Then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe with a Public Services Card in 2006; Solicitor Simon McCarr

Solicitor Simon McGarr, of Dublin firm McGarr Solicitors, was very vocal about his concerns in respect of the Public Services Card for years.

This was long before the Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon last week found that there is no legal basis for anyone to have to present a PSC in respect of any transaction between a person and a public body outside the Department of Employment and Social Protection.

At the weekend, Mr McGarr tweeted redacted documents that he obtained which show how closely the Department of Social Welfare was following his media utterances on the matter – including his tweets…

Related: The Facial Images on the PSC are Biometric Data (Simon McGarr)

Previously: House of Card

Your Card Has Been Declined

UPDATE:

Gavan Reilly, political correspondent at Virgin Media One and presenter of Newstalk’s On The Record interviewed Mr McGarr yesterday.

Towards the end of the interview, they had this exchange…

Gavan Reilly: “If there is an internal note on the Department of Social Protection about your appearance on this show here today, what do you imagine they’re saying about you?”

Simon McGarr: “I can’t imagine it’s complimentary based on the previous notes that I got. But what I will say is this: One of the talking points which have emerged since the report [from the Data Protection Commissioner] is the argument is that ‘well, look, surely everyone acknowledges, our intentions were good while we illegally collected a database on three million people.

“And, at some point, the intentions were good, absolutely. In the sense that nobody intended to break the law, at some point when this was being designed.

“The question is at what point did they become aware that the law was being broken and being carried on anyway.

“And I do know that the Journal.ie received documents between the Department of Transport and the Road Safety Authority which said that Shane Ross had received a verbal briefing from the Attorney General in March 2018.”

Reilly: “So the Attorney General was giving advice, nearly 18 months ago, that there already some legal concern or ambiguity about this?”

McGarr: “Well, on foot of the conversation, having cited the conversation as the reason for doing it, the Department of Transport instructed the Road Safety Authority  to stop requiring the public to use the Public Services Card in their online application.

“And the Road Safety Authority complained that they’d spent millions building that. So, in March 2018, Shane Ross took the right decision on the Attorney General’s advice and he said ‘no, we won’t do that’.

“Now, the question is: at what point did everybody else in the public service become aware of the Attorney General’s opinion and why did they take no action from March 2018 to now?”

Listen back in full here

 

Ah Moher.

This morning (above).

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare.

Danny Dudek writes:

Guys at Clare County Council should be ashamed of themselves for covering beautiful brickwork at O’Brien’s tower with concrete… who the hell allowed that?

O’Brien’s Tower?

Top pic: Wikipedia

File photo of worker at Western Building Systems’ site; former Minister for Education Richard Bruton at an Oireachtas committee meeting in September 2017

This morning.

RTÉ’s Education Correspondent Emma O’Kelly is reporting that the HSE awarded a €14million contract to Tyrone-based Western Building Systems to build a new 60-bed ward at University Hospital Limerick – with the contract signed in May.

It follows Ms O’Kelly reporting last week that engineers had found structural flaws in 17 schools buildings – despite initial assessments carried out last October finding that there were no safety concerns.

These schools were in addition to 22 other schools that were found to have defects last year, while all of the schools affected were built by Western Building Systems.

The Department of Education is suing the company.

Meanwhile…

On September 26, 2017…

At a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills, the then Minister for Education Richard Bruton answered questions put to him by members of the committee about Western Building Systems.

At the time, Mr Bruton announced that 31 schools across Ireland were to be audited for fire safety standards after five then recently built schools were found to be in breach of regulations.

Mr Bruton told the committee:

“We are now doing a full audit of all of the WBS [Western Building Systems] schools. It is important for me to say this is not based on a concern that we have. We believe that the premises have been to the highest standards but we just want to make doubly sure.”

During the meeting, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the minister: “It [Western Building Systems] should never get a public contract again.”

Mr Boyd Barrett added:

“Can the Minister tell us how many schools this company is currently building? How many other schools has it built? We also know that it is involved in the Poppintree project for rapid-build. Are these units being audited for fire safety?

“It built the extension to Beaumont Hospital. Has that been fire-safety audited? I believe it did work in Temple Street hospital. Has that been fire-safety audited?

“Can the Minister tell us today that if Western Building Systems was guilty of multiple breaches of basic fire safety regulations? Will it be banned forever and a day from ever getting a public contract? It absolutely should be.

“Can the Minister also confirm whether the Whitehall College of Further Education was also built by Western Building Systems in 2008?

“It has been sitting empty to this day because issues were also identified there, initially by the National Standards Authority and because a case subsequently taken by the Office of Public Works over breaches of regulations and building controls. That building is sitting there empty.”

Mr Bruton responded that yes, Western Building Systems could tender for other projects.

He said:

“Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked whether Western Building Systems was eligible to apply for further contracts. It can.

“The rules under which tendering occurs are very strict as to when an individual or a contractor can be disallowed from participating in the process.

“They include where someone has committed offences or undertaken activities involving misrepresentation, undue influence on procurement procedures, grave professional misconduct or agreements to distort competition or demonstrated significant or persistent deficiencies in the performance of a public contract which led to its early termination.

“The situations in which one can or cannot exclude a builder from a particular application process are very clear.

“It is true that although we are carrying out an audit of every building constructed by Western Building Systems, the Department is confident that they are being built to the highest standards.

“All of the new protections which have been in place since 2014 in terms of certification are in place in respect of those buildings.

“We want to make sure there is no question of anything which is not up to the highest standards being missed.

“That is why we are undertaking a 100% audit of the schools built by Western Building Systems since 2003.”

Committee transcript via Kildarestreet.com

Watch the committee meeting back here

HSE awards €14m contract to building firm which Education Dept is suing (Emma O’Kelly, RTE)

A discharge from the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant into Dublin Bay earlier this year

Irish Water has announced in a press release:

Irish Water is carrying out essential maintenance works at the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant in the coming days in order to reduce the risk of odours from the plant.

These works are essential maintenance works on one of the odour control units at the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant, and involve replacing carbon odour control media to ensure any odours generated in the primary clarifiers are effectively treated.

There may be intermittent odours while these works are carried out.

The works will start immediately and will take approximately five days. Irish Water would like to apologise for any odours that arise while the work is being carried out.

Previously: ‘Further Discharges Expected’

Pic: Eoin O’Shaughnessy/Dublin City Shots

Saturday.

St. Finian’s Church, River Valley, Swords, County Dublin.

A ‘guard of honour’ in tribute to truck driver Nicholas Collier, who died when he was struck by an empty handler at Dublin Port last Wednesday. Nicholas’ son Darragh asked Ireland’s lorry drivers to “send off his dad in style”.

Along with Darragh, Nicholas is survived by wife Tricia, sons Sean, Conor and Cillian, parents Tom and Mary, brothers Eamon, Tony and Cathal, and sister Selina.

Rollingnews

The votes are in.

Last week, with two free tickets to the Jeff Buckley tribute night in Whelan’s [Dublin 2] on August 22 on offer, I asked you to name your favourite song by the late troubadour.

You answered in your tens.

But there could be only one winner.

Runners-up:

Brian the Lion writes:

‘A girl and I made love listening to Grace on repeat and I will never forget it. hallelujah and nakedness. Amazing. There was a moment when the the band comes in to Eternal Life at the beginning and my stomach butterflies even to this day. It was summer and it was raining and it was the day after a party. If I ever loose some parts of my memory, I will fight to keep that one.’

Andrew writes:

‘Last Goodbye. Really reminds me of a friend I lost this year. Too young to die and I think about him everyday. I can’t understand it. Lilac Wine is beautiful too.’

Winner:

Niamh writes:

‘I was quite a sensitive soul at school, so one of my teachers gave me a lend of ‘Live A L’Olympia’ to tape onto cassette. At one point Jeff sings ‘manger beaucoup de fromaaaaaaaage’ into the mic between songs. The favourite was always ‘Dream Brother’…my mam yelled up the stairs at me to turn it down.God but Jeff was beautiful. PS please give me the tix. I want to ask a cute boy out.’

Thanks all.

Last eek: Win Nick’s Free Tix

A time-lapse showing the impressive three day ballet of grounds staff and machinery that switched Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena back to a football pitch following a U2 concert in October of last year.

In fairness.

awesomer

There’s many a sore head in Tipp
As on Sunday they managed to slip
More over the bar
Than Kilkenny by far
And won in the big championship

John Moynes

Broadsheet.ie