Tag Archives: Ken Foxe

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty and letters sent in relation to press queries about former Government chief whip Regina Doherty’s €16,000 super junior allowance

Yesterday.

In the Sunday Business Post.

Hugh O’Connell reported on the €16,000 allowance that the Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty was paid when she was government whip but subsequently told to pay back to the State.

She was paid it as she was one of the three so-called super junior ministers at Cabinet.

But, as readers will recall, legislation only allows for two politicians to receive the sum.

She told The Irish Times last Monday that she was told to pay it back following a report by the Attorney General.

Further to this…

Yesterday Mr O’Connell reported:

It was only confirmed last Monday that Doherty, who is now the Minister for Employment and Social Protection, would be repaying the allowance despite her department being informed this would need to happen at the end of July following a review by the Attorney General.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show that a letter from the Department of Public Expenditure (DPER) was issued to Regina Doherty’s new department on 26 July last asking officials to make arrangements for the money to be repaid.

…The documents reveal a number of journalists made inquiries to the Department of Public Expenditure’s press office about the allowances situation with officials seeking out Stephen Lynam, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe’s special adviser, for advice on how to proceed.

On August 14, Lynam told the DPER press office to “sit tight on this for now” after being alerted to a journalist’s inquiring if the AG’s review of salary arrangements had concluded and what the outcome was.

The following day, Lynam drafted a response to be issued to the journalist which said the AG’s report had been received, that it was being “considered” and that it would be “dealt with in due course”. Lynam said in the email: “If he [the journalist] comes back looking for anything else, you can say we are not going to comment further for now.”

Further to this…

An email sent to journalist Ken Fox on August 15

In respect of the SBP article, Ken Foxe has tweeted the email above from August 15, saying:

Been in journalism a long time but kind of staggered to have a government department bare face lie to you about Regina Doherty allowance.

Previously: Meanwhile In The Dáil

Ken Foxe

Letters via Hugh O’Connell

They’ve wiped the tapes.

Ken Foxe writes:

Nearly ten years of footage of debates from Leinster House that was accessible to the public has been permanently deleted from the Internet by the Oireachtas.

The massive bank of footage was widely used by journalists, academics, members of the public, and was particularly popular on social media in catching out u-turning politicians.

However, the database disappeared from the Oireachtas website earlier this month without warning because they said there was “minimal traffic” looking at the files.

The move has been condemned by politicians who said it was scarcely believable that a valuable resource like that could simply be let vanish.

…The archiving of the footage had originally formed part of the Oireachtas’ eDemocracy Unit, which planned to use the web to open up politics to a wider audience.

The person behind the Twitter account newsworthy.ie, who has used dozens of the clips to show up contradictions or u-turns by politicians over the years, said the Oireachtas excuses for deleting the archive simply did not add up.

For finding clips in future, he must now make a formal request that must then go to an off site archive and takes at least several days to be returned.

A request he submitted for two clips of Leo Varadkar appearing to contradict himself on paying a Sunday premium to employees has still not been dealt with a week later.

Nearly ten years of video footage of Dáil, Seanad, and committee hearings taken offline by the Oireachtas (Ken Foxe)

Thanks Mari Maxwell

Update:

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From top: Clare Daly TD and her objections to a new development, among them its impact on nearby property values .

Dogged Freedom of Information hound Ken Foxe writes:

Two TDs opposed the development of housing in their constituencies on the basis that it would have an adverse effect on the property values of neighbours.

It probably would not be that surprising to hear one was made by Leo Varadkar … much more surprising the fact that the other was Clare Daly….[more at link below]…

FIGHT!

Clare Daly & Leo Varadkar opposed housing developments because of impact it would have on neighbouring property values (Ken Foxe)

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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)

A clip from a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform discussing the Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures Bill 2013

You may recall journalist Ken Foxe’s ongoing efforts to obtain the invoices and receipts submitted by 22 TDs and Senators.

He’s been denied access, and has been told the expenses are ‘private papers’.

At the weekend, Mr Foxe tweeted the video clip above and called into question the differences between what was said and the official Oireachtas transcript.

This is a transcript of what was said:

Sean Fleming: “…like we have no problem. Our fobs everyday, I think it’s in the paper, our attendance, from the, our electronic papers of everyday, we fob in here, and our mileage and our expenses. There’s a whole lot of records and [inaudible] that are published.”

Brendan Howlin: “That’s procedural. They’re not private papers. It’s up to the Oireachtas itself to determine private papers but I mean there will be communications that should be privileged. There are things that should not be determined to be private papers. The Oireachtas will set those rules.”

Meanwhile…

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The official Oireachtas transcript, via Kildarestreet.com.

Anyone?

Previously: Crazy Like  A Foxe

UPDATE: How could political expenses be classified as “private papers” when the Minister responsible said it should not apply to them? (Ken Foxe)

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From top: Part of a letter sent from the Office of the Information Commissioner to Ken Foxe and Mr Foxe

You may recall how, back in December 2014, journalist and Dublin Institute of Technology lecturer Ken Foxe’s attempted, via Freedom of Information requests, to get the invoices and receipts submitted by 22 TDs and Senators.

Every year, accountancy firm Mazars randomly audits 10% of national politicians’ expense claims and these were the 22 politicians Mr Foxe wished to focus on for his investigation.

However, on January 16, 2015, this request was refused with the Oireachtas claiming it never physically held the records. It claimed the records passed from the politicians to Mazars.

On February 9, 2015, Mr Foxe sought an internal review of this refusal.

But, on February 25, 2015, the Oireachtas again refused claiming, under section 42(l) of the FOI Act, that the records Mr Foxe was seeking were considered to be the politicians’ ‘private papers’.

In turn, solicitor Fred Logue helped Mr Foxe put together a new appeal for the information, to the Information Commissioner Peter Tyndall.

But Mr Tyndall refused, highlighting the new FOI Act 2014, and in particular Section 42(l), which, he said: “affords a more significant protection for private papers of members of the Houses than previously existed.”

This section was introduced by the then Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform and Labour TD Brendan Howlin, on November 13, 2013.

Mr Foxe has since asked the Information Commissioner to reconsider his decision.

Further to this.

Mr Foxe writes:

Unfortunately, the battle to have the receipts and invoices of TDs and Senators made public has hit another brick wall and the Information Commissioner has said he will not reconsider his original decision.

Despite what we thought was a strong case put together by myself and with enormous assistance from Fred Logue, the case has been “discontinued”.

…In a letter explaining why they were discontinuing the case, the Office of the Information Commissioner said none of the arguments we made “would result in [them] … reversing [their original] decision”.

That now leaves realistically two options: a judicial review, or the possibility that politicians might reform the system themselves.

With the chances of politicians fixing something that benefits only themselves so remote, that leaves only a judicial review.

And that obviously is under consideration … with the reality that it would have to be paid for somehow.

For those who are interested in such things, a copy of the letter of discontinuation from the Office of the Information Commissioner, the original letter seeking review, and a copy of the final email pleading not to discontinue (with some personal details removed) are [here].

I would urge all readers again to support Right to Know and the work we are trying to do to pursue transparency in our unnecessarily secretive country.

Private Papers update: Information Commissioner refuses to re-examine his decision on keeping political expenses secret (Ken Foxe)

Previously: How They Took Back Your Freedom

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From top: Louise O Reilly at Leinster House after the General Election; Skerries and Crumlin to Leinster House, Dublin

Ken Foxe writes:

Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly – a newly elected deputy in North Dublin – had originally given her home address in Crumlin in her formal declaration to Leinster House.

If she had been paid her travel and accommodation expenses on the basis of that address, she would have received just €9,000 per year like most Dublin TDs.

However, around a month after the election, she moved to Skerries in North County Dublin where she is now being paid a travel and accommodation allowance worth €25,295 annually.

Sinn Féin TD moves house and is entitled to an extra €16,000-a-year in travel and accommodation expenses (Ken Foxe)

Rollingnews/Googlemaps

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Lissywollen Direct Provision centre for asylum seekers, Athlone, Co. Westmeath

Political expenses and FOI sleuth Ken Foxe obtained copies of letters of complaints made by asylum seekers living in direct provision centres across Ireland.

The mechanism to allow asylees make formal written complaints about the centres was introduced by the Department of Justice in 2011.

The number of complaints has fallen over the years, however rights groups say this is because the residents of the centres generally have little faith in the system.

In the current edition of Village magazine, Mr Foxe reports there have been complaints about the bullying of a child by a staff member; infestations of vermin; and rooms with no heating, among other complaints.

The centres are not identified in the article.

Mr Foxe reports:

In a centre in the Mid-West, a group of residents wrote about repeated gross invasions of their privacy.

“The manager get in any room and search our private bags and take our stuff”, they wrote.

They explained how CCTV was installed to watch the windows of their room, which were locked so that they would not open more than a centimetre.

The residents also described how they were made to sign in daily and, if they did not, a letter was sent to social welfare officers seeking cuts to the tiny weekly payment of €19 that they receive.

…At the same centre, a disabled asylum-seeker had pleaded to be allowed to share a room with his Afghan friends because he needed help in every “aspect of life”.

“They treat us the way like we are in prison”, he wrote: “They don’t care about your health, your condition, [and] depression and will make your head burst out and become crazy. Our condition is even worse than prisoners because they have some respect inside the jail but we don’t have that at all”.

The complaint was investigated and it was discovered that there were fourteen vacancies at the centre and the request to stay together could easily have been facilitated.

…[Jennifer DeWan of NASC Ireland said]: “The number of complaints has been falling yet we are still hearing about all the same issues. People just don’t see the benefit of complaining – because even when they do, nothing changes. The mechanisms need to be safe for asylum seekers to use and there must be a positive result when they use them.”

Refugee Reality: FOI complaints show lunatics taking over the asylum-seekers (Village)

Previously: Postcards From Direct Provision

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The introduction of a “new protection” for “private papers” in the Dáil on December 17, 2015, by Fine Gael’s Paul Kehoe

Ken Foxe writes:

An appeal to get access to the invoices and receipts used by TDs and Senators for claiming their expenses has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been unsuccessful.

In their internal review, the Oireachtas has upheld their original decision that these documents are “private papers” and therefore exempt from Freedom of Information legislation.

They have also pointed out that there is now a “new protection” for these documents in the form of standing orders quietly introduced on the final sitting day of the Dáil last year.

These standing orders were adopted on December 17 and printed on 28 January 2016, just a week before dissolution and the start of the general election campaign.

Irish politicians introduced a “new protection” which stops their expense claims being made public (Ken Foxe)

Previously: How They Took Back Your Freedom

Pic: Oireachtas.ie