I recently sought details of staff travel at Dublin City Council. Under the Environmental Regulations I obtained details of staff travel for the period July to September:
Category: FOIs
HSE expense claims 2007 to 2010 all regions
This is all claims for expenses from people working in the HSE from 2007 to mid 2010. The total comes to €260,450,676.60.
Contextual documents:
FOI letter
Internal review decision
Expenses context
HSE South: €39,532,886.69, 23,415 rows, 15.18% of the total claimed
HSE South 2007
HSE South 2008
HSE South 2009
HSE South 2010 (to end June)
HSE Northwest: €35,786,735.08, 16,715 rows, 13.74% of the total claimed
HSE Midlands: €31,470,046.22, 14,807 rows, 12.08% of the total claimed
HSE West: €45,275,421.66, 20,298 rows, 17.38% of the total claimed (the largest)
HSE West all years
HSE East (Right click and save as.., or open in new tab)
HSE East 2007
HSE East 2008
HSE East 2009
HSE East 2010 (to end June)
HSE East AP 2007
HSE East AP 2008
HSE East AP 2009
HSE East AP 2010 (to end June)
HSE Southeast
HSE Southeast, all years
HSE Midwest
HSE Northeast
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2007
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2007
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2007
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2007
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2008
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2008
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2008
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2008
Security costs for politicians – OPW
Some time ago we sent a request to the Office of Public Works seeking information on how much had been spent by that body on any works at the homes of Irish politicians. We sought a breakdown of this information and sought to understand if anything other than works in relation to security had been carried out at the homes or constituency offices of politicians, particularly ministers.
The OPW initially refused our request citing several exemptions under the FOI Act. We appealed the decision, at a cost of €75. Four weeks later our appeal was rejected. We then appealed the decision to the Information Commissioner. It appears to have taken the OPW some time to deal with the Information Commissioner’s office (we started this process several months ago).
In a settlement reached via the Information Commissioner, it was agreed that information related to expenditure would be released but in an anonymised format, due to security considerations. We agreed to this.
As far as we can understand much of these costs are in relation to some things you can see on Google Street View, such as the green structures outside the Taoiseach’s house, and the home of the former Taoiseach. It also might relate to the laying of cables, triple glazed windows and security systems.
Politician A
€ 3,300.00
€ 48,160.00
€ 262.00
€ 20,640.00
€ 52,168.35
€ 13,270.27
Total: €137,800.62
Politician B
€ 15,600.00
Politician C
€ 13,850.00
€ 25,681.50
€ 38.974.00
€ 10,861.50
€ 4,428.28
€ 2,400.00
€ 780.00
€190,572.50
Total: €248,573.78
Politician D
€ 74,450.39
Politician E
€ 1,440.00
€ 1,895.00
Total: €3,335
Politician F
€ 20,000.00
€ 385.00
€ 9,900.00
€ 2,850.00
€ 87,950.00
€ 96,650.00
€ 68,000.00
Total: €285,735
Overall total: €765,494.79
Work so far
Posts resulting from obtaining previously unreleased documents
‘Ombudsman has serious concerns about Fahey statements‘ – leaked letter from Ombudsman to Oireachtas Agriculture Committee where the Ombudsman cast doubts on the accuracy of Fahey’s statements to the Committee.
New information relating to Terence Wheelock case – the Wheelock family’s version of Garda Ombudsman’s report on Mr Wheelock’s death in a Garda cell. It shows at least one garda involved had a history of similar incidents.
Guidelines relating to Rody Molloy’s pension – Documents show Rody Molloy’s pension did not fall within departmental and legislative guidelines, despite Government claims.
Dempsey correspondence – Documents show Noel Dempsey had very little contact with his department while he holidayed in Malta during “snow chaos”.
Press mentions of thestory.ie:
Opening our processes of democracy to scrutiny – Hugh Linehan, The Irish Times, August 4, 2010
We didn’t need IMF to tell us to target needy – Vincent Browne, The Irish Times, November 24, 2010
Fás annual expenses claims fell to €2.5m after controversy – Colm Keena, The Irish Times, May 15, 2010.
Callely will have done us a favour if his greed speeds end of the Seanad, Matt Cooper, Irish Examiner, June 4, 2010
HSE staff claimed €260m in expenses – Shane Phelan, Irish Independent, December 18, 2010
*Please note that the “description of donor” field is information annotated by us, and does not reflect SIPOC information, which merely states ‘company’ or ‘individual’.
** Unverified and crowdsourced.
Bertie Ahern's Cabinet briefing papers
As part of an ongoing process we are obtaining Cabinet records from 1998, 1999 and 2000. These records became available following the expiry of the 10 year rule under Section 19 of the FOI Act, as amended in 2003 (the amendment lengthened the time for release from 5 to 10 years, first making records available in 2008).
This record contains briefing papers for then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern from late May, June and July 1998. We currently have an appeal pending with the Information Commissioner in relation to how information from 12 years ago is redacted – and whether exemptions, such as commercial sensitivity, could still apply. We expect this decision in the near future.
It is also worth noting that prior to the FOI Act, the following papers would have only become available on January 1, 2029, as per the 30 year rule.
Previously:
HSE expense claims South, Northwest, West, Midlands
As promised, more of the expenses data released by the HSE:
Contextual documents:
FOI letter
Internal review decision
Expenses context
HSE South: €39,532,886.69, 23,415 rows, 15.18% of the total claimed
HSE South 2007
HSE South 2008
HSE South 2009
HSE South 2010 (to end June)
HSE Northwest: €35,786,735.08, 16,715 rows, 13.74% of the total claimed
HSE Northwest 2007
HSE Northwest 2008
HSE Northwest 2009
HSE Northwest 2010 (to end June)
HSE Midlands: €31,470,046.22, 14,807 rows, 12.08% of the total claimed
HSE Midlands 2007
HSE Midlands 2008
HSE Midlands 2009
HSE Midlands 2010 (to end June)
HSE West: €45,275,421.66, 20,298 rows, 17.38% of the total claimed (the largest)
HSE West 2007
HSE West 2008
HSE West 2009
HSE West 2010 (to end June)
HSE West PH_T&S 2007 to 2010
HSE East (Right click and save as.., or open in new tab)
HSE East 2007
HSE East 2008
HSE East 2009
HSE East 2010 (to end June)
HSE East AP 2007
HSE East AP 2008
HSE East AP 2009
HSE East AP 2010 (to end June)
HSE Southeast
HSE Southeast, all years
HSE Midwest
HSE Northeast
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2007
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2007
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2007
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2007
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2008
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2008
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2008
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2008
Taoiseach’s diary 2002
As part of an ongoing process. Redactions marked ‘A’ are so because the department believes them to be “personal information” as defined in Section 28 of the FOI act. Entries marked ‘B’ relate to the Taoiseach’s private papers as a member of the Oireachtas. Regards ‘B’ redactions – the cover letter from the FOI officer states “Section 46 of the Act states, inter alia, that the Act does not apply to records relating to any of the private papers of a member of the Oireachtas and as such I consider that the Act does not apply to these entries.”
Previously:
Taoiseach diary 1998
Taoiseach diary 1999
Taoiseach diary 2000
Taoiseach diary 2001
Taoiseach diary 2004
Taoiseach diary 2005
Taoiseach diary 2006
Taoiseach diary May 2008 to May 2009
HSE expense claims 2007 to 2010
In what we believe to be the largest single release of information since the inception of the Freedom of Information Act 12 years ago, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has released details of expense claims for everyone in the organisation over the past three and a half years. The datasets contain 316,307 rows, totaling €260,450,676.60 (€260.4m) broken down by HSE region, and in some cases by hospital/grade.
It has been difficult to calculate just how many people this relates to, but given that 100,000 people work for the HSE, we suspect the data relates to a great many people working within the organisation. And we should make clear that as far as we are concerned the vast, vast majority of claims are entirely legitimate. What we believe, and as we have always stated, is that this kind of information should be published as a matter of course by all public bodies, in open accessible formats, and on a regular basis.
There are a number of issues, however. Firstly the data varies. Each HSE region has released the data in different ways. Some have released more columns than others, some have helpfully condensed the data into single sheets. Others have released poorly, with the record accidentally cut short within cells.
Some readers have expressed surprise to us at the length of time it takes to get releases, so we will try to describe this more within blog posts. In this case the process took 3 months. The data element of our request went well over the 20 days allowed for reply and as a result we sought an internal review on the basis of deemed refusal. The HSE then met, and decided to release. We wish to praise the HSE in one significant respect. The HSE released the data in spreadsheets (xls as requested), on a memory stick and then sent the data via courier (though post would have been fine). If all bodies acted in this way it would help us all. Bodies who release data as PDFs take note.
We have also been made aware that as is common practice within public bodies, a notification was posted to the HSE internal intranet, informing all staff that expenses data had been released to a Mr Gavin Sheridan, and it would shortly be in the public domain. This has led to a significant number of Google searches over the past couple of weeks from HSE domains.
We are going to release this data in the unclean and raw way in which it was released. It was released several weeks ago to us and myself and Mark have spent a good deal of time cleaning the sheets and analysing them for potential follow-up (hence the quiet period around here of late). We will release those versions soon. We will be seeking the technical assistance of others in further cleaning and combining the data into a searchable database for any member of the public (or of the HSE) to access.
To kick things off, and in no particular order. Here are the expense claims of HSE South for 2007 and 2008:
Contextual documents:
FOI letter
Internal review decision
Expenses context
HSE South: €39,532,886.69, 23,415 rows, 15.18% of the total claimed
HSE South 2007
HSE South 2008
HSE South 2009
HSE South 2010 (to end June)
HSE Northwest: €35,786,735.08, 16,715 rows, 13.74% of the total claimed
HSE Northwest 2007
HSE Northwest 2008
HSE Northwest 2009
HSE Northwest 2010 (to end June)
HSE Midlands: €31,470,046.22, 14,807 rows, 12.08% of the total claimed
HSE Midlands 2007
HSE Midlands 2008
HSE Midlands 2009
HSE Midlands 2010 (to end June)
HSE West: €45,275,421.66, 20,298 rows, 17.38% of the total claimed (the largest)
HSE West 2007
HSE West 2008
HSE West 2009
HSE West 2010 (to end June)
HSE West PH_T&S 2007 to 2010
HSE East (Right click and save as.., or open in new tab)
HSE East 2007
HSE East 2008
HSE East 2009
HSE East 2010 (to end June)
HSE East AP 2007
HSE East AP 2008
HSE East AP 2009
HSE East AP 2010 (to end June)
HSE Southeast
HSE Southeast, all years
HSE Midwest
HSE Northeast
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2007
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2007
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2007
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2007
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2008
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2008
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2008
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2008
HSE Northeast Jan – Mar 2009
HSE Northeast Apr – Jun 2009
HSE Northeast Jul – Sep 2009
HSE Northeast Oct – Dec 2009
Moriarty Tribunal transcripts
[Moriarty Tribunal transcripts]
We are pleased to see – after months have passed, after an FOI submitted some time ago sought the transcripts, after being told that the transcripts themselves were not owned by the State but by a third party, and after being told that it would cost €16,600 for us to buy the transcripts (after paying over €1 million to get them transcribed), that finally the Moriarty Tribunal has published the transcripts of the tribunal from 1999 to 2009.
Next step for the Tribunal is to publish all relevant non-sensitive documents pertaining to their investigations. These usually appear on overheads at public sittings of the Tribunal. These documents are a matter of public record, and relate to a lengthy and expensive investigation into corruption and alleged wrongdoing. It is only right, and fair, that the public has a right to scrutinise not just the transcripts, but the original documents on which the Tribunal relied to reach the conclusions it has reached, and will reach.
Taoiseach FOI logs 2003 to 2009
As part of an ongoing process, we now have published the FOI logs for the Department of the Taoiseach from 2003 to 2009. Here they are:
Related: