Yearly Archives: 2014

00020744

shatt

Alan Shatter in opposition, questions the Minister for Justice [John O’Donoghue] on bugging in Garda stations (May 23 2001) during an exchange concerning  the McBrearty scandal in Donegal.

Dail Debates (Oireacthas.ie)

Thanks Ronan Emmett and Paul Reynolds

Meanwhile…

“Chairman, at this stage it would be appropriate for the senior Garda authority to come clean in relation to bugging. It cannot be covered up. There are at least two hundred men alive at the moment, and women, probably a lot more, who know exactly what went on over the years, some of them are still serving in the job, and to try and cover it up on a nationwide scale, it can’t be done. It just can’t be done. It did happen. The equipment was bought and purchased at extensive cost to do it. It was not a universal approach, in certain cases they were done and it’s not just down to interview rooms. It’s houses, cars, apartments and phones. And it’s done illegally, totally illegally, and the senior Garda authority know this is the case.”

Garda John White during the subsequent Morris tribunal

(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

daly[Clare Daly and Mick Wallace this afternoon]

Responding to Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s statement to the Dail.

“To mishandle one case might be regarded as unfortunate, and to mishandle two may look like carelessness, but after mishandling six or seven serious scenarios it is time for the Minister to go. His attempt to normalise the latest crisis as no big deal has a shamefully familiar ring.

When is the Government going to realise that we have a crisis of policing in this State? His reactionary response was to say that he would establish an independent Garda authority, even though he laughed Deputy Wallace out of court when he introduced legislation to that effect last year. That is not a genuine attempt at reform.

The Minister stated that the reason this information is now being acted on is that serious information was likely to come into the public domain regarding a horrendous miscarriage of justice and the fitting up of two citizens.

That is clearly a serious and, sadly, all-too-familiar allegation. We have had heard many cases involving people who were wrongly treated by some members of An Garda Síochána.

It is also appalling that the recordings were made. It is not possible to address that issue in detail in the context of breaches of privacy, but the central issues arising are the Minister’s brazenness and barefaced denials, and the Government’s serious mistake in continuing to back him. It is not credible that he did not know.

On 21 May 2013 he told this House that the Commissioner had a duty to tell him about Deputy Wallace’s non-event, but now he is saying the Commissioner did not have a duty to tell him about the most recent issue and he does not have a problem with that.

He berated GSOC for not telling him about the bugging. He listed every piece of legislation he could think of.

Today he devoted several minutes of his speech to explaining why GSOC did not have to inform him and why he does not have a problem with that. Either he does not realise how serious this issue is or he is covering up. Either way, his position is not credible.

We are presiding over a dysfunctional police force. It is undermining the confidence of decent gardaí and the citizens. This is why the Garda Commissioner had no alternative to resigning. When is the penny going to drop with the Minister that he must do the same?

These are not isolated incidents; they are indicative of a systemic problem. None of the mechanisms put in place after the Morris tribunal has worked.

We need a root-and-branch review but, unfortunately, we cannot do that while those at the top are contaminating the process. At this stage, the Minister has contaminated the process beyond his sell-by date.”

Independent TD Clare Daly this afternoon in the Dail

Earlier: Shatter’s Statement

deus dues2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2Rx8YlSWY#t=324

A slickly produced, VFX heavy fan film set in the Deus Ex video game universe written and directed by Moe Charif, who also plays the protagonist Adam Jensen.

Dystopian cyberpunk future, corrupt corporations, machine implants: you know the drill.

shortoftheweek

t210_1_033i

Further to a health report that recommends the “mass fluoridation” of water in the UK.

It is cheap, costing about 40p per resident per year in areas where it is done, and, according to Public Health England, effective at preventing tooth decay. And yet there has been no new scheme for 25 years. Why?

The most recent attempt to fluoridate water – in Hampshire – offers some clues. The health authority instructed the local water company to fluoridate supplies in 2009 for 200,000 residents in and around Southampton amid concern about high rates of tooth decay.

But the move was met by vigorous opposition. A resident took the health authority to court and the local councils turned against the idea.

They question whether it is right that the state should make such decisions without gaining informed consent, saying fluoride is effectively a medicine and therefore people should be given a choice over whether to take it….

“…So where should the line should be drawn? History tells us the answer is not always immediately clear. Looking back, there was huge debate over interventions that have now been widely accepted, such as the seat belt laws and, more recently, the ban on smoking in public places…..”

Ireland, of course, is one of only two countries in the world with mandatory fluoridation.

So how’s that been working out for us?

Water fight!

Is water fluoridation the next big thing? (Nick Triggle, Science Correspondent, BBC)

Consider mass fluoridation of water, says health body (BBC)

Fluoride: Just when you thought it was safe to drink the water…(Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph)

fresh

Young filmmaker/journalist Laura Gaynor writes;

“So I got to produce my first TV ad! It’s for the Fresh Film Festival [Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Competition] in Limerick. My brother Robert (13) did all the VFX and my friend Alfie (18) shot and edited it. It’s on TV for the week. Would love if you’d take a look….”