19 thoughts on “De Monday Papers

  1. Common Projekts

    Any chance you can drop the UK edition of The Star from this round up? New lows and all that. Just give us the green top Thanks.

    1. Nancy Pelosi's Cave

      Only pre-approved news sources for you eh? Nothing plebian?

      Or is it because of their direct hit on Snowflakes?

  2. SOQ

    We will find those to blame for the children’s hospital fiasco. Or is it- We will find people to blame for the children’s hospital fiasco?

    All they have to do is check the bloody tenders. Someone was clearly asleep at the wheel. And more to the point, if there is glaring omissions at this stage then you can be pretty certain there is more to come.

    1. Eoin

      Taoiseach does U-turn and now says the €450,000 (initial price, excludes accountant inflation, probably VAT and any changes to the terms of reference) will identify individuals who did bad.

      So, let’s get this right. The Taoiseach and Minister for Health are paying you €450,000 to find the culprits. What happens if the culprits turn out to be the Taoiseach and Minister for Health? Would it be rude to identify them? Would it be career suicide? Would it mean PwC can wave goodbye to future contracts?

  3. Mickey Twopints

    Welfare cheats cheat us all, unless they’re tendering for a slice of a new hospital.

    “The number of cases referred to An Garda Síochána for prosecution under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 in 2018 was 74.

    The Government has been consistently criticised for overstating the cost savings of its fraud and control activities, but a department spokesperson said: “It is not possible to disaggregate the cost of tackling social welfare fraud from the overall administration costs of the department given that many of the tasks associated with the control and anti-fraud measures are an inherent element of the roles of social welfare officials.””

    74 cases referred to AGS, no word on how many of those were successfully prosecuted, nor at what cost, nor how much money was recovered. Too difficult to count, apparently.

    https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/over-170-cases-of-welfare-fraud-brought-to-court-902036.html

    1. Martco

      just like the “nearly full employment” lark

      there’s never any attempt to quantify the quality of the employment

      spin be spin

  4. Giggidygoo

    This is the quote that the media is putting forward as some sort of cave-in. Just needs to be read carefully to understand it.
    “find individuals accountable or to identify individuals who made particular mistakes if that’s what they find”

    the ‘or’ and the ‘if’ are important words there. Does PWC become judge and jury? I doubt that, as they would have their butts sued off them.
    But the thing here is that any report that might do as Varadkar is suggesting would be heavily redacted.
    We are also talking about PWC. Fined over $600m in the US, and over £5m in the us as a result of their auditing services.

    External examination of this fiasco needed. Not one by the government’s favorite auditors.

    1. paul

      +1

      hearing Harris spout about seeking legal advice on how to punish the striking Nurses boils my piss. Maybe the TD’s can take their last (self-appointed) pay increase and hand it over to those who have actually earned it.

  5. Eoin

    Who is in charge at Dublin City Council, the councillors we elect every five years or the permanent council employees?

    The Times Ireland reports the Greens have proposed a ban on new short term let developments. Yet:

    “Mr Shakespeare [from DCC] said that the council needed to balance the need to provide tourist accommodation. He added that some properties in or close to the city centre were sometimes not suited as homes because their rooms were small and they had little natural light or parking.

    He said the council had concluded that a ban on all short-term lettings was “not considered necessary or appropriate” and that any attempt to introduce one could be open to legal challenge.

    Mr Costello [Green party councillor] described the council’s stance as short-sighted.”

  6. Eoin

    This is actually from last week, but the interview with the daughter of the man killed (with 11 stab wounds, “butchered” is probably accurate) in east Belfast a week ago is eye-opening about life in Ireland’s #2 city in 2019. The police say they are investigating if the UVF was responsible for the killing.

    https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/we-wont-let-this-go-were-going-for-justice-vows-ian-ogles-daughter-37767969.html

    “They [the east Belfast UVF] were doing an internal investigation. They said no one was going to get hurt and they would come back to us in due course with a decision.

    “It came through that it had went against us, and my daddy was ordered to get his arms and his legs broken – the term ‘busted up’ was used. My brother was to go and get his head caved in. My mummy sat breaking her heart because she said: ‘My son’s already got his head caved in’.”

    1. SOQ

      East Belfast has been carved up between UVF and UDA for as long as I can remember. It’s a wonder there isn’t a map somewhere.

      The authorities know this fine rightly but for some peculiar reason, do nothing about it. One can only assume that this paramilitary control arrangement is to their benefit.

  7. Eoin

    I’m fairly sure the story in the Mail today about clothing allowances in 2017 in RTE is old news and has been reported several times last year.

    We’re reminded that RTE spent €95,000 on clothes for Tubridy and guests on the Late Late Show over a 3-year period. That compares with €16,000 for Ray Darcy show. Around 50 staff in RTE’s news and current affairs division get around €1,400 a year in clothing allowances.

    1. Frilly Keane

      Hang on a sec there Eoin
      95k for Tubs and his LL guests? (over 3 seasons/ say 31.5k)

      Shur’ most ov’ em on that couch of a Friday are fellow RTÉ ‘sters

      M O G

      where the

      did I go wrong

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