Tag Archives: RTE

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From top: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin, Finance Minister Michael Noonan and RTÉ Director General Noel Curran yesterday; in the studio with Sean O’Rourke and a tweet from RTÉ asking people to phone in.

You may have heard Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin fielding questions from the public during the traditional post-Budget ‘phone-in’ on RTÉ Radio One’s Today With Seán O’Rourke show yesterday.

Ellen Coyne, of the Ireland edition of the The Times, went behind the scenes.

Ms Coyne writes:

Having been guided into a room full of the national broadcaster’s staff and Department of Finance officials, I perched myself on an available sofa. I didn’t know this area was off-limits for hacks and I didn’t know I wasn’t meant to be there. The Department of Finance staff must have thought I was with RTÉ. RTÉ must have thought I was with the Department of Finance. Nobody asked me to leave and so I stayed.

Then all hell broke loose. One of Mr Noonan’s advisors appeared and bore down on one of the producers of the Today programme with all the charm of an autocrat, he explained that neither the finance minister or the public expenditure minister would so much as breathe on a microphone unless all phone-in questions were made available beforehand.

RTE hesitated diplomatically but were shut down by the official’s insistence.

“No. We’re going to very clear on this, the ministers will not go on air before seeing them first,” he demanded.

A producer relented and handed over the the questions. Pages were passed between departmental staff and frantic calls were made while political responses were hastily crafted.

One civil servant paced the floor, iPhone to his ear, beseeching whoever was listening for the most appropriate response to a homeless mother forced to live in a Dublin hotel for nearly six months with her nine-year-old daughter.

[Later, having been asked to leave the studio]

I was just in time to hear Erica , the homeless woman who had caused so much consternation.

“A fiver on children’s allowance, whoop de doo, what am I supposed to do with that?” she said. How is that supposed to help the situation? We are homeless. That’s €5 I already had, that you took off me a couple of years ago,” she said.

“I understand you were in receipt of lone parents allowance…” Mr Howlin said, presumably referring to his carefully crafted notes.

“No, I work! I work part-time! I don’t get long parents, so stop saying that,” Erica said, deviating outrageously from the script.

…A spokeswoman for RTÉ said [later] nothing untoward had taken place…

RTÉ says ‘yes, minister’ as politicians run the show (Ellen Coyne, Ireland Edition Of The Times)

UPDATE:

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Brendan Howlin and Michael Noonan yesterday morning

A transcript Minister Howlin’s chat with Erica (pay close attention to Mr O’Rourke’s role in the drama).

Sean O’Rourke: “Erica, good morning to you.”

Erica: “Hiya.”

O’Rourke: “Now what is your query to the ministers?”

Erica: “The query is what are they going to do to help the homeless people now, today, the 1,500 children that are in emergency accommodation. What are they going to do for them, today?”

Brendan Howlin: “Morning, Erica.”

Erica: “Not five years, today?”

Howlin: “Well you can’t…”

O’Rourke: “Just, just before, what is your own situation, Erica?”

Erica: “I’m currently homeless, since June. And I’m staying in a particular hotel in Dublin with my nine-year-old daughter. I work part-time and the cuts that Joan [Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton] brought in, in July, dropped my money €60 a week, so we’re currently in a hotel.”

Howlin: “Two issues, first of all, in relation to the whole homelessness issue, I believe that that’s the most significant social issue that we have to face and I made it the feature point of last year’s Budget. You can’t magic up houses immediately and the only solution to homelessness is to have adequate houses for everybody and that’s why, last year, we allocated €2.2billion and the social housing strategy says that we will build 3,100 housing units and that we’ve allocated €3.8billion to do that. We need to get those up and running and, in the meanwhile, to use every means we have, for example, the vacant units that are not, the voids that are not in use, bring those back and we’ll have 1,500 of those this year. To give…”

Erica: “Can I just cut across you there for one second, please. I want to ask you about, do you think that the modular homes is, you know, is an efficient way to go?”

Howlin: “We look at everything in an emergency now, have a look at them, I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see them but they’re actually…”

Erica: “Yes I did see them myself, they’re a very, they’re a short-term solution. Personally, personally…”

Howlin: “That’s all they are.”

Erica: “Well, that’s what you say, but you see with the Government at the moment, you say one thing and you kind of do another…”

Howlin: “No we don’t..”

Erica: “…so therefore, yeah, you kind of are..”

Howlin: “No we don’t, now I mean, we want to solve your problem. With a modular home, would you be happy with that until we build a house in the next two years? Would you live in a modular home?”

Erica: “Why would you waste the money on a modular home when you can just put the money into building an actual home?”

Howlin: “We’ve allocated half a billion euros this year to build houses but it takes 18 months to do that. Meanwhile, you need to have accommodation and the modular homes is an emergency option for us. And I think, is it one that you’re, I mean, it’s better than being in a hotel.”

Erica: “The reason I sent the email into Seán this morning was actually regarding vacant properties or void properties in my local area which I have written to the Taoiseach, Dublin City Council and [Environment] Minister [Alan] Kelly himself. I have emailed on numerous occasions asking could they please just take down the boards and I will personally look after everything to do with that property. I’ll put everything in. I just want them to take down the boards.”

Howlin: “That’s a number one priority for us…”

Erica: “But, but, hang on, the answer I’m getting is ‘no, you’re not homeless long enough’. So how long do I have to be homeless? How long does my nine-year-old have to be put through this situation before Dublin City Council or anybody, so long as they decide, ‘ok, now they are homeless long enough.’ How long is it?”

O’Rourke: “Erica, can I ask you just, what is it like for your nine-year-old daughter, in particular, living in a hotel situation?”

Erica: “At the moment, at the moment, my daughter is extremely embarrassed and that’s the word I’d like to use to describe the situation for her. Because she’s nine and she’s of the age where, you know, she doesn’t want anybody knowing. And I’ll give you an example of the little things that the children are thinking about. We had to do a collection of nature stuff for the nature table in school right? And we went down to a particular park in Dublin and we went down to the park and we got loads of stuff and when we got back, my daughter said, ‘Ma have you got a plastic bag, for me to bring them into the school?’. I said, ‘No, sure use one of them bags there, you know, the cotton bags.’ She said to me, ‘Ah no, I just want a plastic bag, there’s one in the wardrobe, will you give us it out?’ So I gave it out to her and she said, ‘Ah I’m not using that.’ I says, ‘Why?’. She says to me, ‘Because everybody will know I’m homeless.’ I says, ‘Why will they know you’re homeless?’ She said, ‘On the side it says, such-and such hotel, laundry bag.’ Now that will tell ya. I would never have thought of that, but my child thought of that.”

O’Rourke: “Right, and back to the Budget, Erica, has it not done anything for you at all? Is that your view?”

Erica: “A fiver, a fiver in children’s allowance, whoop de doo, what am I supposed to do with that fiver?”

Howlin: “You’re on, you’re on lone parents’ allowance I understand”

Erica: “No, I work part-time and I’m not on lone parents’ allowance. I get the back-to-school or the back-to-work dividend now of €29.

Howlin: “Your job seekers’ transitional payment?’

Erica: “No I’m not getting job seekers’ transitional, I get my FIS (family income supplement), so I work part-time, six hours a day, that’s topped up with the FIS…”

Howlin: “How much is the FIS you’re getting?”

Erica: “€90.”

Howlin: “€90 yeah.”

Erica: “Yeah and then the €29.80 for two years that Joan gave us, and then the extra €5 that you are now saying that that’s supposed to do, so what am I supposed to do with that extra fiver? What is that supposed to get me?”

Howlin: “Well the idea…”

Erica: “How is that supposed to help the situation?”

Howlin: “You’re working…”

Erica: “We’re homeless..”

O’Rourke: “Ok, just let the minister answer, let’s hear from Minister Howlin.”

Howlin: “I understood from the call that I saw, that you were in receipt of lone parent’s allowance but you’re actually in receipt of job seekers’ allowance.”

Erica: “No, I’m at work, I work, part-time, I don’t get lone parent’s, the lone parent payment is gone, so stop saying lone parent, that’s gone.”

Howlin: “There is a lone, I mean you can work, if you’re working more than 19 hours, you’re getting FIS on top of that, the income disregard we increased yesterday. Obviously, you’re going to get the child benefit increase..”

Erica: “Of five euro that €5 I already had that you took off me a couple of years ago.”

Howlin: “And disregard for FIS had been increased yesterday aswell.”

O’Rourke: “OK, we’re going to move on. Thank you, Erica for that call and that contribution. We want to hear from a pensioner now…”

*kicks wireless*

Listen back to the ‘phone-in’ here (go to 10.25)

UPDATE: RTÉ Responds

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Staying in tonight?

The Fear on RTÉ Two at 10.25pm.

Melanie O’Connor writes:

In episode four, Irinka is back with her talk show ‘Irinka On Every Corner’, Billy The Kid finds out about the birds and the bees, The Nun gets addicted to codeine and our very special guest Martin Maloney, from the Hardy Bucks, does his best Danny Dyer impression.

The Fear (Facebook)

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Melanie O’Connor writes:

“The Fear is back for a fourth season starting tonight at 10.25pm on RTÉ 2. Trawling around the country the gang will be up to their usual tricks, storming across Ireland with their hidden camera and generally spreading The Fear…”

“This season will feature plenty more pranks and see the return of all your favourite characters, Irinka The Russian Streetwalker, The Nun, Fred Cooke, Sergeant Major and Jimmy the most annoying man in Ireland.”

“Joining Hilary Rose, Ross Browne and Fred Cooke this season will be some special guest comedians including Dermot Whelan, Karl Spain and Martin Maloney.”

The Fear (RTÉ)

ronan mac con Iomaire

This morning sees the launch of RTÉ’s Irish Language Plan as a pre-election licence fee/public service fig leaf.

New language czar Rónán Mac Con Iomaire (top) promises to ‘recast’ the very language itself.

Despotic plans include:

Bi-lingual bulletins on 2fm
Feasacháin nuachta dhátheangacha ar 2fm

A new youth-orientated Irish-language radio service
Seirbhís raidió nua Ghaeilge dírithe ar ógánaigh a fhiosrú

Innovative content for language learners
Ábhar den nuáil do dhaoine atá ag foghlaim na Gaeilge

Centre of excellence in Irish-language media training
Ábhar den nuáil do dhaoine atá ag foghlaim na Gaeilge

Increased use of Irish in television promos, continuity and weather bulletins
Bainfear úsáid níos minice as an nGaeilge ar bhlaisíní teilifíse, sa leanúnachas agus i bhfeasacháin aimsire

Next version of the RTÉ Player to include Irish-language option for the navigational user interface
Beidh rogha na Gaeilge ar fáil leis an gcóras nascleanúna don chéad leagan eile den seinnteoir RTÉ Player

Advertisers and advertising agencies will be incentivised and supported to provide advertising in Irish on television, radio and digital
Tabharfar spreagadh agus cúnamh don lucht fógraíochta agus do ghníomhaireachtaí fógraíochta fógraí a chur ar fáil i nGaeilge ar an teilifís, ar an raidió agus sa réimse digiteach

TROID!

Read the full action pleann here

Update:

"<br

NO REPRO FEE RTÉ Director-General Noel Curran today launched Meáin Ghaeilge RTÉ; Action Plan 2015-2019; the broadcaster’s new strategic action plan for the Irish language. Speaking alongside An Taoiseach Enda Kenny; the Director-General said the ambitious plan would seek to re-cast the role of the language across all RTÉ services.; Pictured are: Blathnaid Treacy; broadcaster RTÉ and Eoghan McDermott; broadcaster RTÉ. Picture: Tony Kinlan/Kinlan Photography

At the language plan launch.

From top: Taoiseach Enda Kenny and gossamer geansai wearing Blathnaid Ní Chofaigh; broadcaster Blathnaid Treacy RTÉ and Eoghan ‘The Gruaig’ McDermott.

Pics: Tony Kinlan

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Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan at Knock, Co Mayo

Who’s for another wounded healer?

RTÉ journalist Joe Little spoke with Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan – who was in Knock for the National Novena – on yesterday’s This Week on RTÉ Radio One.

Mr Little started the interview by asking Cardinal Dolan about Ireland’s gay marriage referendum.

They then spoke about how, in 2007, Cardinal Dolan, when he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee, sought permission from the Vatican to transfer $57 million into a cemetery trust fund in Milwaukee – out of the reach of victims of abuse in the archdiocese.

In the letter, he wrote: ‘I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.’

This month the Archdiocese of Milwaukee reached a $21 million settlement with 330 victims of sexual abuse by clergy – ending four years of bankruptcy proceedings.

From yesterday’s interview…

Cardinal Timothy Dolan: [on the marriage referendum]”I’d be no scholar on events in Ireland but I do know in the United States it would, of course, cause us some consternation because we worry about, when I say ‘we’ I mean pastors, leaders, and the [Catholic] Church, because we worry about anything that we fear may dilute the noble purpose of marriage as between a man and woman in lifelong, life-giving faithful union. And anything, as you know, if you follow, if you follow the activities of the Church, anything , anything anywhere that would dilute the noble purpose of marriage, we worry about – whether that be adultery, whether that be fornication, whether that be co-habitation, whether that be polygamy, whether that be frivolous divorce. You know the statistic among Catholics in the United States? Only half of our young people approaches the sacrament of marriage – they’re not getting married. Now that causes us bishops at home to wring our hands and to fall to our knees in prayer because our young people don’t feel the call to lifelong, live-giving, faithful, loving marriage.”

Joe Little: “An issue which has discredited the Church in the eyes, especially of the young, is the issue of the Church’s handling and response to allegations and complaints of clerical child sexual abuse. Your record on this is questioned very, very strongly by many and specifically your action in putting aside most of the estate of the Milwaukee diocese, $57million worth, into a cemetery trust, and in your own acknowledgement in a letter to the Vatican, in order to protect that money from legal suits, what’s you response to those criticisms?”

Dolan: “Sure, there’s been a reconciliation and settlement in the Archdiocese in Milwaukee, that Joe, you would, you would not be surprised that I would be defensive on that issue and I often say this falls into the rubric of no good deed going unpublish-…unpunished. What happened when I got to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, we were in trouble there as you know, that was in 2002 my predecessor had resigned in scandal and had also paid off close to half a million dollars to a man with whom he had had an immoral and promiscuous relationship, an adult man. So the diocese was in turmoil. I counted heavily on the counsel of qualified lay people in the archdiocese.
I said, ‘Boy, if we’re going to regain our credibility and our sense of purpose, I”m going to have to trust the people because the people have been singed terribly. So we had a very good finance counsel in the archdiocese, these were about 10 women and men of professional financial and legal background to whom I said, ‘You need to reassure me that the finances of the archdiocese that were whistle clean’. And so they said to me, they said, ‘We have a couple of problems, things that we could fix. We have one problem, one big one that you need to do something about immediately, you’ve got $55million in a trust fund to protect the cemeteries’. Now every cemetery has that, you know for perpetual care, it’s a huge, a huge patrimony. They said, ‘Ours is under the archdiocese, this isn’t our money, this isn’t diocesan money. This is a patrimony that people have entrusted for the perpetual care and by State law, by Wisconsin’s state law, this has to be segregated from the funds of the archdiocese’.”

Little: “Well why did you write to the Vatican, after this was done, saying ‘you foresee an improved protection from any claim and liability on foot of the movement of that money, out of the road, so that the alleged victims couldn’t get any compensation from that fund?”

Dolan: “Well if you you let me finish what I said at the beginning, and I’ll try to respond to that. So I listened to our lay counsel who said, ‘Archbishop Dolan, we gotta obey the law. This has to be set aside’. So I did. OK and I thought well, thanks be to god, they’re telling us to obey the law, they’re telling us to listen to lay advisors and we’ve done that. Later, you are right, Joe, I wrote to the Holy See and you’ll notice though that’s one line in the letter. Up above, if you read the whole letter [Below] you see I told the Holy See, the congregation for clergy, here’s why I did this, eminences, because state law in Wisconsin requires it and because, my lay finance counsel said it. Later on I said a side benefit of this would be if the Church is ever sued, now it’s not our money.”

Little: “That’s the law, what about justice? I mean you came here on a Vatican visitation to see how justly the Church in Ireland had dealt with victims of abuse but you explicitly acknowledge to the Vatican that a benefit of putting money into a cemetery trust – $57million – most of Milwaukee’s diocesans say was that it protected the money from litigants.”

Dolan: “So what about justice?”

Little: “Well, what are your credentials to participate in the visitation here about how the Irish Church dealt with victims.”

Dolan: “First of all, the visitation here was not to see how the Irish Church dealt with victims…”

Little: “Well that was one part of the terms of reference.”

Dolan: “No. My visitation here was to see how the seminaries were doing.”

Little: “Yeah but the overall terms of reference for the visitation was, partly, to examine how the Irish Church was dealing with survivors of abuse…”

Dolan: “With the other bishops. With me, my mandate was to see how the seminaries were doing and since I’d been rector of two seminaries, I guess they thought I had some credentials. And I don’t know, I didn’t say I had credentials, the Holy See said you’ve got credentials here, so…”

Little: “Well let me put it this way: Could seminarians who were being formed as future leaders of the Catholic Church, could they credibly take advice from you given that you told the Vatican that a benefit of moving $57million was to put it out of reach of litigants who had been abused, some of whom had been abused by priests?”

Dolan: “I hope so, especially if people knew that, in Milwaukee, I had already entered, at the suggestion of volunteers, a voluntary mediation programme that over 300 victims had benefited from.”

Listen back in full here

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Previously: Timothy Dolan on Broadsheet

(Mark Stedman/RollingNews)

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Socialist TD Paul Murphy and Irish Water protesters, including Ken and Carole Purcell, centre, addressing the media at a press conference in Brookfield Community Centre Tallaght this morning

Further to RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynolds’ report on Wednesday’s Nine News that the DPP Claire Loftus has directed more than 20 people who took part in the Jobstown protest last November are to be charged, some of those involved held a press conference this morning.

In the Irish Times, Mary Minihan reports:

Protesters who took part in the incident in Jobstown, Dublin last November when Tánaiste Joan Burton was trapped in her car have warned Government Ministers they can expect worse treatment….“It’s not a personal hatred of Joan Burton. I don’t know the woman. Nobody here knows the woman. But it’s a hatred of what she represents politically which is a complete sell-out of people and then really laying the boot into working class communities,” Mr [Paul] Murphy said.

Meanwhile, RTÉ reports:

“Carole Purcell and her husband Ken said they found out about the possible charges when they read it in the newspaper on Thursday, after it was reported by RTÉ the previous evening…Ken Purcell said he hoped gardaÍ would contact their solicitor so that they would know where they stood.”

Water protesters warn Government of ‘a hell of a lot worse’ (Irish Times)

Jobstown residents express fear over possible protest charges (RTÉ)

Pic: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Earlier: Iffy Leaks

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This afternoon.

The launch of the new RTÉ season in Smock Alley, Temple Bar, Dublin.

Laugh? We nearly paid the licence fee.

From top:  Claire Byrne, Ryan Tubridy and Ray D’Arcy; Kathryn Thomas, Irish Army Private Jonathan O Dowd and Una Healy; Una Healy, Aoibheann McCall, , Ryan Tubridy, Sinead Kennedy and Kathryn Thomas and group shot.

But how many share the same Godfather?

Earlier: That Was Den

(Sam Boal/RollingNews)

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Irish Water protesters outside the GPO in Dublin on June 20

John Downing, of the Irish Independent, spoke to Keelin Shanley as she sat in for Seán O’Rourke on RTE Radio One this morning.

The interview followed this morning’s reports that Eurostat is expected to rule that the State funds spent on Irish Water will have to remain on the Exchequer balance sheet until at least 2017.

Ms Shanley said, despite attempts by RTE to have somebody from Government speak on the show, nobody was available.

During the interview, they discussed the strength of the anti-water charges movement…

Keelin Shanley: “You would have to say politically: this is messy for them [Government], they’ve already had an awful lot of controversy around water charges. The movement did seem to be dying down, the anti-water charges movement, a little. How big a political fiasco is this for them?”

John Downing: “I believe it has that the anti-water charge movement was losing impetus and I think the Government were confident that it would be less of an election issue. This brings it right back. However, the timing of this news coming out is interesting: people going, already on holidays, people coming back from holidays, I think the Government will be hoping that it won’t be as noticeable as it might if it had emerged in September or October but it is very difficult for them and, at all events, we are now heading right into the teeth of an election campaign.”

Shanley: “I suppose the problem with this decision is that it seems to imply incompetence, that the Government thought the decision would go in another direction, you know, rather than implying that you might disagree with the ideology, the basic idea of paying for water, it says something about the way in which they’re working.”

Downing: “I believe so and I believe there was a point where, of all things, all the products, all the nasty products of austerity, water charges, for the bulk of middle Ireland was seen as reasonable and if we could see improved service and so on that people could have lived with it. I think, when you go back again to the point about the growth errors made by Irish Water, they have completely very, very seriously damaged that whole principle and, on that basis, at the end, as you say, it does, voters are entitled to say that this reflects on the competence of Government.”

Listen back here

Previously: Balance Sheet Hits The Fan

Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie