Gavinsblog.com

Month: October 2009

  • Antioch and Aleppo

    We left Adana on Monday, travelling to Antioch by bus. It was a nice trip, the bus was air conditioned and almost empty. The bus had two drivers, who switched half way through. They also gave out free Pepsi, fizzy orange and tea.

  • Adana, Turkey

    Went for a stroll around Adana today, going to the train station, the Sabanci Mosque (the largest in Turkey) and the Roman bridge built by either Hadrian or Justinian. All very impressive pieces of architecture. A person working for the mosque was kind enough to show us around and bring us to the top of…

  • TD/Senator expenses 2005 – 2008

    [cross posted to thestory.ie] For the record and as part of an ongoing FOI request, here are all expenses and salaries of all TDs and Senators, 2005 – 2008. I received them today via email from the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. We hope to digitise this data shortly. I also received the following note:…

  • Green Party programme wordle

    Note the prominence of words like “review”, “ensure” “support” and “develop”.

  • John O'Donoghue resigns

    It took months of work by Ken Foxe at the Sunday Tribune. His efforts deserve every applause. For my own part, I started posting Ken’s FOI work online on August 18. I hope this helped in some way to get Ken’s work more exposure, and help force this resignation. For even half of the trips…

  • John O'Donoghue expenses

    For the record. Total expenses so far revealed (2006 – 2009): more than €700,000. Incurred as Minister for Arts Sport and Tourism: JOD Part 1 (India) JOD Part 2 (Birmingham) JOD Part 3 (Berlin) JOD Part 4 (London) JOD Part 5 (London) JOD Part 6 (Venice) JOD Part 7 (Manchester) JOD Part 8 (New York)…

  • Those NTMA pay scales

    Last week I blogged a response I had received from the Department of Finance concerning Government consultations over the establishment of NAMA. The response was prompted by an FOI request, seeking the titles, dates and authors of consultation reports for the Government (seeking the documents themselves would have been refused outright). What it brought to…

  • Fas internal audit

    Over at thestory.ie, myself and Mark have been working on the details contained in the Fas internal audit report into Greg Craig. It makes for interesting reading.

  • John O'Donoghue files Part Deux

    These documents became available because of an FOI request of Ken Foxe and the Sunday Tribune, which paid €600 for this information. Details were due to be published on Sunday October 4. John O’Donoghue pre-empted this by publishing the information today. All receipts (PDFs): Explanatory document on CC expenses Schedule 1 – Allowances and Expenses…

  • Mary Hanafin's trip to India

    [cross posted to thestory.ie] In 2006 the Government went on a trade mission to India. Mary Hanafin as Minister for Education went along. I put in the following FOI request: 1) The Minister’s schedule and appointments between January 1, 2006 and March 1, 2006. 2) A breakdown of flight costs, accommodation costs, hospitality costs, and…