This morning.
Great Denmark Street, Rotunda, Dublin 1
Belvedere College Principal Gerry Mooney (navy suit) at the doors of the secondary school checking for pupils not wearing masks.
The boys kindly refused to point out Mr Mooney’s fetching but medically inadvisable ‘mask with a valve‘.
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
How is Austria this season?
Laura Gaynor writes:
For the last instalment of my remote-travel series on @BLOCTG4, I ‘go’ to Salzburg, learn that Mozart’s birthhouse is now a Spar, and try make an Austria soufflé
Meanwhile….
In fairness.
Homeless and housing charity empires have sprung up in the last 20 years without any proper independent oversight and governance, says Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn (above)
In a no-holds-barred polemic, Independent Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn, writing in Village (full article at link below), takes on the homelessness ‘industry’….
‘…The Peter Mc Verry Trust, Focus Ireland, The Simon community, De Paul and the myriad approved housing bodies are worth tens of millions. With tens of millions on deposit.
Not-for-profit does not indicate non-commercial. Scandalously, homelessness is a business like any other, except when it comes to accountability and transparency.
Many of these entities have become fiefs in competition with each other for clients and real estate. One is reminded of the residential institutions and their greed to fill their institutions with the poor in order to make money per head
Homeless and housing charity empires have sprung up in the last 20 years without any proper independent oversight and governance. Vast sums of money and sprawling assets are under the control of these untouchables. What’s at play here is agency-capture as worthy intentions get corrupted by entanglements with conservative bureaucracy.
The saying goes that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. It was a byword for many of our grandest institutions like the Catholic Church.
…The CEOs of these institutions, the supposed charities, are on top dollar.
They control huge resources and operate like corporations. In 2016 Ashley Balbirnie, CEO of Focus Ireland, drew a €115,000 salary for overseeing 327 staff with revenue of €19,596,418 in 2014. Kerry Anthony, CEO of Depaul Ireland, drew an €82,831 salary for overseeing, including in Northern Ireland, 325 staff and revenue of €12,923,195. Joyce Loughnan of Focus Ireland was drawing €125,000 in 2013. In 2014, Dublin Simon’s chief executive, Sam McGuinness, was on a salary of €93,338.
A 2018 survey by the Wheel suggested of all charities the homelessness ones paid their CEOs the most, with average salaries of over €80,000.
…According to the Irish Times, in 2014 staff costs at the four main homeless agencies in the city absorbed all funds, and more, granted them by the State for the provision of homelessness services.
Dublin Simon, the Peter McVerry Trust, Depaul Ireland and Focus Ireland received a total of €33.6 million in grants from State agencies in 2014, but spent €35.8 million on staff costs on the 875 people they employed in 2014.
…As the canal banks fill up with tents and the footpaths with sleeping bags with no end of hand-wringing, anyone can slap on a hi-vis jacket and call themselves an outreach worker. Within a short space of time they can elevate themselves to becoming senior executives, or their own CEO…
From top: Minister of State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation Damien English has said it is not what people have eaten ‘but proof they did eat’
This morning.
Minister of State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation Damien English defended measures requiring restaurants and pubs serving food to retain records of all food orders for 28 days.
Via RTÉ:
Mr English acknowledged that the new rules would mean more paperwork for publicans, but said it was not about what a person ate, but was rather “proof that they did eat”.
“This is to enable public health teams as well as the gardaí to monitor compliance with the regulations.”
The minister said this was to protect people, help reopen businesses and “ensure a level playing field“.
Government defends 28-day record rule for pubs, restaurants (RTÉ)
Meanwhile…
Yesterday.
Independent TD Michael McNamara questioned the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee on powers to close pubs while debating the Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Bill 2020.
Deputy McNamara said:
“…Even the bar owners themselves now seem to have bought into this policy that the beatings will continue until morale improves, which is, in effect, what this Bill is about.
The only possible basis for it is if it is a promise to the people that if they can swallow this one more piece of medicine, the Government will open the pubs.
The Minister fudged the issue of how one can challenge a decision to order a pub to close for a day.
…How does one challenge a decision to order a pub to close for a day? One challenges it by way of judicial review. Is the Minister seriously telling me that the 6,000 or so publicans who are shut down and on their knees, some of whom are having their payment reduced, are going to take a judicial review, hire a solicitor, junior counsel and senior counsel and go to the High Court and pay the tens of thousands of euro necessary to challenge their closure for a day?
Of course, they are not. However, that closure for a day will be used against the publican when he or seeks to renew the liquor licence.
These are draconian powers that are having an effect on people and society and they must come to an end at some point.”
Via Oireachtas.ie
Earlier: A Limerick A Day
BBC Breakfast discussed the varying travel restrictions of the four parts of the UK.
— Declan Walsh (@catalonian29) September 4, 2020
Well, actually…
This afternoon.
Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Protestors demonstrating outside RTE’s studios against the station’s covid coverage and the arrest by Bray Gardai of Gemma O’Doherty for alleged public order offences last Friday.
This morning.
In the Dáil.
Labour TD and the party’s spokesman on justice Brendan Howlin (top) put forward several amendments to the Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Bill 2020.
The first amendment called for the deletion of the words underlined in red (above).
He explained:
My amendment seeks to delete that final half-sentence which is line 14, namely, “whether in relation to a relevant provision or otherwise”. The interpretation section, under section 1 of the Bill, defines a “direction” given by a member of An Garda Síochána as “a direction given under section 31A(7) of the Act of 1947 in relation to a relevant provision”.
Therefore, under the direction section of this Bill, a member of An Garda Síochána can legitimately enter a premises for the purposes of giving direction in regard to a relevant provision of this Bill. Section 3(1)(a) expands that so they can enter the premises for the purposes of giving a direction not only under the provisions of this legislation, but also “or otherwise”, whatever “or otherwise” might mean.
…. We need to clarify that what we are giving here is the power for members of An Garda Síochána, without warrant, to enter premises to do inspections.
…We need to ensure that the provisions we are providing for in this legislation are met, and where they are not met, there is the capacity to give a direction to the proprietor of such a premises to comply with the legislation.
It is often the case the drafters slot in words like “or otherwise”, giving a much broader scope than this House would intend to legislation.’
A Dail vote on implementing the amendment subsequently failed.
Meanwhile,
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee
During a debate on the bill last night, Mr Howlin said:
“I listened carefully to the Minister, Deputy [Helen] McEntee, at the beginning of this debate but we do not actually know what specifically is to be criminalised either now or into the future.
…At the briefing on Friday, I asked the Minister for Justice and Equality’s officials what specifically the offences are and where are the regulations are. These crafters of the legislation before us told me they did not know.
“I have never dealt with a situation where the crafters of the legislation did not know what the crimes being specifically legislated against were.
They said that it was a matter for the Minister for Health and that it would be published on Monday. In fact, the Minister for Health signed 14 pages of regulations yesterday. The difficulty with the regulations is that some of them are what are known as “penal” and some are not penal. What is the difference?
“In essence, non-penal regulations are entirely advisory and nobody can enforce them. The penal regulations are enforceable. There is a strong view in jurisprudence that a law that is not enforceable is not a law at all. Regulations that do not carry a penal sanction are not regulations.”
Meanwhile…Continue reading →
From top: Fine Gael HQ; Department of Health and O’Neill’s, Suffolk Street, Dublin 2
Ah here.
This afternoon
South Dublin city.
A mobile billboard calling for the reopening of pubs that do not serve food and targeting the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Commissioned by ‘Monaghan Publicans for Common Sense’.
Not to be confused with that ‘Monaghan Publicans for Inanity’ mob
Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
The 2 Johnnies Do America.
A USA visit by the two Tipp men behind ‘the number 1 podcast in Ireland for the last 52 weeks’ with over 250,000 listeners per week.
Karina Ryan writes:
The comedic podcast duo – Johnny “Smacks” McMahon and Johnny B O’Brien from Co. Tipperary – have taken their podcast tour on the road in America and while they are there, they meet some interesting Irish people doing well for themselves stateside! Episode 1 of a 4 part series…
The 2 Johnnies Do America at 9.30pm tonight on RTÉ2 .
Pic: Ruth Medjber
Here’s How.
A new episode of the current affairs podcast presented by William Campbell (right).
William meets Linda Ervine (above left) president of the recently-formed East Belfast GAA.
William writes:
With opinion polls on Irish unity shifting, I ask: is Unionist thinking moving forward in the North? Linda Ervine doesn’t sound like previous generations of Protestants, particularly when she’s speaking as Gaeilge.
Also, some anonymous online comments supported burning a Traveller family out of their new home in Carnmore, Galway. A local councillor demanded that locals be ‘consulted’ before Travellers move in, but is that just coded support for the bigots?
Listen HERE
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