Access to Information Updates
There are the bankruptcy documents of former Minister and broadcaster Ivan Yates. He is one of many who have gone to the UK to avail of a more lenient bankruptcy regime there.
The documents were released in full to the Sunday Times, who made them available to thestory.ie. I have removed some information that I would deem to be not relevant, including bank account numbers, national insurance numbers, mobile numbers, email and a car registration number.
This is the report of the Ugandan Auditor General into the Office of the Ugandan Prime Minister. Ireland has suspended aid to Uganda in light of the scandal around an alleged fraud, reported to involve €12 million in aid last year from four countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland.
This is a draft of the 7th review by the European Commission on the ‘Economic Adjustment Programme for Ireland’. It was not obtained via a right to information request.
Besides filing lots of FOI and AIE requests, thestory.ie is always interested in important reports. Some are harder to find than others. In the past we have published the (almost forgotten) Ansbacher Report in its entirety, the Glackin Report (final), which until it was published digitally here was only available in certain libraries. The Beef Tribunal was always on the list and today I can publish the report in (almost) its entirety. There about 19 pages left to scan.
I’ve published it over here in three parts. You can also download the full thing by expanding your view and clicking on ‘download original PDF’. I hope the digitisation of the report helps future students of history, students of corruption, academics and of course journalists.
In 2011 Northern Ireland firm Pi Communications replaced Windmill as the company in charge of the management, operation and maintenance of the television facilities and digital recording systems in the Houses of the Oireachtas. TheStory.ie has obtained a copy of the contract:
If you ever wonder how cynically our own government – no matter what party – treats us, then you get a clue today. Traditionally we would see bad news being released on a Friday (a Friday night newsdump), so that the bad news would get killed in the weekend news cycle – but this time the tactic is different.
The Comptroller and Auditor General was tasked with writing a special report into the scandal ridden Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA). That report was finished and signed off on February 24, 2012 – or three whole months ago. The report would appear to have been missing down the back of a couch somewhere and by some miraculous coincidence, today of all days, it appears.
So forgive my cynicism when you see that
1) On a day the country goes to the polls in a referendum and;
2) The night before newspapers are set to be wholly dominated by coverage of that referendum
…the report magically appears, and Environment Minister Phil Hogan, whose Department is responsible for the DDDA, (and who has been missing in action during the entirety of the referendum campaign) suddenly appears to comment and confirm that yes, the report is published, and yes the DDDA will be shut down.
Wonderful media management guys.
Here is the report:
Finally got my hands on a copy of this report, which has never appeared online. TheStory.ie obtained, photocopied, scanned and OCRd this document at some effort. I believe this is one of the more significant reports in the history of the State. This is almost all of the report in three parts.
Part two to page 820:
Part three from page 839 to page 902: (I am working on getting the remaining 19 pages)
This is the report of the Finlay Tribunal, also known as the Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into The Blood Transfusion Service Board.(Via Lenus).
Via the good people over at Lenus. The formatting on the scan on some pages looks a bit out of whack so the OCR isn’t the best but it’s better than nothing.
I see the Central Bank has sent letters out to customers who are involved with the website yourmoney.ie. The company behind yourmoney.ie is called Dunne & Maxwell Limited, a company previously called Zaynabi Limited.
One of the main shareholders in Dunne & Maxwell according to the 2009 B1 Certificate is Adam Deering, with a registered address in Cheshire, UK. Other shareholders are people from Cork – Derek Murphy and Jerry Curtis. Jerry Curtis resigned as a director of the company in late 2009.
This is the company’s only B1 certificate. No accounts are available. The company also is listed for strike-off.
Of course publishing this information does not imply wrongdoing on the part of the above-named individuals, I am simply publishing documents relating to the company in question.