Author Archives: Bodger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCgDAD9_0Cc&feature=youtu.be

Dear Boris by Stephen Murphy.

Dear Boris,

I’d been trying to ignore you, like some elderly relation
Who always seems to wait until a formal situation
To illustrate their ill-considered, prejudicial views
About the geo-political landscape or whomsoever they may choose.

But unlike that drunken uncle, who’ll grow sober and repent
It appears as though you’ve founded your entire government
On the premise of your own innate colonial ambitions
Where the rhetoric of fear, and hate, and all the old traditions
Have been dragged out of the grave and surreptitiously revived
By a xenophobic wave of politicians who’ve contrived
To redefine democracy, and turn it on its head
To hide the true plutocracy that governs in its stead.

But I grew up by the border, and I have family North and South
So it’s hard to just ignore the kind of bigotry you spout
When you can understand ‘The Troubles’ for the Civil War it was
And not some act of ‘folly’ or ‘The tail wagging the dog.’

And yeah, it’s true I am a Murphy, but my Grandad was a Sproule
And his father died in World War One when he was 12 years old
Who stood beside his fellow men to serve King George the 5th
At a time when men could still pretend and propagate the myth
That war was ever more than just a plaything for the rich
So while you talk about ‘Surrender’ now and ‘Dying in the ditch’
I just wish that you’d remember how that history was real
And not just propaganda for the prospect of a deal.

But I’m not so Euro-Centric to be utterly naïve
And I can understand the logic in why Britain voted leave
I mean – besides the flagrant lies and the mass manipulation
I can empathise with how the past would lead to a frustration
To see how once ‘Great’ Britain’s been belittled and reduced
To a bit part in the greater whole that Europe has produced.

‘Cause I’m not some classic advocate extolling the E.U.
I’m all too well aware to know that we’ve been shafted too –
We’ve had 42% of Europe’s banking debt
Inflicted on our people, though some would soon forget
The threat the ECB’s Jean Claude Trichet made
That a bomb would go off in Dublin if that fraud wasn’t repaid
Who brought a whole new meaning to the phrase of ‘Boom and Bust’
So I’m slow to see these bureaucrats as people we can trust.

But to be honest with you Boris, the older that I get
The more I realise that I can only trust my pet
And yeah, she took a while to settle, as a Setter cross Retriever
But when I look into her eyes at least I know I can believe her
Which is more that can be said about politicos today
In Dublin or in Brussels, or there in the UK.

‘Cause it feels like being caught between yourselves and the E.U.
Is a bit like being taught to play Beethoven on Kazoo
Where the music written down might look and act the same
But no matter how it’s played out it’s going to sound insane.

So fuck your jingoistic bullshit, and your normalising wrongs
And stick the backstop up your arse where your old empire belongs
And fuck your open racism, and fuck your prorogation
And fuck your Eton college and your Oxford education
And fuck taking away the whip from MPs who disagree
I commend them for their courage and display of bravery
To see you for the despot that you well and truly are
Fuck how you think, and what you say, and everything you are
‘Cause I never thought I’d say this, or live to see the day
But the more I see your face the more I miss poor Theresa May.

And sorry for the outburst, it’s just the aul’ Tourettes
It’s a curse of an affliction, but y’know how hard it gets
But sure look, I’ll let you go, and for now I’ll leave you be
And Remain your closest ally, and your friendly neighbour, me.

Stephen Murphy

Previously: Stephen Murphy on Broadsheet



From top: The Public Service Card; Irish Rail train; Sean Fleming TD

Yesterday.

At a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee.

Chairman of the committee Laois Fianna Fáil TD Seán Fleming referred back to a matter he raised at the end of last week’s committee meeting.

The matter concerned a constituent, their Public Services Card and Iarnród Éireann.

Yesterday Mr Fleming said , after receiving further correspondence on the matter, it appears the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection:

“has details with regard to 900,000 people, including every State pensioner in the country, on every time they use public transport and every trip they take“.

Mr Fleming said:

“Towards the end of the meeting, I raised the issue of a person who continued to use an expired free travel card. The person should not have done so because social welfare payments had ceased.

However, the travel card element of the public services card had not been cancelled and the person continued to use it.

After several months, the card was confiscated at Heuston Station when it did not work in the turnstile to leave the station. Afterwards, the person received a fine from Irish Rail for €1,000 for not having the correct ticket.

So far so good, but this raises data protection issues. The person, whom I dealt with over the summer, told me the issue of how Irish Rail got the individual’s name and address had already been raised with the Data Protection Commissioner.

There is no dispute with regard to the amount but there is a data protection issue.

Arising from our meeting last week, on Friday I received a very interesting email, as did the Comptroller and Auditor General, from a person with regard to a use of the public services card I had not really thought about until now.

If this is happening we really need it to be clarified. On the public services card is a photo, the person’s PPS number is on the back, and there is also the person’s signature.

The card also shows a date until which it is valid. On the front it may have the letters FT to signify free travel, or it may have the letters FT+S to signify the person’s spouse can accompany him or her for free.

The individual – [journalist and activist Martin McMahon]  who sent the card used it on the Luas in Dublin and on one of the major bus companies, not Dublin Bus.

When the public services card goes through the ticket machine information is recorded and the individual got curious about what is recorded when the public services card is given to private transport companies.

The person tracked it down and eventually received a letter back from the National Transport Authority, NTA, because the bus operator and Luas said it was nothing to do with them and that the person should contact the NTA.

In recent days, we received a copy of the letter sent to the individual by the NTA.

The NTA states that when a person uses the card none of the person’s information on the card is recorded but every card has a number – not the PPS number – that the transport companies have.

This allows the companies to claim payment. I know there are also lump sum grants but perhaps Iarnród Éireann is slightly different.

This number records all of the trips and journeys made by card holder.

The rail company does not have the person’s name and address or other details but it sends the number to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection where it can be matched to the person’s PPS number.

The NTA states only the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection knows the PPS number and the individualised anonymous number held by the transport companies.

The Department does not provide this information to anyone.

As far as public transport is concerned, all the NTA knows is that the number has been used but not who used it or anything about the person using the card and it is entirely anonymous.

The email also states that when the public services card is presented at the ticketing machine, it records that a journey has been taken and assigns the value of the fare forgone to the record, which is stored in the ticket machine.

The information held by the transport company is the ID, which is the number on the card, the date and time of the journey, the route number and the fare forgone, which is the adult single fare.

The data is then uploaded to the back office system and subsequently made available to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

The purpose of recording the information is so the transport operator can record overall passenger numbers and overall usage and also be able to make a claim for reimbursement from the Department in respect of services delivered to free travel pass holders.

It appears that when the information comes back from the travel company the Department of Employment Affair and Social Protection has details with regard to 900,000 people, including every State pensioner in the country, on every time they use public transport and every trip they take.

The allegation in the email is that the person did not know the State had such mass surveillance systems in place.

I do not think people knew the card and the Department could obtain details on every trip taken.

I can see why from a financial position but from a data protection point of view I can see that people were not aware that this is the case.

We will write to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to clarify this particular issue on whether it has a record of all of the travel taken.”

Transcript via Kildarestreet.com

Earlier: Anything Good In The Washington Post?

Previously: ‘Iarnród Éireann Used The Public Services Card To Collect The Information’

Update:

Data Commissioner Helen Dixon

This morning.

Via The Irish Examiner:

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) is facing a possible investigation and potential €1m fines over the mandatory requirement to hold a public services card in order to access the new National Childcare Scheme.

….That requirement is perceived as being at odds with the DPC’s recent finding that mandating citizens to hold a PSC in order to access State services other than welfare is illegal…

….Earlier this week, the Irish Examiner revealed that DCYA had initially envisaged a second online portal for people without a PSC to apply for the scheme, which would have removed any GDPR concerns.

However, the department was firmly overruled by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform — the body with responsibility for the PSC’s expansion to services other than welfare — which informed it in January 2018 that “MyGovID alone” should be the only means for accessing the new childcare scheme…

Department Faces 1m Fines Over PSC Debacle (Cianan Brennan, Irish Examiner)

Above from left: Brid SmithTD and Richard Boyd Barrett TD and Gino Kenny TD

This afternoon.

Buswell’s, Dublin 2.

People Before Profit hold a press conference outlining details in  their pre-Budget 2020 submission document entitled, System Change – An Alternative Budget for People and Planet.

People Before Profit

Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Last night.

On BBC One’s Question Time.

American-British playwright, novelist, critic and broadcaster Bonnie Greer, who’s from Chicago but has lived in the UK since 1986, said:

“Often times,  hear people talking about Ireland, as if this country [UK] owns Ireland. Ireland owes this country nothing.

“Ireland owes this country no concession, it owes it no quarter, it owes it nothing.

“The third thing that I would add, too, is that the Good Friday Agreement, in spite of its rather benign name – the Good Friday Agreement is a truce.

“And it’s a truce because the United States of America and the EU sat down with the country to make it happen. We have to be much more serious about this.

“And the third thing I want say is that the United States is Irish and anybody who thinks that they’re going to get a deal through and have a relationship, a trade relationship with the United States, that shafts Ireland, you got another thing coming.

“It’s not gonna happen.

“I’m from Chicago, that’s where I was born and you know what we do on St Patrick’s Day? We dye the river green. People are very serious about Ireland in the United States. Don’t mess with it.”

BBC Question Time

Thanks Spaghetti Hoop

Meanwhile…

Hardcore.

Thanks Nat King Coleslaw

Meanwhile…

Who you calling savages?

Today’s London Evening Standard.

Thanks Ken

This afternoon.

On RTÉ’s News At One…

RTÉ Online’s Motoring Editor Donal Byrne told broadcaster Áine Lawlor that motorists can expect a “double whammy” in next week’s budget in terms of the carbon tax.

He said it’s likely the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will announce tax increases on new diesel and petrol-run cars.

And he said a €6 per tonne carbon tax increase is also on the cards.

Ireland’s carbon tax – which hasn’t been increased since 2014 – currently stands at €20 per tonne.

Mr Byrne explained:

“When you go to fill your car at the pumps, it’s going to cost you somewhere between €1.20 and €1.60 extra to fill your car.”

But you get to save the world from imminent EXTINCTION.

Which is nice.

Earlier: A Modest Proposal

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Catherine Murphy

Yesterday.

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy asked Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe  for the following:

‘The amount collected to date in carbon tax; the methods of dispersing the revenue generated from the tax; the purposes for which the revenue collected from the tax has been used for the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter?”

In a written answer, Minister Donohoe responded:

‘The total annual net receipts from carbon tax are set out in the following table:

Total Net Receipts:

2010; €223,084,537

2011: €298,231,058

2012: €353,954,210

2013: €388,376,990

2014: €385,361,885

2015: €418,996,237

2016: €430,247,558

2017: €419,603,362

2018: €431,131,923

Total: 3,348,987,760

Carbon tax receipts to end August 2019 were approximately €281,800,000, some €20 million (6.8%) behind forecast. To date the revenue from carbon tax has been remitted to the central fund and therefore used to fund public services.’

Carbon Tax Yield (Oireachtas,ie)

Earlier today.

Fianna Fáil TD’s Michael McGrath and Barry Cowen held a press conference to give an “update” on next week’s Budget 2020 process.

Virgin One Media’s political correspondent Gavan Reilly noted:

Oh.

More as they get it.

Moore Street, Dublin 1

Oliva Kelly, of The Irish Times, reports:

Dublin’s 200-year-old Moore Street market could be consigned to history following indications from traders that they are prepared to shut-up shop.

A document entitled “Licence holders who wish to be considered to exit the market” signed by 17 traders who hold casual trading licences to operate on Moore Street has been sent to Dublin City Council.

Assistant council chief executive Dick Brady, who has responsibilty for casual trading, said the 17 signatories correspond with the number of licence holders on the street.

Moore Street traders may shut up shop after 200 years (Olivia Kelly, The Irish Times)

Rollingnews