Author Archives: Bodger

Christ.

Last night.

Meanwhile…

The Tánaiste is due to give a 20-minute statement in the Dáil chamber at 4.10pm on how and why he gave a contract negotiated between the Government and the Irish Medical Organisation to a rival GP group in April of last year.

As well as Mr Coveney, a succession of Fine Gael Ministers have defended Mr Varadkar asserting that much of the information in the document was in the public realm and his only intention was to ensure more GPs signed-up to a long-overdue upgraded contract.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said he has confidence in the Tánaiste but admitted the controversy is a distraction.

Varadkar due to make Dáil statement over document leak (RTE)

Meanwhile…

Paddy Cosgrave

Paddy Cosgrave [Web Summit co-founder], who has been a vocal critic of the Government and the political system, and also settled a High Court action taken by Mr Ó’Tuathail – who received the leak from Mr Varadkar – earlier this year.

Mr Cosgrave also provided “strategic advice” on the article, [Village editor Michael Smith] said. Asked for comment, Mr Cosgrave responded with an emoji with a zipped mouth.

When details of his alleged involvement were put to him, he responded with a “thumbs up” emoji.

Mr Smith has said he has “more information” to come on the Varadkar story.

Asked for details, he said the magazine is “going through a whole range of correspondence that [whistleblower Chay [Bowe} received, mostly from Maitiú Ó Tuathail.”

Who are the main players in the Varadkar document leak? (irish Times)

RollingNews

Tayto Park.

10 years this month.

It grew up so fast.

Ian Collins writes:

Whether it’s a Christmas gift for all the family to enjoy, or something to keep the spirits high during lockdown, to celebrate 10 years of Ireland’s only theme park and zoo, Tayto Park has announced a 48-hour sale across all gift cards from tomorrow, Tuesday, November 3.

Tayto Park is ultimate family day out, catch a ride on Europe’s largest wooden inverted wooden rollercoaster, The Cú Chulainn Coaster, take a plunge on Ireland’s largest flume attraction, The Viking Voyage, or why not put your zoo skills to the test while visiting ‘Lemur Woods’ Ireland’s largest lemur walk through or discover tigers, leopards, birds of prey and much more at the Tayto Park Zoo!

The Tayto Park sale [at link below] will include 20% OFF all gift cards, Tayto Park gift cards can be used to purchase day tickets for a date of your choice or can be used to purchase seasonal passes.

To celebrate, Tayto Park have supplied us with a (yes, one) free FAMILY pass to Tayto Park to give away.

To enter, please complete this rhyme:

It’s ten years since Tayto got its own park,

An oasis for crisp lovers to have a lark,

Vinegarishly, some expected cheese and little to savour,

___________________________________.

Lines MUST close at 10pm.

Tayto Park

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at a Covid-19 press briefing tonight

This evening.

Paul Cullen, of The Irish Times, asked Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan about the CSO’s mortality report published earlier today.

They had this exchange:

Paul Cullen: “The other thing I noticed, from reading through that report from the CSO. Obviously our peak of deaths occurred in April of this year.”

Tony Holohan: “Uh-hum.”

Cullen: “The peak of deaths in 2017 and 2018 occurred in January. They’re actually the same size, the whole three peaks. Would you draw any conclusions from that? In fact, the one in 2018 is slightly higher than the one this year.”

Holohan: “The one in?”

Cullen: “2018 is just marginally higher than the one…I mean there was a lockdown but…”

Holohan: “Pardon me?”

Cullen: “There was obviously a lockdown in April.”

Holohan: “Yeah, there’s always a peak in mortality in the winter time. We’re well used to seeing that. And it occurs in every, every developed country and we’ve seen these reports through the European mechanism which is the European Mortality Monitoring Mechanism, the Euromomo which I’m sure you’re well familiar with, and established the same sort of pattern. I haven’t had a chance today to study the CSO, I believe they just published that today and I simply haven’t had a chance to study the detail of that today so I’ll wait to study that before I comment on your specific question.”

Earlier:

The monthly recorded death notices for October 2019 to September 2020 compared with CSO mortality figures for the same period for the years 2014 to 2019

This afternoon.

On RTÉ Radio One’s News at One.

Central Statistics Office statistician John Flanagan spoke to Bryan Dobson about a report by the CSO, involving an analysis of death notices on RIP.ie, which shows that excess mortality for between March and September 2020 is estimated to be between 876 and 1,192 deaths.

Bryan Dobson: “When you say there has been, more, excess mortality in the order of 1,192, what are we talking about? What are you comparing it with?”

John Flanagan: “Good afternoon, Bryan, so excess mortality is a measure of the number of people who have died over and above the number we would have expected to die in the absence of the pandemic. So, for example, in 2020, we would have expected around 2,500 deaths but we observed 3,500.”

Dobson: “So in relation to Covid then, it’s quite clear that Covid has, or well, it’s certainly, it’s indicated by these figures that Covid has contributed to an increase in deaths since the pandemic began earlier this year?”

Flanagan: “Yes, absolutely. So essentially, in a sentence, what you could say is between 900 and 1,200 people are dead who would otherwise have been alive at the beginning of October 2020.”

Dobson: “But that is still below the official figure from the Department of Health for Covid-related deaths, I think which is in excess of 1,900. So how is that explained?”

Flanagan: “So in certain instances there have been some accelerated deaths, so but, if you were to take it on of people who have died of Covid-19 that there is a spectrum of people who are otherwise healthy and people who are gravely ill, so essentially we are seeing, we can state that the 1,800 is effectively capturing the number of people who have died of Covid-19.”

Dobson: “There’s also another pattern which you observed and that is that many of these excess deaths are concentrated in the earlier part of the period and I suppose when the pandemic was at its height and have, well, largely tailed off into the month of September?”

Flanagan: “That’s right, yeah. So we’ve seen the death rate, the numbers of deaths return to normal, as what we would have expected to see.”

Dobson: “So for the month of September, is there any excess mortality, any indication that Covid has caused additional deaths?”

Flanagan: “No, nothing really out of the ordinary.”

Dobson: “So what lessons then do you draw from this in relation to how the pandemic is being understood?”

Flanagan: “Well, you know, all we can really discuss on the basis of this analysis is what we’ve found based on death notices. I can’t, I’m not really sure if I’ve answered your question there Bryan.”

Dobson: “Right. Maybe that’s for others to give some consideration to.”

Flanagan: “I think so. I think so.”

Dobson: “OK, well, we’ll leave it there…”

Anyone?

Listen back in full here

John McClean

This morning.

John McClean, a former Director of the Rugby Academy at UCD, has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting 23 schoolboys at Terenure College in the 1970s and 80s.

John McClean, 73,  was an English and drama teacher, who also coached rugby at the school. He took up the position as director of rugby in UCD in the 1990s.

The charges were prompted by a 2018 article from Gemma O’Doherty, who spoke to a number of Mr McClean’s victims in Village magazine.Her report claimed some gardai were aware of allegations against Mr McClean for decades.

Former rugby coach John McClean pleads guilty to indecent assault of 23 schoolboys (RTÉ)

Previously: John McClean on Broadsheet

Previously: Aidan Fitzmaurice on Broadsheet

Earlier: A Leak To Remember

Thanks Derek

Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris

This morning.

RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne.

Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris, who was the Minister for Health at the time Leo Varadkar leaked a confidential government document on GPs’ pay to a friend, spoke about the controversy.

Claire Byrne: “This was your negotiation. Did you know at the time that the Taoiseach was getting this document that you had worked so hard to agree with the IMO and sneaking it off to his friend at the National Association of GPs?”

Simon Harris: “Well I don’t agree with that characterisation and we’ll come back to that in a moment. But no, I didn’t know. I didn’t know that the then Taoiseach was going to provide this document to the president of the National Association of General Practitioners. But I do very much accept his bona fides and what he was trying to achieve here in terms of an agreement that had now been reached, an agreement that had been announced indeed by himself and myself in a very public way on a Saturday, I think it was a Saturday, the 6th of April and then indeed I had actually brought a memo to Government on the 9th of April confirming that the engagement between the parties had concluded…”

Later

Byrne: “He was undermining you because if anyone was going to share that agreement with the NAGP, it was you?”

Harris: “No I don’t believe he was undermining me and I don’t think it’s about me either…”

Later

Byrne: “But it’s he obvious conclusion, it’s the obvious conclusion right. You’re doing an negotiation, you’re doing it with the Department of Health, with the IMO, all of this has been worked through in terms of the framework that should be followed and yet the Taoiseach is saying I want to get all the other doctors signed up to this, so he gets your document and sends it off to another crowd you have decided, quite rightly, that you’re not in negotiating with, this organisation, because of the framework that’s in place.

“There’s no other way to look at this. You are undermined here, minister.”

Harris: “I’m sure that wasn’t intentional because the negotiations had been concluded…”

Earlier: Leaking Confidence

Derek Mooney: Best Practice

SAGE Barista Express, the best-selling coffee machine during Lockdown at Currys PC World

This month.

Currys PC World commissioned a survey to find out what appliances people couldn’t live without during lockdown.

Lia Stokes writes:

With 74% of people saying they attempted to bake during lockdown and 59% saying they drink 2-4 cups of coffee per day, there’s no guessing when it comes to the appliances we’ve been relying on this year.

When it came to lockdown in March this year, it seems people were relying heavily on their coffee machines with more than a quarter of respondents saying it was their hero appliance during this time!

Other close contenders were the humble kettle, as well as the dishwasher – possibly the top argument-saving appliance in the home. Some rather unexpected lockdown heroes included a sous vide and a pet hair hoover!

Caffeine was king during this period with 65% of people saying they have and use a coffee machine and 59% saying they drink between 2-4 cups per day.

There’s no doubt many of us embraced our inner baker this year with a whopping 74% of people saying they tried their hand at it. Although banana bread was undoubtedly the internet’s favourite food this year, just 29% of people admitted to whipping up a batch of their own.

Cakes were in fact the preferred choice, with 34% of people claiming to have created their own showstoppers. 28% of people opted to bake their own bread (including Brian O’Driscoll!) during lockdown including sourdough, brown bread and focaccia and not a single respondent used a breadmaker to assist their efforts! However, stand mixers accounted for 34% of the efforts while electric hand mixers made up 46.5%.

Currys PC World

This morning.

Government Buildings, Dublin 2.

Taoiseach Micheál Marin responds to calls for the resignation of his Tanaiste Leo Varadkar…

…Meanwhile…

Earlier: Best Practice