Access to Information Updates
… and updating. The Quotes from Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan post from last week has been given a permanent and prominent home at the top of the website. I’ve also updated it with some more quotes submitted over the last few days by people via email.
New (verifiable) quotes will be added to the top of the post after the are submitted (and I get ’round to updating).
Received via comment from Loginton…
“It’s the brightest around, it shows faith in my future, keeps my feet on the ground…”
Ah, thems were the days…
I’ve blogged about Wikileaks here before and, despite usually focusing on Irish issues, think it’s worthwhile to do so again now.
Updated: MSNBC coverage at the bottom.
Today they released a video showing US helicopters attacking a group of people in Baghdad in 2007. Two Reuters journalists were murdered and two children seriously wounded in the attack. It appears 12 people died as a result. On the right the son of Reuters journalist, Saeed Chmagh, grieves for his father.
Since the murders Reuters have been seeking the videos under the FOI Act but have been continuously refused.
The US government has lied about the incident consistently, claiming all those killed and wounded – including the children and journalists – were “insurgents”.
The video was released at 4pm today our time after being leaked but the western media is relatively quiet on it. Al Jazeera is leading with it. MSNBC’s Dylan Rattigan Show seems to be the only US network program going to give it a push. The Guardian and BBC each have something small and the HuffPo has some useful paragraphs;
None of the members of the group were taking hostile action, contrary to the Pentagon’s initial cover story; they were milling about on a street corner. One man was evidently carrying a gun, though that was and is hardly an uncommon occurrence in Baghdad.
Reporters working for WikiLeaks determined that the driver of the van was a good Samaritan on his way to take his small children to a tutoring session. He was killed and his two children were badly injured.
…but there’s very little else from the Western media, as far as I can see. Nothing from the Irish outlets yet.
Continue reading “Wikileaks release video of attack in Baghdad”
Yo yo yos, you knows hows this goes etc…
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P O’Neill on the RTÉ News reporting of the IMF’s reaction to the Nama announcement.
Adrian Russell has memories of a fellow sports reporter who lived an interesting life. Also, John Riordan on Roy Keane press conferencing etiquette.
Mark Tighe on the head of the ambulance service who resigned recently.
What the HSE audit in the north west is alleged to have found is that, as well as normal travel claims, McClintock used his HSE “fuel card” to claim for €10,000 worth of petrol to which he was not entitled.
The HSE have now passed on its audit of fuel costs in its north west region to gardai.
Henry McDonald of The Guardian’s Northern Ireland staff on the future of Gerry Adams’s and Peter Robinson’s leadership.
Gav on The Last Word talking political reform
Conor McCabe has an interview with Sam Nolan who led marches for taxation reform in the 70s. Interesting as we’re seemingly about to enter another period of marches and protests.
Seriously, the apparently-consensus opinion that Lenihan is The Only Hope in a Government full of gobshites must be changing now. Also, here and, with a different angle, here.
Suzy on the changes to be made to the Civil Partnership bill
Waterford councillor, Mary Roche, doesn’t understanding the Anglo situation and isn’t ashamed to say it…
Unlike 99.99% of politicians that I have heard in recent days, I will ADMIT that I don’t understand this whole Anglo Irish Bank debacle. Problem here is that, while I’m admitting it, none (I’m convinced) of the other 99.99% understand anything about it either. But that doesn’t stop them spouting off as if they had done their PhD’s on the very subject.
They are merely parroting what they have been told – each given a few standard lines to throw out when they are asked about it. These include: “it would cost more to wind it down”; and “it’s the lesser of two evils” and “it was the Lehmans collapse that caused all this not government policy”.
They are the very worst of sheep, following dutifully into the Dail chamber and supporting the Government, as the voting fodder they are while ignorantly not knowing or caring about the well that they have thrown our economy down.
Below are a number of quotes from Minister Brian Lenihan which were reported in the media or said by him in the Dáil since the bank guarantee in September 2008.
Several of them are clearly contradicted by subsequent events*, of which some would be very recent. Others will probably be contradicted by events* to come.
Feel free to add your own in the comment box below or email them to mark[@]thestory[.]ie (remove the brackets). Please provide a link to cite your source. It’s worth keeping a log of these as events* continue. Continue reading “Quotes from Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan”
Gerard O’Neill, economist and director of Amarach Research, has some interesting observations on Anglo over on his blog, Turbulence Ahead. After quoting a section from their most recent report, he says…
So there you have it: the bank that’s going to cost us northwards of another €18 billion to ‘save’, isn’t actually lending, and the lending ‘increase’ they report is entirely the result of capitalising interest on unpaid loans (plus the fees they paid themselves). Alan Dukes, Anglo’s new chairman argues that closing Anglo rather than saving it would cost over €20 billion. It’s sort of getting to the point where closure looks like the more financially prudent option, don’t you think?
Read the full post at this link.
Simon Kelly has a few classics in his column on the back page of the Sunday Tribune‘s Business section this week.
He writes about the DDDA in broadly positive terms. There are a few laughs in there, including…
The local authority planning system causes daily damage to Ireland and this damage is far in excess of the final cost of the DDDA. I forecast reform here shortly because Nama will not put up with the rubbish that developers had to deal with over the years from the planners.
Eh. It’s not quite clear what exactly Mr Kelly means by “rubbish” but to me it seems is he suggesting the planning system was overly regulated and restricted during the boom years, which caused developers hassle. If so; seriously, Mr Kelly?
What do you make of it?
Either way; reform is predicted because of Nama, not because lack of reform. Not because the culture that lack of reform allowed prevail. The culture which is, you know, one of the main reasons there is now a need for a Nama.
Further on in the piece…
The private sector has the incentive of profit, whereas the public sector has the incentive of self interest. These look the same but are very different. The profit motive drives activity and creativity, whereas the self-interest motive drives inaction and maintains the status quo.
Profit; not equal to self interest, says Simon Kelly. Public servants not driven by profit; a bad thing, says Simon Kelly.
The private sector makes decisions and takes action whereas the public sector delays decisions, and actions, for fear of scrutiny in the future.
“Scrutiny, can’t be having have that when it comes to planning and development in this democracy. The less the better. Have I said a public oversight body should be scrapped yet?”
The best stuff is nearer the top though – where Mr Kelly does say a public oversight body should be scrapped. The following paragraph, which I’ve split into four below, is the best part…
The DDDA was given its special planning powers to facilitate the fast-track development of the IFSC and the docklands area. It was given these powers because the local authority planning system was and still is dysfunctional.
Translation: The Government wanted to attract financial services multinationals. It thought it could so with a well-serviced hub in which international companies paying minimal amounts of tax could then base their HQs – or a few desks they could call HQs for tax purposes – so they gave the DDDA powers to allow planning which could develop this. In short, the Government were not prepared to invest in reforming the dysfunctional planning process, so they decided to bypass it, that’s why the DDDA was given these powers.
Try explaining to CitiBank that it cannot build its new headquarters because a local resident has an objection to the building.
Translation: The locals are plebs, try telling Citibank they’re not.
It is in the context of this stupid right of objection that DDDA was formed. We needed a professional planning authority, not subject to An Bord Pleanála, and that is why we got the DDDA.
Translation: It’s stupid to allow plebs a say. An Bord Pleanala – tasked with ensuring infrastructural and physical development is open and sustainable – slows stuff down, so we needed to ignore them and get professionals in, and that’s why we got the DDDA.
Before we hang it, let’s reform the planning system and implement a professional system to replace the current political one.
Translation: Before we hang the DDDA let’s reform the planning system that we ignored during the boom in giving the DDDA the powers under which they fucked up, and replace it with a planning system more like the DDDA. There’s no important financial services companies even half-considering Ireland anyway now, so we have time to do it!
Nonsense from Kelly.
Neil Callanan’s piece on the same topic and the same page, is in stark contrast.
I want to draw attention to one particularly important story this week, so there’s a note before the usual home, world, other stuff.
– NOTE
Wikileaks is one organisation that seems to scare the CIA. The non-profit website, which is run on a shoestring, publishes confidential documents leaked anonymously to them from sources all over the world. In recent years they’ve published the manual for CIA operative in Guantanamo Bay, documents showing evidence of government-known human rights abuses in Kenya, the BNP membership list and the court-surpessed Trafigura report, amongst more than a million other documents. No source has ever been traced back to the leaking of a document through Wikileaks. Documents are verified before release and they say they’ve never released a false document.
Their documents have resulted in countless front page stories in the mainstream press.
Earlier this month they published a CIA report which details ways Wikileaks could be destroyed. Earlier this week they had another CIA document which analyses ways the French and German public could be manipulated to ensure support for the war in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday Wikileaks said it was under “aggressive surveillance” from US and Icelandic government employees. They say they were stopped and questioned by US agents and shown secretly taken photos of their own editorial meetings. They say the tailing and questioning is due to a film they have which they say contains footage of a US massacre (reportedly in Afghanistan) which they’re due to release at the US National Press Club on April 5th.
Read their editorial about what has happened to them in the last week here. Glenn Greenwald tells you why they’re so important here.
One of the tweets said “if anything happens to us, you’ll know who’s to blame”. Here’s hoping the April 5th video does get out, safely.
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Bryan Mukandi of Irishtimes.com reshuffles… Continue reading “Digest – March 28 2010”
Harry McGee has a good piece in this morning’s Irish Times on politcal lobbying and lobbyists, an oft ignored subject in this country.
One quick note on the second to last paragraph:
Since the mid-1990s, stricter ethical requirements have been introduced for those who are lobbied (ie politicians) who now must furnish statements of donations, make declarations of interests and adhere to codes of conduct for office holders.
The ethical standards in this area are still very, very lax.
The “details” of donations made to TDs over 2009 were published last week, just 20 TDs declared they received a donation over the (too high declaration limit) so we know bugger all about how people funded their work. This issue was covered in the first post on this blog. Political parties don’t have to publish accounts. The donations system is easily bypassed, legally (!). SIPO doesn’t have the right powers to investigate off its own back, and is hugely underfunded and understaffed.
Messy stuff in dire need of reform. Fix that and get a lobbyists’ register going, now please.
Footnote: A voluntary one? Fianna Fáil you are winding us up, right?
Interesting details available in a finding made by the High Court last week.
Mr John Keenan is the plaintiff, he has taken a case against CIÉ/Iaranrod Eireann (hereafter referred to as CIÉ), at present he remains suspended with pay. He is a long standing Labour member, friend of Emmet Stagg and is being represented by Alex White. In the above case he sought “interlocutory injunctions directing Iarnród Éireann to allow the plaintiff to perform his duties… without interference; and restraining the defendant from taking any steps to remove him from his position”. In short, he asked the court to tell CIÉ to lift the suspension with immediate effect.
Mr Keenan was head of human resources when the incidents which give context to the judgement are alleged to have taken place. It should be noted that this judgement has not considered the allegations made by either side in the case, only whether or not the suspension should be lifted.
In October 2007 Mr Keenan was asked by CIÉ’s CEO, Dr John Lynch, to compile a report for the company’s Audit Committee. The report set out the progress made in respect of disciplinary charges issued in the case of an Iarnród Éireann employee, one of the subjects of the then on-going Baker Tilly investigation.
In the last sentence of his report Mr Keenan stated that the losses expected to be detailed by Baker Tilly would “be seven or eight digit sum”. This, he says, triggered “a very adverse reaction” from some in senior management.
[Mr Keenan] says that Dr. Lynch and Mr. Paul Kiely, the chairman of the Audit Committee believed that this aspect of the report jeopardised their positions and that he was told that he was stupid and should have known better than to suggest such high losses in writing to a Board sub-committee.
Mr Keenan continued directing the Cost Audit committee but says in December 2007 there was a direction given that no minutes be kept of meetings of a “steering group” on these matters and that nothing should be kept in writing.
He claimed to the court that at one point he told other members of CIÉ senior management that Baker Tilly estimated losses could have been 12% of the CIÉ’s annual spend. He said the Chief Executive, Dr Lynch, argued that this estimate was outside Baker Tilly’s terms of reference and wanted it removed. Mr Keenan attempted to argue the relevance of the figure but, he says, Dr Lynch was unmoved. According to Mr Keenan the figure was then reduced to €2.5 million. That was around September of last year.
When published the Baker Tilly Report, as covered in some depth on this blog, detailed €2.6m in quantifiable losses, with a note that the team was “confident further unidentified losses exist within the company”. At the time Shane Ross estimated the true extent of the losses to be €9m.
It’s important, and I again wish to note, that none of the allegations made by either side are found correct or incorrect by the judgement about which I write in this post. They will be considered in a later case.
Mr Keenan also claims that on November 11 2009 the CEO, Dr Lynch, and Richard Fearns, the chief financial officer, relieved him of responsibility for the Cost Audit Unit. He says they did so as they wanted him “off the pitch”. Mr Fearns categorically denies this to be the case and says there was legitimate reason for the change. Mr Fearns believed the Audit Unit would be better handled by the finance section of CIÉ, not Human Resources, of which Keenan was in charge, as it was covering issues of financial irregularities.
It is accepted by both parties that there was considerable tensions between the two at this point.
On December 3rd Keenan was suspended from CIÉ for dereliction of duty. The reason given related to separate case which is now under judicial review in the Equality Tribunal.
The Equality Officer for that case had delivered findings on November 13th which were “very much averse to Iaranród Eireann”. They stated a female employee in the company had been harassed on gender grounds. There were clear implications made which could have damaged the reputations of both Mr Keenan and Mr Fearns.
Mr. Keenan says that having received it personally on 20th November 2009 (a Friday), he took the determination home with him and returned to work on the following Monday, 23rd November. He says that he then took a number of steps in relation to the determination, involving meeting with the Iarnród Éireann solicitor who had dealt with the matter (with regard to an appeal) and also instructed that counsel be briefed. The plaintiff says that he planned to brief Mr. Fearns on this issue at a meeting arranged for 2nd December, 2009. A full meeting however did not proceed as planned.
Mr Fearns contends Mr Keenan had ample opportunity to inform him of the findings and that by not ensuring he did so he was in dereliction of duty. He said due to Mr Keenan’s inaction there was a possibility that the company would be the subject of bad publicity for which it would be unprepared. Mr Keenan states this not to be the case, saying that the details of the cases are not made public for a month after the Equality Tribunal makes its findings.
Mr. Fearn deposes that he informed the plaintiff that he had a crisis of confidence in him as a H.R. Director as he had failed to tell him about this decision and that he should have known what a big issue this would be for the company. He says that he directed the plaintiff to stand aside from his duties with immediate effect, to go home and not to return to work until further notice. He was to continue to be paid his full salary. He was to collect his personal belongings and to hand him the keys of his office.
That was on December 3. Mr Keenan claims that the decision was disproportionate. He implies that the suspension was an attempt to silence him and that the CIÉ pair have been seeking to suppress information and acting in bad faith in dereliction of their duty to investigate alleged fraud.
However, after the meeting with Mr Fearns, Mr Keenan didn’t go home immediately. He returned to his office and made a number of phone calls. Mr Fearns claimed Mr Keenan indicated that he would return to work the following day despite being told not to. Mr Fearns then decided to seal Mr Keenan’s office, close his access to the internal email system and cut off his internet facilities. Security staff were later told – though Mr Fearns says, not by him – to ensure Mr Keenan didn’t return to CIÉ grounds. I’ve been informed that this included the posting of Wanted-style posters around CIÉ facilities.
The judgement says these decisions were “quite radical”.
The CIÉ representatives say following the December 3 incident Mr Keenan contacted employees who had been reporting to him and told them to access email correspondence and make copies. Mr Keenan said this was not “wrong” and that it was part of his duties. They say he procured access to the email account of the personal assistant of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Declan Whelan, and that he may have authorised access to employee’s bank accounts. Dr Whelan accessing his assistant’s email account was a breach of trust. Furthermore, the defendent (CIÉ) claim Mr Keenan authorised the placement of a tracking device on an employee’s car. Mr Fearns called for an investigation in the matters and said the suspension should remain in place until complete.
Judge John Mac Menamin found that the suspension should remain in place. He didn’t find against Mr Keenan however. He said that allowing him to return to work would be wholly impractical as the level of trust between the the top brass in CIÉ and Mr Keenan had disintegrated completely.
The allegations which gave context to the case will be assessed at a later date.