping led to refunds in 62 separate cases.
Also logged were refunds for an incident on the line (26 cases), signal fault (19 refunds), track fault (7), security issue (7), bridge strike (3), and weather conditions (1).
Not all claims for refunds are paid however, and of the 517 cases received so far this year – refunds have issued thus far in only around two-thirds of cases.
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.”
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.
