50 thoughts on “De Thursday Papers

  1. eoin

    2-0 to the Data Protection Commissioner!

    Even Coveney isn’t brazen enough to ignore the illegality of requiring a PSC to get a passport. The webpage at the Dept of Foreign Affairs setting out the requirement for a PSC to get a passport no longer exists!

    https://www.dfa.ie/passports-citizenship/top-passport-questions/public-services-card/

    The government has quietly dropped the requirement, not that you’d know it from the reporting in most media, RTE and Irish Times for example.

    Cianan Brennan in The Examiner has been leading on the PSC and reports “passport applications, for which the requirement to hold a PSC was summarily dismissed by the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday [17 September]. The impression of a house of cards collapsing springs to mind.”

    (Shane Ross and the withdrawal of the requirement of the PSC for driving documentation was 1-0).

    Hopefully Helen Dixon will now press home her conclusions in the face of brazen Regina. Will she seek the committal of Doherty?

    1. eoin

      RTE has now caught up with the climdown

      “Adults applying for their first passport will no longer be required to produce their Public Services Card at the Passport Office. The change was ordered by the Department of Foreign Affairs following concerns expressed by the Data Protection Commissioner into the operation of the PSC.

      The department also confirmed the PSC will no longer be required if people are reapplying for a passport when their original is either lost, stolen or expired.”

      https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0918/1076767-passport-psc/

      2-0 to Helen.

  2. eoin

    Poor stuff on the front page of the Examiner. How can the beef protesters go home when they’re still getting €3.45 a kilo, which is 55c a kilo below break-even. The media really really want this protest to end regardless.

    Also, can someone buy a copy of the Examiner so they can splash out on a spell-checker.

    “Protesters nationwide weigh up wether to continue protest”

    1. eoin

      For all the talk of an end to the beef protests, 24 hours later, just two protests have ended, one in Slane after Dawn threatened a local Beef Plan director with legal action and one at Larry Goodman’s outfit in Waterford, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a protest/picket was reinstated in Waterford later. And that’s it. The weight of Establishment Ireland has tried to convince farmers at the pin of their collars that a confused deal that doesn’t address the core grievance is it, “mission accomplished”. I don’t think farmers can let this lie until they achieve a price which covers their costs, or, until the farmers finally move into the processing space.

    2. Otis Blue

      It’s an interesting narrative for sure and a markedly different one from times previous. Lots of vested interests coming to the fore now in order to impress upon the beef producers to end their protest. In effect, they’re being asked to continue producing at a loss in order to allow processors, intermediaries, retailers and restaurants continue as normal. Looks like a sundering of relations with the farm organisations too.

      1. B9 Com From No

        The fact is that the farmers are relying on cash flow and the majority will sell the meat now.
        The blockade can only be effective if it prevents production
        The meat processors are no angels for sure but the real culprits are the retail multiples.
        Torch these hell holes and we can see some real progress.

    3. eoin

      RTE can’t even properly report the current position of the blockade at Larry Goodman’s outfit in Waterford. They suggest a group hasn’t respected a vote by the majority on the picket. So, is there still a picket in Waterford, or not? Agriland reports the picket has “mostly” been stood down. I wonder is that cow over there “mostly” pregnant?

      RTE is now referring to those abandoning the pickets as “moderates”, give them another couple of hours and RTE will be talking about “extremists” and “sinister fringe”.

      Loss-making RTE, ladies and gentlemen, where glorified knackeryman Larry Goodman’s nephew-in-law’s brother is the right hand man of Dee Forbes. Small world.

        1. some old queen

          You should meet Clampers- he is also in Waterford- never been myself- contact Bodger- I am sure he is great craic- just don’t mention the Muxes down Mexico way- as some say up north.

  3. martco

    re. that story on the lad who cut bojo down to size today about the NHS…
    go find it on your favourite video clip website
    t’was a thing of beauty, caught rapid

  4. GiggidyGoo

    Coveneys brother in a pickle
    Greencore make three out of every five sandwiches sold in the UK seemingly. But Brexit …..
    I wonder how many Brexiteers tuck into the Irish deputy leader’s brother’s sandwich every day, without realizing what company makes them.

  5. GiggidyGoo

    And so it finally dawns – the FG farmers have been waiting in the long grass ever since their wishes that Coveney was made party leader were laughed at by their TDs. Time for retribution. Retribruton even.
    The Boy Lame Ducks, Murphy and Harris are also in for reality checks.

  6. GiggidyGoo

    I see Jack ‘bearded one’ O Connor’s market research has told him he’s not wanted as an election candidate in Wicklow. What a surprise.

    1. bisted

      …the labour gravy train doesn’t seem to be coming back…Jack will just have to console himself with whatever he got when Bertie bought the unions…

  7. eoin

    New edition of The Phoenix online and in the shops today

    https://www.thephoenix.ie

    Fair play to them for finally reporting ex-INM editor Stephen Rae’s litigation with Mark Tighe, the Sunday Times and RTE for comments made last year in the fallout of the hacking and corporate governance scandals at INM. Been banging on about it in the comments for months.

  8. eoin

    The Indo and “Irish” Mail throw the kitchen sink at the attack on an employee at the Quinn group. No surprise they managed to crow-bar “torture” into the headlines. Deets are still emerging, pesky PSNI aren’t as forthcoming with Paul and Ali cops ‘n robbers as their Southern counterparts.

    The PSNI said the employee was rammed as he approached his home. His car was “disabled”. Four men in balaclavas broke the windows and dragged the victim into the boot of a black Audi saloon. It was driven to a separate location, possibly a caravan or container, Kevin was beaten with a baseball bat and/or iron bar, he was stabbed around the body, he was doused in bleach to destroy DNA, he was then driven in a van and dumped in Cavan. And that is it. Everything else is padding.

        1. millie vanilly strikes again

          I suspect eoin and Terry may in fact be the same person. The excessive verbiage and all that.

    1. SB

      I think this is a “Veronica Guerin” moment, they need to form a special squad to root out and convict the culprits. Although having failed to tackle them properly over the last 50 years, I’m not sure how easy that would be.

    2. Cú Chulainn

      That’s some statement by Quinn senior.. careful words with which he doesn’t actually, though he appears, to condemn the attack..

      1. Lilly

        Interesting too the response from the company representative – saying basically, ‘condemnation my bottom, we would like the people who organise these attacks and pay these thugs brought to book’.

  9. eoin

    Who does Arlene think she’s kidding? We can all see what she’s trying to do. She wants Ireland and the EU to abandon the backstop in return for an arrangement which will be determined at the North’s Assembly [which hasn’t been up and running for nearly three years]. If Ireland blinks, we’ll end up with a pig-in-a-poke which the untrustworthy DUP will try to manipulate to diddle the majority in the North, particularly nationalists. No thanks missus.

    1. Cú Chulainn

      +1 hundred M.. the DUP are now all about ‘shared consent’.. even moderate Unionists were saying before Martin pulled the plug that the DUP we’re killing the GFA by refusing to engage in any sharing whatsoever. The border is going down the Irish Sea and it’s the DUP who voted for it.

  10. eoin

    Queens University in Belfast, ranked 200+, just below Trinity #164, has produced a report on the impact of prostitution laws in Northern Ireland in 2015-2018. The Republic adopted very similar laws in 2017. The report concludes the PSNI have done little to enforce the law.The report also claims demand and supply of prostitution has INCREASED in the wake of laws which criminalise the purchase of sex, but those claims appear to be based on a website run by an organised crime group, and by members of that group. Naive academics.

    https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/publications/assessment-impact-criminalisation-purchasing-sexual-services

    1. some old queen

      I would take those Uni rankings with a pinch of salt- Queens is very strong in some areas and weak in others- particularly IT and engineering- and that is where the University of Ulster trumps

      The same is said of Trinity and UCD- break it down by discipline and you will see a very different picture.

          1. Rob_G

            Ok – this is the first time you are posting from this particular one of your (no-doubt) many personas, so I don’t know who you are for the purposes of making a retort
            ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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