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An internal report from the country’s largest maternity hospital warned that parts from an obsolete scanner could become dislodged and land on a new-born infant with “catastrophic” effect.

The fluoroscopy machine at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street has been in use since 2006 and was supposed to be replaced before it was ten years old.

However, the machine continued to be used well past its “end-of-life” causing patient transfers, cancellations, and rescheduled appointments.

An internal report – published here by Right to Know – warned of the risk of parts from it becoming dislodged due to its age.

It said: “Should this happen while an infant was being examined, the resulting injury could likely be catastrophic as these parts are generally very heavy (in the amounts of kilos).”

These are Cabinet records from the government decisions of 2011 and 2012 surrounding arrangements for ministerial transport.

In 2011, a decision was made to abolish state cars for all but the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Minister for Justice, the DPP, Chief Justice, and the President.

Other ministers would be allowed to hire garda drivers, use their own cars, and claim mileage.

A separate decision was also made that ministers would be allowed to use bus lanes against the advice of then Transport Minister Leo Varadkar.

The records were obtained under FOI by Right to Know. Cabinet records are available under FOI after five years unless still considered exempt.

These are copies of all submissions to Minister Simon Harris relating to the outbreak of Covid-19, first in China and later in Ireland.

They have been obtained under FOI by Right to Know following an internal review to the Department of Health.

They cover a two-month time period from the very first submission relating to a “cluster of pneumonia cases” in Wuhan from January to emergency shipments of personal protective equipment in March.

The records provide a clear picture of the spread of the disease, from a “low likelihood” of spread to getting ready for the surge.

They also give new detail on PPE shipments from China and how the HSE could not go through “their normal due diligence processes”.

Details surrounding the decision to postpone establishment of the Cervical Check tribunal are also published here for the first time.

The Government made significant cuts to the level of pay for the chair and board members of Nama because the agency is in “wind down” mode.

The fee payable to the chairperson of the asset management agency has been decreased from €150,000 per year to €100,000, according to records obtained under FoI.

It will be further cut to just €45,000 from the beginning of next year with the new annual rate of €100,000 already applying to Nama’s recently appointed chairman Aidan Williams.

Fees for ordinary board members have also been chopped by almost a quarter, and have been reduced from €50,000 to €38,000 since January 1.

The cuts were quietly made on foot of an instruction from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who said the decreases were now considered “appropriate”.

In the 2011 programme for government, the Fine Gael and Labour coalition made a commitment to hold a referendum on the abolition of the Seanad.

In October 2013, 51.7% of the electorate voted for its retention.

These are the Cabinet records covering that process.

This is a list of all purchase orders of more than €20,000 from the Department of Justice in 2019.

A huge portion of the bill related to the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers in the direct provision system.

The other expenditure – on IT, media services, transport etc – is all general spending by the department last year.

While some of it may relate to direct provision, most of it will relate to the day-to-day business of the Department of Justice.

These lists of purchase orders worth more than €20,000 are supposed to be published by all public bodies as a matter of course.

The Department of Justice had ceased this practice and the record was obtained under FOI by Right to Know.

The department has now committed to publishing it to their website and hopefully will resume routine publication of this important information.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the Data Protection Commissioner was only partially included as part of the new law.

This means that only administrative records from the office can be sought under FOI and that all other records relating to investigations, including high-profile ones like those into Facebook and the Public Services Card, are entirely out of reach of the public.

This document is a submission by the Department of Justice explaining why they believed the Data Protection Commissioner should be protected from the full scope of the FOI Act.

Back in February 2015, Right to Know made a request for access to details of use of what is known as the ministerial air transport service by the President of Ireland.

Little did we know that it would take four years to get a decision.

The case was delayed time and time again with the government claiming at one stage it could impinge on state security or more bizarrely that use of the jet constituted personal information.

This, despite the fact, that such information is published as a matter of course for the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and all other Ministers: https://www.defence.ie/ministerial-air-transport-service-mats

Ultimately, the Commissioner for Environmental Information ruled that the details were environmental information and that the travel logs should be released.

You can read them below:

Today, Right To Know – in collaboration with US access to information NGO Public.Resource.Org (“Public Resource”) – announced they have initiated legal action against the European Commission at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Right To Know and Public Resource are seeking from the European Commission access to descriptions of certain technical standards agreed by the European Committee for Standardisation (Comité Européen de Normalisation) or “CEN“.

We sought technical public safety standards with the force of law that include the safety of toys, including children’s chemical sets and and those relating to the chemicals present in products such as finger paint.

Late last year, we sought access to these standards via a request under Regulation 1049/2001 (containing Aarhus Convention related amendments). The European Commission refused access to these standards at both the first juncture and after a confirmatory appeal.

Our legal action at the General Court seeks to annul this decision of the Commission to refuse access to these standards.

It is the view of both Right To Know and Public Resource that harmonised technical standards form part of EU law and should therefore be available to any EU citizen – without restriction.

We rely in particular on the decision of the Court of Justice in James Elliott Construction (C-613/14) that “a harmonised standard … and the references to which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, forms part of EU law”.

Right To Know Director Gavin Sheridan said: “We believe all EU citizens have a right to access and read all EU law. EU law includes harmonised technical standards – and those technical standards include the safety of toys.”

“We are pleased to be working with Public Resource and its founder Carl Malamud who has a very long and admirable record in working on access to information rights globally.”

“We are both perplexed as to why EU citizens – including parents – are unable to read the standards imposed on toy manufacturers concerning the levels of chemicals to which their children might be exposed. It seems odd to us that EU citizens must currently pay for access to this information – it should be available for free and without restriction on re-use, or dissemination.”

Public Resource and Right To Know are represented by Morrison Forrester in Berlin, Germany and by FP Logue solicitors in Dublin, Ireland.  

Public Resource is a not-for-profit public charity established in the United States to make government information more broadly available to citizens and to help make governments use the Internet more effectively.

Right To Know is a not-for-profit company established in Ireland that seeks to vindicate the rights of citizens to access information, as part of their fundamental rights to freedom of expression.