Garda Whistleblower John Wilson (right) with Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan MEP this afternoon after Luke topped the poll in the first count of the Midlands North West European Election constituency.
Mr Wilson helped canvass for the Independent TD (and ex-Broadsheet columnist) who sported his famous hemp suit for the occasion.
Fair play though, in fairness.
Via Orla Ryan
[Independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan]
In our edition of 3 June 2013 we published an article entitled “Flanagan has one of the worst Dáil attendance rates” which incorrectly stated that Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan had one of the worst Dáil attendance records in the first quarter of 2013.
Our information derived from the contents of the Member Sitting Days Report on the Oireachtas website.
We have learned that this website only records when TDs clock in with electronic fobs. We accept that there were a number of sitting days when Mr. Flanagan was not officially recorded as attending the Dáil because he did not use the fob, although he was actually there.
For the first quarter of 2013, he attended 34 sitting days out of 35. We take this opportunity to correct the record and to apologise to Mr. Flanagan.
Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan this afternoon in the Dáil raised complaints from a new Garda whistleblower, who is a serving member of the Gardaí.
During Leader’s Questions, the Independent TD said the garda had a “serious allegation of corruption within the National Drugs Squad”. Mr Flanagan said he went to the offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission on Upper Abbey Street, Dublin 1, with former Garda John Wilson this morning to present GSOC with the allegation.
While they were in an Insomnia café, adjacent to the GSOC offices – the same café whose Bitbuzz wi-fi network was claimed to have caused one of the GSOC ‘bugging’ security issues – Mr Flanagan and Mr Wilson felt they were being followed.
During his response, Taoiseach Enda Kenny suggested maybe the gardaí thought someone was dealing drugs.
Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan: “The Taoiseach’s Cabinet colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, described the Garda whistleblowers as distinguished. Other than that, there has been no real encouragement from the Government for those who take such courageous actions. For anyone to step forward again, it would take an even greater act of bravery than before.
In the past week, I was approached under the Garda Síochána Act by a serving member of the Garda with a serious allegation of corruption within the National Drugs Squad. This morning, I brought the evidence I was presented with to GSOC [Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission] in the company of former garda, John Wilson. However, the problem we have is that the garda who gave me the evidence is terrified that members of the Garda who are serving with GSOC could somehow leak this information and, as a result, evidence would be tampered with. The garda in question may have no need to be afraid but that is beside the point. The bigger issue is that it took so long, as serving members of the Garda, that so as long as serving members of the Gardaí are working within GSOC, how can such distinguished people trust it?
I understand that the Government is reviewing the operation of GSOC but it is all taking too long. In the meantime, however, those who wish to seek justice are left with nowhere to go, except for our offices that is. The Taoiseach did have the opportunity last year in the House to act but, instead, you rubbished Deputy Wallace’s policing Bill, dismissing it by stating there was no problem at all.
It was a worrying ordeal for the garda in question to go to GSOC, given his understandable concern about confidentiality. However, this worry was significantly increased this morning when it became obvious that we were under surveillance by an unmarked Garda car while waiting in the now infamous Insomnia café adjacent to GSOC’s premises. John Wilson, who was there with me for support, left the café momentarily to establish what was going on.”
An Ceann Comhairle: “A question please.”
Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan: “He was subsequently followed down the street by the unmarked Garda car. So what was all of this about? It is bad enough that the independence of GSOC is questionable. But for the people about to report an incident to be put under surveillance by an unmarked squad car is, to say the least, astonishing. So, An Taosieach, as the leader of this country, what will you do about this, bearing in mind good people are being silenced and the legislation which you are standing by is anything but fit for purpose?”
The Taoiseach: “I have no information about Deputy Flanagan being followed or under surveillance by an unmarked car. He is a sharp man to know that an unmarked car was actually shadowing him. Maybe it was not you at all they had under surveillance.”
Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett: “They are very easy to spot.”
The Taoiseach: “Maybe they thought there was somebody dealing.”
Deputy Mattie McGrath:”That is under the belt.”
Deputy Róisín Shortall: “The Taoiseach should withdraw that.”
Deputy Mattie McGrath: “It is outrageous. I know the Taoiseach is under pressure but he should withdraw that.
The Taoiseach:“We are awaiting reports from Mr. Guerin SC and Mr. Justice Cooke. The Oireachtas committee is looking at the terms of reference in respect of GSOC. These are matters of the greatest importance. Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, along with Deputies Daly and Wallace, presented me with several documents in respect of various allegations which I am following up at the Deputy’s request. Hopefully, we will have a proper and thorough response for him.
It seems that anybody who has had any connection with a garda over the past 30 years wants to bring forward reports and comments. We want to devise a system to be able to deal with these fairly and thoroughly in the interests of following through on allegations and, if they are true, dealing with them and, if not, addressing that aspect.
I cannot comment on the Deputy’s report to the House of being under surveillance and being followed or whatever. If he wants to give me whatever documentation he has, I will treat it with the utmost confidence, unless he says otherwise, and attempt to have a follow-through made for him.
With regard to the policing legislation introduced by Deputy Wallace last year, whenever the Guerin report is issued and whatever recommendations it makes will be followed through, as I have already said in the House. There are a whole range of issues with regard to justice and the different systems that are now being analysed and investigated. The House will have full sight of those for discussion and implementation of whatever recommendations come forward, including the Deputy.”
Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan: “The Taoiseach has just made the situation worse. The person who came to me was terrified about coming forward. He came to a Member of Dáil Éireann because he felt it was the only action he could take. I brought it into the Chamber today where many distinguished people have served down through the years but we have our Taoiseach stand up and make a joke out of it.”
Deputy Ray Butler: “He did not make a joke.”
Deputies: “He did.”
Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan: “This person was terrified to come forward for obvious reasons, given that, in the past, John Wilson, for example, who is sitting in the Visitors Gallery, had a rat hung on his door for doing the right thing. Today, I was hoping the Taoiseach might give a little bit of encouragement. The bigger issue is not the individual case but the fact that no one can have confidence in GSOC so long as serving members of the Garda Síochána are operating within it. That was the issue I wanted to raise today. However, the Taoiseach belittles and makes a joke out of being followed by an unmarked car with two obviously identifiable police officers. When he is going to do something about this?
The Taoiseach needs to deal with this quickly because people are losing faith in what they have to have faith in, namely the Garda Síochána. Whether it is my wife or my children, if something happens we have to go to the Garda and trust it. At the moment, that trust is not on the floor but below it. The Taoiseach needs to deal with this seriously. The one thing I was certain about today was that he would not answer my question because he has never answered a question since I came in here. Can he try and make it a first? Will he tell me and the people that he is going to do something about this issue? After that incident today, the man in question was not terrified anymore, he was quivering. He was on the verge of breaking down. I bring it up here but you make a joke out of it. You are a disgrace.”
An Ceann Comhairle:“This is Leaders’ Questions.”
The Taoiseach: “I made no joke about any comment the Deputy made.”
Deputies: “You did.”
Deputy Ray Butler: “He did not.”
Deputy Finian McGrath: “He made a remark about dealing. He was out of order.”
Deputy Róisín Shortall: “It was outrageous.”
Deputy Micheál Martin: “The Taoiseach should withdraw the dealing remark.”
The Taoiseach: “The Deputy walks in here and gives a report to the people about being followed and being under surveillance. I know nothing about this. If he wants to tell more stories or make allegations, I do not have any information about them.
The whistleblowers’ legislation is being treated with proper respect and will be dealt with in a way that will constitute a radical change from what applied before. I note the comments of the interim Garda Commissioner about where there is room for dissenting voices in the force and the need to protect whistleblowers when they come forward. The Deputy will be aware that the Government has made a decision to have a statutory independent authority for the Garda. I myself chair the new committee in respect of justice reform and the committee dealing with the statutory independent authority. The latter committee had its first meeting this week. The process is now being set in train for public consultation with hearings by the appropriate committee. It will report back to the Dáil by July with recommendations for the setting up of this authority.”
Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
Further to reports in The Guardian of several Dublin-based journalists set to allege that their phones were routinely monitored by gardai…
The question of journalists being put under surveillance was brought up by Independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and Labour Senator Susan O’Keeffe to Justice Minister Alan Shatter when he appeared before the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions on February 19.
Mr Flanagan mentioned a ‘prominent’ male journalist who told him that he believed he was under surveillance while Ms O’Keeffe made the point that, due to a legal loophole, a journalist here can be added to another person who is under lawful surveillance.
From the appearance:
Luke Ming Flanagan: “My final question is on the basis of a rather alarming meeting I held in my office with a prominent journalist approximately 17 months ago. It has been asked whether the Minister sanctioned surveillance of GSOC. Has he sanctioned the surveillance of any journalist, be it in his job as Minister for Justice and Equality or his other job as Minister for Defence? Has he put any politician under surveillance during that time? I was blown away by the information, but it is difficult to be blown away by anything one hears now. A prominent journalist stood in my office and told me that he believed the Garda Síochána was involved in dealing heroin, which was quite astonishing…”
Chairman Padraig MacLochlainn: “I cannot allow that question, as it is not related. I have given the Deputy a little latitude.”
Flanagan: “I will tell the Chairman why it is related. The journalist also suggested…”
MacLochlainn: “No.”
Flanagan: “We will leave at that then.”
MacLochlainn: “Will you?”
Flanagan: “I will, indeed.”
MacLochlainn: “I gave the Deputy a fair degree of latitude concerning the surveillance. We will get a response.”
Flanagan: “The journalist also suggested – actually, he said “definitely” – he was under surveillance.”
MacLochlainn: “That is the Deputy’s question.”
Flanagan: “That is from where I was coming.”
MacLochlainn: “I have shown latitude.”
Deputy Alan Shatter: “Information on Alan Shatter Zoom on Alan Shatter I note that the Deputy had an alarming meeting with a journalist. Journalists can be very alarming on occasion for a whole range of reasons that I cannot always identify.”
Flanagan: “Will the Minister answer my question?”
Shatter: “I can assure the Deputy that I have no knowledge of any journalist being put under surveillance and have ever arranged for any journalist to be put under surveillance.”
Flanagan: “It was a legitimate question and the condescending reply was ludicrous.”
MacLochlainn: “The Minister has answered, “No.”
Later
Senator Susan O’Keeffe: “I want to follow up Deputy Flanagan’s remark about journalists. I know that the Minister has said before that he has never bugged journalists and I completely accept that remark. I wonder has he asked Commissioner Callinan. There is a loophole that allows journalists who, which they may not be under lawful surveillance, may be added to another person who is under lawful surveillance. Let us say that I was under lawful surveillance then that person, because they have contact with me, can be added to that list. I wonder if the Minister has ever asked Commissioner Callinan about this aspect? The reason I raise this – it is relevant – is because a number of journalists have said to me that there has been inordinate concern in regard to this story and in regard to GSOC about journalists being bugged. I am not seeking to raise the matter in an hysterical fashion. Has the Minister raised that matter with Commissioner Callinan about names being added in a way that would then allow deniability of that surveillance?
Shatter: “I do not know. We are getting into such a weird area at this stage. I cannot account for people’s level of paranoia. I am not aware of any journalist being under surveillance. That is all I can tell the Senator. I am aware that we have a system in place where a High Court judge can exercise oversight in certain circumstances.
O’Keeffe: “Yes.”
Shatter: “I cannot add any further, Chairman, to this. We have now gone way outside the issue that we are dealing with.”
MacLochlainn: “That is my job to adjudicate, with respect.”
Shatter: “We are now seemingly getting generally into the issue of surveillance. It is not normal or appropriate that the Minister for Justice and Equality, for a whole range of security reasons, enters into lengthy dialogue on surveillance issues. I gave the Senator that simple reply. No doubt we will have a headline tomorrow, “Minister for Justice refuses to deny that journalists under surveillance”.
O’Keeffe: “No. I am sorry I did not…”
Shatter: “I am unaware of any journalist under surveillance…”
MacLochlainn: “Is the Minister…”
O’Keeffe: “No, I asked the Minister a different question.”
Shatter: “…of an authorised nature by the Garda Síochána or any other body in the State. Of course if a journalist was engaged in criminality of some kind that gave rise to some issue I could not guarantee…”
O’Keeffe: “That was not my question.”
MacLochlainn: “I suggest that the Senator waits until the Minister is finished and then she can come back in.”
Shatter: “…that if a journalist wanted to rob a bank, or trade in drugs, would not, at some stage, be under surveillance. They would not be under surveillance because they were a journalist; they would be under surveillance for other reasons. I do not know of any journalists under surveillance.”
O’Keeffe: “I thank the Minister. I did not mean to suggest that. I was asking simply had he asked the Garda Commissioner if that capacity had been every utilised.
Shatter: “No, I did not.”
O’Keeffe: “I thank the Minister.”
Shatter: “I have had no conversations with the Garda Commissioner about journalists who may or may not be under surveillance.”
O’Keeffe: “That is fine.”
Read transcript in full here
Previously: Overheard In Dublin
Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
RT Given the editor of Irish daily mail seems to think they are expert on cannabis I would like to challenge them to a debate on subject.
— Luke Ming Flanagan (@lukeming) October 25, 2013
We got ourselves a dope-off
FIGHT
*popcorn/Rice Krispie ‘Scares’*
“Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan TD speaks with UCC Drug Awareness & Reform Society about his upcoming bill in the Dail to legalise the private possession and responsible consumption of cannabis in Ireland.
The bill is set to be discussed and voted on in early November. The event will be held in Boole 4 in UCC. Doors open at 8pm. This is a free event.”
Perishing stoners.
More here
Darren writes (via the all-new BS Android app) :
“In Brief” ~ I think it’s always a bit rich how newspapers don’t give the same prominence to the correction as to the original article.
Previously: Ming’s Attendance
Further to criticism of Luke ‘Ming’ Flangan’s Dail attendance record.
The independent TD writes:
Independent newspapers incorrectly reported over the weekend that “Luke Ming Flanagan has one of worst Dail attendance records”. In fact far from having the worst record I have instead got one of the best Dáil attendance records off all TDs.
The Indo super sleuth Michael Brennan appears to believe that of the 35 times that the Dáil sat in the first three months of the year I had only attended on 24 of those days.
If he had bothered to do his research then he would have seen that he was in fact very wide of the mark. A half an hours research on the Internet would have shown him this.
The first day that the Independent claims I did not attend the Dàil was Thursday January 17th. That however does not add up given that on that day I voted on the Electoral Amendment Bill.
They claim that I failed to attend the Dáil on Thursday February 7th. This was the time when the government rammed through ‘the deal’ on the promissory notes.
On this particular day, that the independent claims I did not attend, I spoke in the Dáil chamber on the IBRC liquidation Bill. I also voted on 4 separate occasions.
On Friday February 8th when they claimed I was not around for work I attended meetings in my Dáil office followed by a four hour meeting on Garda corruption. The indo claim I did not attend the Dáil on Thursday February 21st when the record quiet clearly states that I voted on the Finance Bill. On the following Thursday the 28th they get it wrong again.
They claim I did not attend but yet again it is clear, for anyone who bothers to check, that on that day I voted on the Electoral Amendment (Dáil constitiencies) Bill. In fact the Dáil record shows that I also put in an application for a topical issues debate on Harristown House on that day.
On the following Wednesday the 6th of March I voted on the HSE Governance Bill yet the indo’s Michael Brennan reports that I was not there.
Two days later on March 8th I am not meant to have turned up either yet I attended meetings in my Dublin Dáil office that day. Less than two weeks later on Thursday March 21st I voted in the Dáil chamber on the Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill.
But yet again, I’m sure you’ve got it at this stage, it is reported by the indo that I could not be bothered to turn up for work even though the record clearly show otherwise.
I also voted that day on the Disability Services Private Members Bill yet the indo fail to notice this either.
The following Thursday March 28th I questioned Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney on the potential sale of Coillte. For some reason the independent is in denial about this too even though a few minutes searching on Oireachtas.ie would have revealed the truth.
On March 26th I attended meetings in my Dublin Dáil office. Yet again the indo incorrectly suggest I have not done my job.
Of the 35 days that the Dáil sat in the first three months of this year I missed one day and that was Friday January 18th.
On that day I had appointments in my Castlerea office with constituents. So in total I missed one single day in The Dáil in the first three months of the year and not 11 as reported by the Indo.
This amounts to an attendance rate of 97.1% which is one of the highest of any TDs in the country. What is amazing is that the Independent’s journalist could not have established this themselves.
When carrying out this exercise I decided to see could a ten year old neighbour find out what the country’s biggest news group could not.
I gave them the list of 11 dates on which the indo claimed I had failed to turn up for work. I also suggested they try Kldarestreet.com.
Within 10 minutes they were able to conclusively contradict one of the dates. How come the country’s biggest media empire could not?
More here: Luke Ming Flanagan (Facebook)
Oh.
Context:
Yesterday’s Sunday Independent front page.
To which Ming responded:
Sindo fails to mention that it was in fact Gardai who actually contacted me to have penalty points removed.All revealed&more in Dail tues.
— Luke ming flanagan (@lukeming) March 10, 2013
Via David Cochrane
