Yearly Archives: 2017

Anyone?

New bin charges: what do they mean and ho much will they be? (Irish Times)

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Fight!

Head of Legal Affairs Ken Ruane; Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan

You may recall how Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has repeatedly told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that she first learned of the issues concerning the Garda College on July 27, 2015 when head of HR John Barrett briefed her and others.

Mr Barrett claims he was told by College Administrator Sgt Pat McCabe that Ms O’Sullivan knew as early as June 23, 2015, while Mr Barrett claims former Chief Administrative Officer Cyril Dunne told him Ms O’Sullivan knew on June 30, 2015.

Specifically, Ms O’Sullivan told PAC that, after she was briefed on July 27, 2015, she set up a working group to deal with the issues. But Mr Barrett also told PAC that a meeting on July 2, 2015 was “the first meeting of the steering group established to examine the issues”.

Further to this…

The Irish Independent is reporting that the Head of Legal Affairs Ken Ruane has written to PAC contradicting Ms O’Sullivan’s account of events from her most recent appearance before PAC last week.

Cormac Quinn reports:

During last week’s appearance at the PAC, Ms O’Sullivan said: “The fact is this [working] group was established and it was to go through the process of informing all the relevant parties, keeping the Department [of Justice] and everyone else informed of that.

“I entrusted the job, and the sequence with which that was done, to the group as it was established. It is my understanding that it is accepted practice that the Accounting Officer cannot have oversight and responsibility for absolutely everything.”

In his letter, Mr Ruane quoted this section of Ms O’Sullivan’s evidence.

He wrote: “In my personal capacity as an individual who was asked to be a member of this group, I do not accept and cannot agree with the statement made above by the Commissioner in the context of the process of ‘informing all the relevant parties’.”

Garda legal chief disputes O’Sullivan evidence to PAC on training college (Irish Independent)

Previously: A Templemore Timeline

Further to Dr John Doherty’s letter, the difficulty of distinguishing the ironic from the literal in writing has long been recognised.

In the 17th century, the natural philosopher John Wilkins, who married Oliver Cromwell’s sister, proposed that irony should be marked with an inverted exclamation mark (¡).

In the 1960s, the French author Hervé Bazin suggested the Greek letter psi (appropriately pronounced sigh) should be used.

To substitute intonation in speech, Bazin put forward other punctuation marks to signify love, acclamation, certainty, doubt and authority. Since none of these have come into use, perhaps emojis could be used?

Blair Noonan,
Dublin 6.

No typeface for irony (Irish Times letters page)

Like Ice cream?

Like beer?

Will you be in Cork?

Read on.

Noel Finn writes:

Just wondering if ye would give our new Beer & Ice Cream Weekend a wee mention, we at the Franciscan Well [14B North Mall, Cork]  having a lot of fun messing with our beers at the minute, we’re making some nice cocktails and the like and now we’ve made some great ice creams from a few beers, made some syrups from others and combined the lot into a weekend of…. well, nom.

Hic.

Franciscan Well Brewery (Facebook)

 

This morning.

On Newstalk FM.

Paul Williams broadcast a pre-recorded interview with the former former president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) (above) after the OCI claimed the ticketing scandal, and Mr Hickey’s arrest, has cost the OCI €1.5million to date (top).

In the interview, Mr Hickey outlines what €763,000 of that €1.5million has been spent on, while he’s scathing of how the Minister for Sport Shane Ross and the Irish Government handled, or didn’t handle, his arrest.

In addition, Mr Hickey admits that he has tried to block the publication of the Government’s report into the controversy – by Justice Carroll Moran – which was given to Mr Ross on June 12. Mr Ross has given the report to the Attorney General and is awaiting his advice in regards to publishing it.

Mr Hickey said:

“I saw a draft of the report and my legal team have advised Judge Moran and the minister and the attorney general that this report should not be published until after the court case is heard in Rio. Because anything coming out of it could prejudice my fair trial but even worse still any media reports can also be used by the prosecutor in Brazil against me in the case.”

From the interview…

“I would like to, first of all, say to you Paul that I cannot go into the actual court case in Rio because the case is still in front of the courts so we’re forbidden to go into detail on that but I would be very happy to answer what you said there. The impression has been given that, in the media, that I was the cause of a spend of €1.5million by the OCI [Olympic Council of Ireland].

“Now I can categorically tell you that is not the case because I have been able to check figures and what I’m aware of is as follows, how that €1.5million is made up: the Olympic Council of Ireland got legal advice from Arthur Cox and Co solicitors, which cost them €400,000; they embarked on the Grant Thornton report which cost €214,000; they employed a technology company Espion which was nearly €40,000; they engaged with the Communications Clinic which was €80,000; and the report from Deloitte’s which was €18,000; and Wilson Hartnell, WHPR, €11,000. And that’s the bulk [€763,000] of that €1.5million.”

“Now I can tell you that my legal costs today in Brazil amount to €280,000 and there is an insurance policy in place, that I put in place, over 15 years ago. It’s called directors and officers’ liability and it’s particularly for the something like what happened to me.

“The cover on that policy is €1million, that’s the cap on it so my fees have been taken out of that €1million.

“And can I say, in addition to that, before I left Dublin on the plane for Rio, I left the OCI in a very clean state of health. There was €3million surplus in the bank and a property out in Howth that’s valued at €3million.

“Now I’d like to just emphasise that I am totally innocent of all these charges and I will be proven innocent and my legal team in Brazil are working flat out.”

Listen back to the interview in full here

Previously: How Much?

UPDATE: