Tag Archives: Ken Foxe

This afternoon.

Freedom of Information sleuth, journalist with Right To Know and Noteworthy Ken Foxe tweetz:

Termination pay for TDs who lost their seats or didn’t run again in the last general election.

All told, around €586,000 in payments in termination lump sums and termination pay. This doesn’t include pensions, which haven’t kicked in yet.

Termination pay is payable for up to twelve months depending on how long a politician has served in the Oireachtas.

It’s calculated at 75% of salary in the beginning, falling to 50% after a certain amount of time.

Good times.

Here’s exactly how it works:

The figures were provided by the Houses of the Oireachtas in response to a Freedom of Information request from Right To Know.

It’s open to TDs to gift all or part of the payment back to the state. Such details aren’t provided under FOI and are considered personal information.

Jaykers.

Ken Foxe

Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny (second left) and former Minister for Finance Michael Noonan (right) and  Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottle (second right) and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Coca Cola Company, Neville Isdel in Barbados on June 20, 2019

Well for some.

Meanwhile…

Um.

Meanwhile…

Gulp.

Public trust and consultation critical (Barbados Today, June 20, 2019)

Right To Know

Ken Foxe

From top: Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe; Ken Foxe

 

Ken Foxe writes:

Some time ago, a group of eight junior ministers went complaining to Minister Paschal Donohoe that the expenses they are paid are not enough and asked him to do something about it.

Naturally, I submitted an FOI request for records related to this meeting and its outcome:

At first, the Dept of Public Expenditure (the department responsible for FOI in Ireland!) did not even answer the request.

I sought an internal review on the basis this was a “deemed refusal”. The Department eventually responded to say they held no records relating to the meeting.

I appealed the decision to the Information Commissioner. It was hard to believe that a meeting could take place between a Minister & eight Ministers of State & not a scrap of paper exist relating to it.

In particular, I asked if records might be held on phones or in private emails

The Department said they had searched all their internal emails. They’d asked officials if they held records.

They claimed it was an “informal meeting” that happened “on the margins of another meeting”. Therefore, there wasn’t a single record about it

They said it was on the record that Minister Donohoe does not use “private email accounts”. And the department said searches of such accounts could not be required under the FOI Act….

And more bizarre again, the Information Commissioner agreed that there was no reason to ask the minister if he had held any records

They said that in a previous similar case (Terry Prone/Frances Fitzgerald) I had been able to provide documentary evidence that such records existed on phones & in private email accounts. I didn’t have evidence this time. How on earth would I?

The Information Commissioner agreed with the department decision to refuse the request on the basis that no records existed….

…And there you have it, Minister Donohoe can be lobbied by eight of his colleagues to increase their expense payments and not a single record of this meeting exist.

The meeting is a shadow. Worse, this involves the department who are responsible for oversight of our FOI laws …

… worse again, the Information Commissioner believes it is up to the requester to provide evidence that such records exist. This is clearly impossible given requesters have no access to the relevant records and that is why they are making an FOI request in the first place …

… and worse again, the Information Commissioner believes it would be unreasonable to even ask the minister the question of whether he held/holds records relating to this meeting on his mobile phone or in his private email address.

And presumably we are expected to believethat this lobbying happened as if by magic. Nine government ministers sitting down having a discussion about their expenses on the “margins” of another meeting.

And the minister responsible did not take even a single note of it.

Right To Know

Ken Foxe

Journalist and academic Ken Foxe has obtained through Freedom of Information Irish Water’s plans to begin charging 58,000 households for excessive water use.

Ken writes:

Meeting with Dept of Housing told process would need to be “carefully managed”. Concern raised over advising people to cut down on “toilet flushing”

Dept of Housing said Irish Water needed to be careful to be “faithful” to exactly what the law allows for. “If [excessive use letters] appear to suggest Irish Water is operating differently to what is in legislation, they will be open to challenge.”

Proposed timeline would be an initial “call to action” letter for those using excessive water. This would be followed up with a “notice” letter, a “reminder”, and finally the bill.

Charges would be capped at €500 per year for those with water in and water out services. It would only apply to those who had used more than 213,000 litres of water in the previous 12 months.

Overall, 58,061 customers were deemed to be excessively using water.

Of those, around 6,000 would be the first to be contacted. This would be followed by a “pause” to determine operational impact and the level of leak repairs that might be needed…

The project is, according to Irish Water, “reaching a state of readiness” for letters to be sent.

They had been preparing to start issuing the first batch of letters last October. The process was delayed because of (among other reasons) issues over data protection and how customer information would be handled:

The data being managed includes obvious things like name & address, but also number of occupants in a house, and any special medical conditions requiring extra water. In addition, it could provide info on people’s habits and when they’re likely to be home based on usage.

*pulls chain*

Right To Know

Ken Foxe

A bumper state-funded salary thread by Ken Foxe, who writes:

The new chief executive of the Land Development Agency: €200,000 per year, provision of a car, health insurance for the candidate and their family, and access to the pension scheme applicable to commercial state body chiefs….

…On the right A salary of €200,000 for the new Project Director of the National Children’s Hospital. This used to be one role but was split into separate posts with a project director and chief officer. Unknown material was redacted by Dept of Public Expenditure & Reform:

On the left a salary of €177,175 per year for the new Chief Officer of the National Children’s Project. This was to reflect the “significant increase in the scale & complexity of the role, the ongoing political, public, and media interest in the project …”…

…Sanction was granted for an increase in the salary of the chief executive of Sport Ireland to €157,000 per year for the final year of the incumbent’s contract. The Dept of Public Expenditure would not comment on why this happened…

…The new head of the National Screening Service is to be given a salary of €161,477 per year. This role has yet to be filled and the competition is ongoing. Dept of Public Expenditure said in future they wanted to be given more notice to make such decisions…

…Sanction was also given for IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan to be reappointed for a five year term with a salary of €187,869 per year. This followed letter from IDA who said the salary had “not been reviewed for some time”…

…the Dept also granted permission for a new head of regulatory affairs at the Health Insurance Authority to be paid a salary at the highest level of the principal officer scale. This is likely a salary of between €101,114 and €107,399…

…Approval for Director of the National Archives to be appointed at a rate of €93,785 per year. Not fully clear if this was the final arrangement and Dept would not provide any further information on it.

Right To Know

Ken Foxe

Oireachtas offices at 91-93 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, have been emptied

Three buildings bought by the State for almost €20million have had to be temporarily abandoned after their staircases began to crack and move.

The Oireachtas offices are located in three adjoining Georgian buildings on Merrion Square with 60 staff affected.

A Freedom of Informartion request by journalist and academic Ken Foxe has revealed details of the sorry tale.

Ken writes:

The saga began last June when the Oireachtas first noticed cracking in the staircase at No 92 Merrion Square West and contacted the Office of Public Works looking for an inspection.

Later that month, staff based in the buildings were getting “somewhat nervous” and the Oireachtas again contacted the OPW looking for advice.

In early July, a preliminary inspection took place with no major issues discovered. By August however, the OPW had been back and decided that the staircase needed work.

This led to installation of scaffolding.

Staff were told to use stairs in the adjoining 93 Merrion Square even though there appeared to be some cracking around plaster work on that one as well.

By mid-November, problems with the second staircase were getting worse. “There is significant cracking along the walls, since the last visit. More worryingly there is gaps appearing on the stairs. Staff are very concerned,” an email noted.

The OPW said on November 12 that a visual inspection of the stairs had been completed. The staircase was “safe for use at all levels”.

They said they would add some temporary timber beams (top pic) to the underside of the stairs to allow for further works.

Staff were not overly reassured … Oireachtas asked for guidance on how they could avoid creating further concerns among workers.

By 25 November, it appeared things had taken a turn for the worse.

In one section, there was now a “fist sized hole right through into the room and cracks running from it to the ceiling” according to an email sent to the OPW.

In January, staff reported that the stairs was now moving and those based there were immediately sent home while alternative arrangements for accommodation were made.

With only an elevator available in 91 Merrion Square, the buildings cannot now be used.

In a statement, the Oireachtas said 40 staff have been relocated to other office space in the wider Leinster House complex.

It is understood that some have been “squeezed” into existing offices, including re-purposed meeting areas.

Meanwhile…

The buildings have an interesting back story. They were originally bought at the height of property boom as part of plans to extend the National Gallery for €19.95million.

They had changed hands for €12million two years earlier.

They then lay idle until 2014 when a refurbishment that cost an estimated €4million was completed and the Oireachtas were able to move in.

Good times.

Right To Know

Ken Foxe

From top: Yesterday’s Irish Mail on Sunday; Ryan Tubridy (left) interviewing Pat Spillane in June 2019; Michael Ring, Minister for Rural and Community Development; his request for details of Pat Spillane’s RTE pay.

Yesterday.

In the Irish Mail on Sunday,

Journalist Ken Foxe, of RightToKnowIE, revealed  Minister Michael Ring used Freedom of Information to try and find out how much GAA analyst Pat Spillane had been paid by RTÉ.

The request came four days after Mr Spillane had criticised Mr Ring and the Fine Gael government on The Late Late Show.

Mr Spillane said Mr Ring was ‘handing out grants’ rather than regenerating rural Ireland

He told host Ryan Tubridy::

“Grants are great, but grants are short term, sticking-plaster solutions and they are political … throwing meat to the lions.

These projects are not about people … Rural development has to be people-centred and people-driven. The minister is getting very bad advice. They have to bring jobs to rural Ireland.”

Ken Foxe writes:

When I first tried to find out the identity of the TD who made the request, RTÉ refused to release it saying they considered that it constituted the “private papers” of the Oireachtas member. This is the exemption famously used to hide politicians’ expenses:

Interestingly, RTÉ said they had contacted the person in question to establish if they sought the records “as part of their work as a TD or as part of their work in an FOI’able body” e.g. a government department.

The TD said it was “sought as part of their role as a TD”

This was despite the fact that Mr Spillane worked directly for Minister Ring’s department. Mr Spillane was also in direct contact with Mr Ring in his role as rural ambassador.

Through RightToKnowIE, we appealed RTÉ’s decision and after internal review their decision was overturned

Going back to request itself, I asked Mr Ring about assertion this was done in his capacity as a TD, rather than in his capacity as a minister.

The “private papers” exemption could not have applied if request was made as a minister. His spokesman said he would not be commenting.

Notable that he also sought for the information to be “relayed … as a matter of urgency”.

He did not get what he was looking for however, as the salary/expenses and so on are considered “personal information” and the request was refused.

RightToKnowIE

Michael Ring pic: Rollingnews

College Green, Dublin 2.

The question of Luashenge’s origin has baffled the public imagination and scientists for years. Despite hours of archaeological research, very little is known about who erected the cabinet formation and for what purpose.

Journalist (and founder of Noteworthy) Ken Foxe provides below a visual guide to this beloved visitor attraction…

‘Here is a wide view of the famous monument on College Green. An interesting feature of  Luashenge  is the mystery that surrounds some elements of its classical design. The left-most item is classified as an “unknown cabinet”. Nobody knows who put it there. It could have been aliens, the Russians, or indeed Telecom Éireann….

…Like the great passage tomb at Newgrange, Luashenge is actually not just a single isolated heritage site. There is an associated monument nearby on the wall (above) outside the Provost’s house at Trinity College.

This associated Provosthenge monument also has a mysterious “unknown cabinet” (above top right third down). It’s “not Luas-related” but once must surely have served a very important purpose, perhaps relating to prayer or direct communication with the gods…

…Sadly, the Provosthenge monument has suffered some damage in recent times as this image (above) shows. The right-most cabinet, entitled “road traffic controller” has been removed. It was considered “redundant”. Hopefully, a new home has been found for it in the National Museum…

…above is the most striking parts of the complex. It is described by historians as: “A single cabinet near the pedestrian crossing to Trinity. It has a power supply but unknown feed.”

You can even take a virtual tour of the famous site here on Google Maps. That way, you can say you knew all about #Luashenge long before UNESCO finally list it as a world heritage site.’

Ken Foxe

Rollingnews

 Dublin Institute of Technology lecturer, journalist, FOI sleuth and founder of investigative news site Noteworthy and Right To Know, Ken Foxe tweetz:

“Here’s another unusual ‘quirk’ from the ‘clock-in’ system for TDs & Senators. Even though they’ve only to record attendance for 120 days a year, they get paid for 150 overnights.”

TAA?

Related: Why do TDs living a relatively short drive from work in commuter towns get €15,000-a-year in “accommodation” expenses? (Ken Foxe, 2016)

Dublin’s Google Docks in the Grand Canal Dock; extract from Department of Justice submission explaining why Data Protection Commission should be only ‘partially included’ in the Freedom of Information Act

Journalist Ken Foxe tweetz:

If you ever wondered why there is such incredible levels of secrecy surrounding the Data Protection Commissioner, arguably Ireland’s most important state agency. They need to be able to provide “guarantee of absolute confidentiality” to the giant tech firms based in Ireland.

The above is an extract from a Dept of Justice submission explaining why Data Protection Commissioner should be only “partially included” in the Freedom of Information Act.

Will post the full record to @Thestoryie later on.

The Story