Records released by the Department of Justice show PR expert Terry Prone and her company the Communications Clinic were paid €55,000 for advice on speech writing and strategy by former justice minister Frances Fitzgerald.
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Gardai injured in assaults nearly 1,000 times in past 3 years
Members of An Gardai Siochana were injured in assaults 943 times in the past three years with injuries ranging from bites, fractures, dislocation, open wounds and internal head injuries.
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TV3 accused RTE of ‘de facto censorship’ of its channel
The Managing Director of TV3 wrote a letter to RTE in April claiming that the national broadcaster was engaging in ‘de facto censorship of TV3’ by excluding references to the channel and its talent.
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HSE provided Scally Report with ‘extremely cumbersome’ scanned copies of records
THE cervical cancer review was still having major problems getting access to records even after the health minister described HSE handing over material that could not be searched as “absolutely pathetic”.
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2016 Drought plan would have ‘used drought situation’ to promote metering
Irish Water’s National Draught Plan from 2016 recommended focusing communications on ‘using drought situations’ to promote controversial policies like water metering, while no mention of climate change awareness was made.
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Update: 68 FOI documents uncovered after DOJ claimed they ‘do not exist’
The Information Commissioner has uncovered 68 documents the Department of Justice previously claimed did not exist when requested under FOI.
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Post-Brexit Immigration & Childcare Costs could “Sink the Asylum System”
EVEN the smallest changes in Ireland’s system of direct provision had the potential to “sink the asylum system” in Ireland, a Department of Justice briefing warned.
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Ministers’ Diaries: A Special Crowd-funded Project
Who they met with, where and when? Ten years of political activities of our senior state representatives…
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Communities local to new Scientology centres raise concern over Varadkar’s stance
Firhouse residents responded with concern after comments by Leo Varadkar in December of last year defending the government’s approach to the ‘Church of Scientology’.
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Irish Water refund fears cost the government €70 million
By Ken Foxe
THE government took a €70 million hit on water charges because they feared legal issues over trying to recoup the water conservation grant.
The €100 grant had been paid to householders on a universal basis and many who claimed it never actually paid any water charges.
A briefing note prepared for the Department of Housing shows how three options were given on how to refund households that had paid their water bills.
The document was only released after nearly year-long battle with the Department during which they repeatedly refused to make it public.
The then minister Simon Coveney was told the cheapest option would be to refund customers while taking account of payment of the €100 conservation grant.
That would have cost €100 million for the refunds and an estimated €9 to €11 million in administrative costs in sifting out who was owed what.
The document was only made public after almost a year of effort to have it released under either FOI or EU regulations covering access to information on the environment.
Its release had been the subject of a review by the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information since last November.
However, the Department decided they would release it without being forced to saying they “no longer [had] any reason to withhold the note”.
Read the document below.