kenfoxe

Ken Foxe

You may take his life.

But  you will never take his FREEDOM (of Information).

Journalist Ken Foxe writes:

The Department of Public Expenditure has published a full list of all special adviser salaries on their website.

There are a handful of cases where people have jumped up the salary scale beyond the point that they should normally start as reported previously.

There are also a couple of instances where individuals are above the scale altogether, mostly because of pre-existing deals.

However, it is worth pointing out that the costs here are well down from 2011.

And I would like to think that had something to do with the long series of FOI-based stories about salary cap breaches in those early days of the Fine Gael & Labour coalition, including this story I did on the negotiations for one adviser Ciaran Conlon and his €127,000 salary.

Again, I think we are seeing here one of the subtle but clear benefits of Freedom of Information where there is an obvious reluctance now by Ministers to get involved in making “business cases” to break salary caps.

The agreement that special advisers could be placed anywhere on the salary scale seems to me to be a halfway measure designed to give some wriggle room and at the same time not have emails and letters floating around demanding six-figure salaries.

So we now have a much lower annual pay bill and those savings will continue for however long the current government lasts … mostly thanks to our Freedom of Information Act.

Mmmf.

The special adviser salaries and how Freedom of Information has helped significantly cut the annual wage bill (Ken Foxe)

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The cover of this morning’s New York Post

…First, her team says nothing as it sneaks her from the 9/11 ceremony — after she nearly collapses. It later claims she was “overheated” and parades her outside her daughter’s place, where she claims she feels “much better.”

And has the candidate — a possibly infectious pneumonia case — hug a child to make the lie seem cute.

It adds up to hours of effort to deceive — even enlisting federal officers in the effort. That’s the bottom line of The Post’s scoop, thanks to sources who revealed that she was headed to the ER, as Secret Service protocols demand — until her staff insisted otherwise, for fear hospital staff might leak word of her illness.

It seems Team Hillary saw the risk of disclosure as worse than the risk to her health.

Team Hillary’s biggest health problem is compulsive lying (New York Post)

Meanwhile…

Anderson Cooper: “So, let me ask you about that because [Democrat strategist] David Axelrod was very critical of the way that you and your campaign handled sharing your diagnosis with the public. He tweeted: “Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What’s the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?” Why not just say on Friday as you said apparently to Senator [Chuck] Schumer on Sunday, you know, “I have pneumonia, folks, I’m going to power through it”? Why keep it a secret?”

Hillary Clinton: “Well, I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal. You know, I know Chuck said today he didn’t tell anybody. It’s just the kind of thing that if it happens to you and you’re a busy, active person, you keep moving forward. And, you know, I think it’s fair to say, Anderson, that people know more about me than almost anyone in public life. They’ve got 40 years of my tax returns, tens of thousands of emails, a detailed medical letter report, all kinds of personal details. And, you know, it’s just so — it’s so strange that with all of that information out there, and as soon it became clear I couldn’t power through, we, you know, we said what was going on.”

Hillary Clinton calling into the Anderson Cooper’s CNN show last night

Hillary Clinton’s response to Anderson Cooper shows she still doesn’t get it on her health scare (The Fix, Washington Post)

Yesterday: Oh Say, Can’t You See?

Meanwhile…

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Ah here.

AF Branco

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Thursday September 15: Music For 18 Machines @ Button Factory, Curved Street, Temple Bar Dublin 2  (€15)

Nialler9 writes:

Music for 18 Machines is a live reimagining of Steve Reich’s minimal 1976 piece Music for 18 Musicians by Simon Cullen (Synth Eastwood, Lasertom, Ships) and Neil O’ Connor (Somadrone)..

Nialler9’s Gig Guide September 13-19 (Nialler9)

 

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Joan Collins (right) at a water protest last year

This just in.

Joan Collins, Independendents4change TD for Dublin South Central, is to move a billl calling for a referendum to prevent any future privatisation of water services when the Dail reconvenes later this month..

The bill is called the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016.

The bill will put an amendment to Article 28 of the Constitution as follows;

‘The Government shall be collectively responsible for the protection, management and maintenance of the public water system. The Government shall ensure in the public interest that this resource remains in public ownership and management’.

Ms Collins said:

”I am very pleased to be able to move this bill with the support of my Indenpendents4Change colleagues, Sinn Fein, AAA/PBP and in fact all 39 TDs who stood in the general elections on the Right2Change policy programme.

“This bill will pass if it is supported by Fianna Fail who fought the election on an anti -water charges claim. We will now see how serious their claim was. Will they support the bill or will they hide behind the fig leaf of the commission on water charges?

Privatisation is a key issue in the struggle against water charges. The whole purpose of establishing Irish Water and introducing charges was to prepare the conditions for future privatisation. By getting an article into the Constitution banning privatization the whole project and the rationale for charges will be seriously undermined.”

Fight!

Rollingnews.ie

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This morning.

At the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar, Dublin.

The launch of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, at which convener of the coalition Ailbhe Smyth (speaking in the top pic) said:

The interesting thing about this whole movement, I think, is that it’s, it has a hugely positive spirit. This is not the old, depressing, melancholic kind of campaign that we had to undertake in 1983, in 1982, in 2002 – this is so much more positive, and so much more upbeat. There’s a great sense of determination…”

“I think we do know, and I think Ireland, as a whole, recognises that the sham has to stop. We have to stop pretending that abortion isn’t a reality for women in this country. Yes it is. And we need to take account of that and provide for it in an appropriate way. And, really, the time for hiding is definitely over. It’s time now to right the awful wrong that has been done  to women for so long and put our house in order.

“So, we’re calling on Government to take its courage in its hands and to move quickly now; to right this dreadful wrong.”

Pics via Martina Quinn and Alice PR and Events

Broadsheet.ie