This afternoon.
Dawson Street and Kildare Street, Dublin 2
Dublin District Branch of the Communist Party tweetz:
Communities Against Low Pay (CALP) place pickets on Dáil Éireann as the #tipsbill is being debated they also paid a visit to the Notorious Ivy Restaurant who continue to refuse to give staff their #Tips #stoptiptheft…
Irish Politics.
Healy-Rae denies being asked to join Government: ‘I was not asked to dance’
Dáil suspended as Paschal Donohoe accused of telling a ‘lie’ by Kerry TD #Dailhttps://t.co/3q2VRAkocQ pic.twitter.com/QC8Lein6FG— Mick Caul (@caulmick) June 19, 2019
Yikes.
Earlier today.
The Dáil was suspended when Kerry Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae claimed Fine Gael Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe told a “lie” and that he wasn’t asked to join Government in 2016.
The row took place during a discussion about the tourism VAT rate.
From top: ‘Benny the Burger ‘with telly’s Brian Dowling and ,from left: Callan Qualter, Rory McCormack and Cathal O’Connor from Handsome Burger
Tomorrow, as you know, is National Burger Day.
But today sees the results of The Kepak National Burger Day awards.
Via National Burger Day:
Today Callan Qualter, Rory McCormack and Cathal O’Connor from Handsome Burger were announced as winners at the National Burger Day awards ceremony in Dublin.
Galway locals Rory, Callan and Cathal flipped their way past 500 other burger outlets to victory as Kepak, the sponsor of National Burger Day, announced that the gourmet burger restaurant, Handsome Burger, is officially home to the best burger in Ireland…
Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland
Behold: the 1990 BMW (E30) M3 Convertible – one of the best (and most sought after) driver cars of its day.
Only 700 were made between 1986 and 1992 and this vehicle is one of only twelve, unequipped with catalytic converters, produced for the Spanish market.
With just three owners, a recent refresh and a new canvas top, the car will be offered at auction this September in very decent and near-original condition.
Behold: Ahuna Mons – the largest mountain on the dwarf planet Ceres – part of the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. To wit:
Ahuna Mons is like nothing that humanity has ever seen before. For one thing, its slopes are garnished not with old craters but young vertical streaks. The new hypothesis, based on numerous gravity measurements, holds that a bubble of mud rose from deep within the dwarf planet and pushed through the icy surface at a weak point rich in reflective salt — and then froze. The bright streaks are thought to be similar to other recently surfaced material such as visible in Ceres’ famous bright spots. The featured double-height digital image was constructed from surface maps taken of Ceres in 2016 by the robotic Dawn mission. Successfully completing its mission in 2018, Dawn continues to orbit Ceres even though it has exhausted the fuel needed to keep its antennas pointed toward Earth.
(Image: Dawn Mission, NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS/DLR/IDA)
Majella Moynihan; Fine Gael TD Michael Noonan, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during Leaders’ Questions yesterday
Yesterday.
During Leaders’ Questions.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald raised the case of former Garda Majella Moynihan with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Majella was in early 20s in the mid-1980s when she became pregnant with a Garda recruit.
At the age of 22, she was charged, under Garda regulations, with having premarital sex with another garda and with having given birth to a baby outside of marriage.
She felt forced to give up her son for adoption and later attempted to take her life five times.
On Today with Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One on Monday, Majella also said she suffered sexual harassment within her workplace, saying: “I feel that they portrayed me as an easy woman so they could say and do whatever they liked to me.”
In the Dáil yesterday, Ms McDonald specifically asked Mr Varadkar if he had spoken to Limerick Fine Gael TD and former Minister for Justice, from 1982 to 1986, Michael Noonan about Majella.
It followed Majella telling Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One on Monday morning that she raised her story with Mr Noonan ten years ago and that Mr Noonan told her it was an internal Garda matter.
From Ms McDonald and Mr Varadkar’s exchange:
Mary Lou McDonald: “Are there more Majellas out there? What will the Taoiseach do establish the full facts?
“Majella said yesterday that she spoke with Deputy Michael Noonan who was Minister for Justice in 1983, but she spoke to him ten years ago and at that point he said to her that this was an internal Garda matter.
“The mind boggles as to how this could ever have been an internal Garda matter.
“I understand that Deputy Michael Noonan has not responded to this matter.
“Should he now make a statement and has the Taoiseach spoken with him on the issue?”
Leo Varadkar: “I thank the Deputy. In response to her questions, I have not spoken to Deputy Michael Noonan about it.
“I do not know if there are more Majellas out there: there may well be.
“I would have no difficulty apologising to those women on behalf of the State but I would like to know the facts and be able to answer the questions raised by the Deputy today before doing that.”
“… I very much welcome the fact that [Garda] Commissioner [Drew] Harris has offered an apology and that that apology has been repeated and echoed on behalf of the Government by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan.
“Mr Harris will meet her in person and the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, has asked that he be involved in that meeting too. I think that is what should happen next. That meeting should occur between Ms Moynihan and the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice and Equality and, perhaps, we can take things from there.
“As she is the one at the centre of this they should be allowed to hear from her rather than us debating here what the next step should be. The next step should be for her and the Commissioner to meet, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, would like to be able to attend that meeting with her consent.”
Ms McDonald went on to say she believed Mr Noonan should make a statement on the matter.
Mr Varadkar replied:
“Many people have served as Minister for Justice since 1983. I am not sure how many but it could be a dozen people. I do not think this is about trying to have a go at a politician or former Minister for Justice.
“This is about Majella Moynihan and hearing her story. It is about understanding the wrongs that were done in our past, offering an apology to her from the Garda Commissioner, which has happened, and an apology from the Minister for Justice and Equality, and then allowing them to meet with her to talk about what the next steps forward should be.
“This should not be an occasion for political interaction such as that.”
Previously: “I’ve Heard From Nobody”
Ballymun, Dublin
Sean Finnan, in the Dublin Inquirer, reports:
“Yeah. We’ve no pubs in Ballymun,” says [Patricia] Mulready. “No pubs and no shops.”
“Ballymun is gone,” says [Dinagh] Neeson.
Both women say the fact that the last pub is now done is symptomatic of the wider malaise in the town, where social life for all age groups has been hollowed out.
“No shops, no pubs, no entertainment for the kids, we’ve to go on the bus to the bingo,” says Neeson. “There’s nowhere to socialise.”
“This is why the young fellas are getting into trouble,” says Neeson. They’ve nothing to do.”
. . . “A good-quality pub with food, and a meeting space, is seriously lacking in the town, and is important for both business and social life, [Head of Ballymun4Business Robert Murphy] says.
Nicola Keating, who lives locally and works in the Axis centre, just across the square says she agrees with Murphy.
“There was a big theatre show on recently in Axis, she says. The actors asked after where they could go for a drink, and maybe a bite to eat.
“We kept them here and we gave them drink here but we couldn’t feed them. Well, I gave them crisp sandwiches,” says Keating. “It’s embarrassing.”
Ballymun Should Have at Least One Pub, Local Residents Say (Sean Finnan, Dublin Inquirer)
Meanwhile…
Come and talk to us! We’ll be at the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun from 10am this Saturday 22 June for a couple of hours. If you’re in that neighbourhood, we’d love to have you drop by, and tell us what needs more coverage, or talk about ideas for collaborative journalism.
— Dublin Inquirer (@DublinInquirer) June 19, 2019
Pic: Dublin Inquirer
Further to Associate Professor at University College Dublin’s geography department Gerald Mills’s research about the number of trees that will be cut down to make way for the BusConnects programme in Dublin…
Kevin Baker, of Dublin Cycling, has responded…
FIGHT!
Yesterday: How Many?
This evening.
At 5pm.
Dr Dónal Palcic, a lecturer in economics, and Professor Eoin Reeves, head of the department of economics, both at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, will appear before the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment to talk about the National Broadband Plan.
Both academics have heavily criticised the procurement process of the plan to date.
The committee’s members are TDs Timmy Dooley (FF), James Lawless (FF), Michael Lowry (Independent), Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Eamon Ryan (Green Party), Bríd Smyth (Solidarity-PBP), Brian Stanley (SF) and Senators Terry Leyden (FF), Tim Lombard (FG), Michael McDowell (Independent) and Joe O’Reilly (FG).
Watch live in link above or here.
Related: Time for a reboot on Ireland’s broadband plan (RTE Brainstorm, September 24, 2018)
Previously: “How Could They Get It So Cheap?”
Oireachtas webcasting is provided by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service, in association with HEAnet, Ireland’s National Educational and Research Network.
