Estd. 2002. Politics, tech, startups, media, law, history, philosophy
The minister heads to Turin with his wife, his private secretary, secretary general Philip Furlong and assistant secretary general Con Haugh. They use the Ministerial Air Transport Service (MATS) to do it.
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Previously:
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)
Myself and Mark Coughlan, with huge help from Elena Eghawhary, have been working on spreadsheets for the past number of weeks. We are beginning to publish the results.
First off is a spreadsheet of all declared donations to TDs on record. We have setup a new blog to start publishing this data, along with the results of any FOIs we are working on. We think these first spreadsheets are important – they combine data that thus far has existed on government websites in a very disorganised fashion. We are hoping to change that.
Check out the document over at The Story.
Remember John O’Donoghue and that trip to India? It was part of a trade mission to the country, and JOD was not the only one to go. Bertie Ahern, Mary Hanafin, Micheal Martin and Donie Cassidy (and a pack of journalists) also went along for the ride. I wonder if they shared the limo between Terminal 1 and 3?
And you have to wonder where Micheal Martin gets off warning us against “losing the plot” on ministerial travel, when he was on the same trip as JOD, but details of Mr Martin’s expenses have yet to be revealed.
Back in July 2007 Bertie Ahern said people who talk down the economy might as well kill themselves. Fresh from a general election, the property bubble had burst, and we were on the way down.
Thanks to a reader, I got my hands on a Phoenix article from 1999, detailing then Justice Minister John O’Donoghue’s appointments to prison visiting committees (PVCs).
PVCs are traditionally great tools for political patronage (or clientelism). During her time as Justice Minister Nora Owen appointed party hacks to the roles, as one would expect, and the same goes for John O’Donoghue, but with a twist.
Each PVC member is entitled to travel expenses (then around 60p a mile), at least monthly, and members receive a subsistence allowance of £20.74 a day. They can also claim £72 once a year for an away visit to another prison. (Those rules have since changed)
Nora Owen largely appointed PVC members who were close to their respective prisons, obviously keeping travel expenses down. So what do you think our friend John O’Donoghue did?
One example: JOD appointed FF Cllr Danny Harkin from Lifford in Donegal to the Cork PVC. Ah yes.
The Phoenix continues:
“This means that Cllr Harkin journeys around 600 miles each trip to Cork Prison and back, at least twelve times annually. This works out at £2,400 for the first 4,000 miles, £1,000 plus for the next 3,000 or so miles, £250 circa for subsistence and one £72 overnight stay, totalling around £3,700 per annum, or £300 a month tax free. Cork based PVC members would be entitled to a tiny fraction of this in expenses.”
But Cllr Harkin was not an anomaly. Donie Cassidy’s son Peter, from Castlepollard, was also appointed to the Cork PVC. John O’Neill from Newbridge was also on the Cork PVC, even though he would have been next to the Curragh Prison. He would travel 260 miles on the round trip to Cork, collecting nearly £200 each time for his troubles.
JOD made three appointments to the prison on Spike Island in Cork:
FF Cllr Tony Fox (Dublin)
Mary Green McGoldrick (Kilrush Co Clare)
Seamus O’Connell (Waterford)
He made four appointments to Mountjoy, in Dublin:
Denis Foley’s aide Michael Murphy (Tralee)
Denis Falvey (FFer and owner of the Amascaul pub in which JOD has clinics)
Aidan Mulally (FFer and owner of Mulally’s pub in Brandon, in which JOD has clinics)
Matt Ryan (FF Cllr, from Thurles)
Of the 52 appointments JOD made to PVCs, 15 were from Kerry. They include:
Arbour Hill prison (400 mile round trip):
Tom Fleming (FF publican from Scartaglin)
Donal O’Meara (Killorglin FF activist)
Curragh prison (360 miles return trip)
Michael Cahill (Kerry)
Loughan House (Cavan):
Denis Brosnan (Taxi driver from Castlemaine), drives 600 miles return to Cavan from Kerry.
And others:
Former FF TD John O’Leary did the 360 mile round trip from Kerry to Mountjoy, while Eileen Curran, one of JOD’s close party colleagues, travels from Waterville Co Kerry to Portlaoise.
More appointments in 1998/9:
Tony McCarthy, one of JOD’s confidantes from Cahirciveen travels the 400 mile roundtrip to Shanganagh Castle. Mary O’Regan from Sneem does the 450 mile roundtrip to St Patrick’s institution every month. Kathleen Hickey from Portmagee does the 500 mile round trip to Wheatfield in Dublin, as does Pat Driscoll, a Castlegregory FFer. JOD’s cousin, publican and councillor Michael O’Shea from Milltown, also does the roundtrip to Wheatfield.
One has to wonder what was going on at Horse Racing Ireland, to where JOD appointed his wife.
About 8 weeks ago I went looking for a particular transcript of Morris Tribunal evidence, and to my horror discovered that the entire website had been removed. The transcripts are held digitally in an obscure format, for which you need special software (another story in itself), and they were nowhere to be found on the internet. The reports of the Tribunal, all eight of them, were missing too. I went searching on the Department of Justice website, finding the reports only via a site wide search.
This is wrong, I said to myself. Very wrong. If we are to learn any lessons from the Morris Tribunal, all data relating to it must be available online, all transcripts, all rulings, all reports. And they should be held in open formats, or even multiple formats. Taking them down would mean the public can learn nothing of the process or conclusions of the Tribunal. And the Tribunal was not cheap, and the taxpayer footed the bill. The least we can expect is that everything relating to the Tribunal be made public (the same should apply to all Tribunals).
I wanted to get to the bottom of it, so I sent an email to the Department of Justice, seeking the transcripts, and asking why the website was removed. I mailed the press office and got the following reply:
The Morris Tribunal has been wound down due to completion of its work. All its reports are available on the Department’s website at www.justice.ie. We are not aware that transcripts of the Tribunal’s proceedings were ever available.
Yes, apparently there never were transcripts. Even though I had read dozens of them online over the years. I can imagine them saying, since the Tribunal is finished, let’s add some more reports to the Government’s catalogue of reports, and let them collect digital dust.
I replied that there certainly were transcripts, since I had read them. I also wanted to know why there was no dedicated part of the Department’s website for the Morris Tribunal (easily done, just copy the old website and put it at justice.ie/morris). The Department replied:
There is not now, and never has been, a dedicated part of the Department’s website for the Morris Tribunal – the reports were located by doing a search in the search bar. The Tribunal had its own website where all their own stuff was published – I understand the website went on for a while after the Tribunal ended but that it has now ceased altogether.
As there was an absolute huge number of transcripts involved, I understand that if you can identify a specific transcript that you require, the officials here in the Dept will endeavour to track it down for you.
Wow. The Department would deign to give me selected transcripts from a public tribunal, funded by the taxpayer, that examined massive Garda corruption. I felt so…honoured that I could request documents, that as a citizen, I am entitled to see. Not alone that, but the officials would endeavour, which I guess means they may or may not get me the transcripts. Consider me humbled.
Rather that continuing with this line of inquiry, which was clearly getting me nowhere, I contacted Fanore software, the people who were contracted to build the Morris website (and others) for the Department. They were helpful, but since the DoJ were their clients, there was little they could do. Fair enough.
Time to step it up a bit. I wrote and sent the following Freedom of Information request to the Department:
Request for access to records under the Freedom of Information Acts 1997 and 2003
Dear Sir/Madam,In accordance with Section 7 of the above mentioned Acts, I wish to request access to the following records which I believe to be held by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform (“the Department”):
1) The contract between the Department and Fanore Software, relating to the development of the website for the Morris Tribunal.
2) A breakdown of fees relating to the contract.
3) All transcripts of Morris Tribunal public sittings.
4) An archived digital copy of the website (morristribunal.ie), which was made available to the Department by Fanore after the original website was removed.
My preferred form of access to these documents is in digital format. All transcripts of the Tribunal are held in digital format.
It is my understanding that the contract between Fanore Software and the Department has been concluded, as such the provision of the contract and a breakdown of fees should not give rise to any problems of commercial confidentiality, particularly given the unique nature of the contract and the fact that it is no longer active.
If you decide to request further payment I would like to be provided with an itemised fees receipt outlining precisely why an additional cost is required.
Please find enclosed a cheque in the amount of €15 in respect of the fee for a request under the Acts. I look forward to hearing from you in the time period prescribed.
Please contact me by email to discuss any problems which may occur with this request.
Sincerely
Gavin Sheridan
I did receive an acknowledgment of my FOI request, but have not yet received the results.
But as of today, August 26, 16 days after my FOI was submitted, and about 8 weeks after I noticed the website was gone, Morristribunal.ie is back. What a curious turn of events.
Gavin 1: Government 0
The minister goes to the Big Apple with his wife, private secretary, the secretary general of the department, a Mrs Furlong and Paul O’Toole.
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Previously:
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)
The Minister, his wife and his private secretary fly to Manchester, then on to Cheltenham Races via Stratford on Avon. This is after they attend the Ireland vs Scotland rugby match at Landsdowne Road. They spend St Patrick’s Day at the races. Money is also paid for their driver to overnight.
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Previously:
JOD Part 1 (India)
JOD Part 2 (Birmingham)
JOD Part 3 (Berlin)
JOD Part 4 (London)
JOD Part 5 (London)
JOD Part 6 (Venice)
Then Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue, his private secretary Therese O’Connor and his wife Kate Ann, jet off to Venice. Highlights:
Government Learjet from Baldonnel to Venice, and back to Farranfore.
The infamous watertaxi receipts…
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Previously:
JOD Part 1 (India)
JOD Part 2 (Birmingham)
JOD Part 3 (Berlin)
JOD Part 4 (London)
JOD Part 5 (London)
It might be useful to make a stab at a chronology of events. It would certainly help to understand the news cycles at work.
Sunday July 26, 2009. Ken Foxe in the Tribune publishes details of expenses he had obtained via Freedom of Information requests.
Sunday August 2, 2009. Ken Foxe publishes more details of trips.
Sunday August 9, 2009. Ken publishes more details.
His stories were important, well researched, and well written. And it is important to say, he did the legwork, and deserves the credit. But other news organisations did not pick up the stories in any significant way. To me, it seems to be a symptom of Sunday newspapers and weekend news cycles generally. The government knows how these cycles work and cynically uses them.
In mid-August I sent an FOI request to the department, seeking all the information they had released to Ken. I wanted them in digital format so that I could publish them online, but if necessary I would scan hard copies. The department replied that since so many had requested the documents that they would photocopy a set for me and send them outside of the terms of the FOI acts, for free.
I replied that I would be willing to accept the documents outside the FOI Act, but under two conditions: a) I had a timeframe by which I would receive the documents, and b) The Department would guarantee in writing that the documents they were sending me outside of the terms of the Act, were the same set of documents I would have received if I had requested them under the Act. I got that guarantee.
Sunday, August 16, 2000: Ken Foxe publishes more details of expenses.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009: I received the documents in the post, picked one folder, and started scanning. I uploaded the documents to a third party document sharing website (Scribd).
This outsources server issues, and allows for downloads and embedding of documents in other websites. It also means my site is not the sole place the documents are available. After posting the documents online, I start a thread on politics.ie, letting everyone know they are available to the crowd.
Within an hour speculation surrounded the identity of the limousine company, and the seemingly large amounts of money spent on hiring cars. That led to members of politics.ie scouring the internet for information, and some others recounting personal knowledge of the director of the company and his family connections. Comments on the blog post also speculate on these issues.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009: I uploaded more documents, and again place them on a politics.ie thread. This led to further speculation about Cartel, and the money spent on hiring their services. Users started a new thread, devoted to the FF connection to the limousine company, leading to a 25 page thread. More details are discovered and shared.
In response to the politics.ie thread, I wrote a blog post adding some more details, and laying out names and addresses. I received a call from Harry McGee of the Irish Times asking about my uploading of FOIs to my blog.
On the same day, the Irish Independent leads with a story by Michael Brennan, that there will be a clampdown on ministerial spending abroad, and on perks.
Thursday, August 20, 2009: I uploaded another set of documents. The Irish Times has a story on Mary O’Rourke’s opinion on John O’Donoghue’s expenses, which is now firmly back on the news agenda. In the same story I am quoted, and the name of my blog is mentioned. Over those first three days there were about 7,500 unique visitors to the blog, with over 10,000 pages viewed.
Friday, August 21, 2009: I uploaded another set of documents. The Irish Daily Mail led with a story relating to the speculation surrounding the limousine company, its connections to Fianna Fail, and the sums involved – highlighted by politics.ie users and myself on August 18 and 19.
Saturday, August 22: 2009: The Irish Times follows the Daily Mail lead, reporting on the link between Mr Gallagher and Fianna Fail, and on the amounts involved. For the second time in a week, the Irish Independent led with a story on ministerial expenses. Charlie Weston writes:
“TDs and senators face having their generous expenses taxed under a radical shake-up. The report of the Commission on Taxation recommends that members of the Oireachtas should have their expenses taxed in the same way as ordinary workers. Many TDs submit claims of up to €90,000 a year in largely untaxed expenses, according to recent revelations.”
Sunday, August 23, 2009: The Sunday Times and the Sunday Tribune cover the limousine angles, with the Sunday Times directly mentioning me, and the owner of the limousine company, Terry Gallagher, directly referring to my blog. The Sunday Tribune story relates to some comments on politics.ie around the cost of a very short jaunt between Heathrow terminals (€472).
The big thesis at work here is this: Crowdsourcing can work. When there are large volumes of documents to be read and parsed, it makes little sense for 1 or 2 people to work on it, when hundreds or thousands can help out. Hundreds of people searching on Google, asking friends about people, already having knowledge of particular people – digging into the data, sharing it, commenting on it, collaborating online, will lead to a more thorough examination than one journalist can perform. Yes we do need filters, but it should go hand in hand with the publication of all FOIs for further distillation, perhaps subsequent to publication of stories.
What interests me more though are the stories relating to clampdowns on expenses that led Irish Independent coverage on two days in one week. During 4-5 days of news surrounding John O’Donoghue, generated largely by posting the original documents online, two separate stories were written that could be described as government spin, including one based on a deliberate leak from the upcoming Taxation report.
I am not accussing the journalists in question of anything untoward, I am merely observing the effectiveness of government PR/propaganda. This effectiveness is demonstrated in radio interviews, such as Conor Lenihan on Radio 1 yesterday morning, where he could refer directly to these news stories as evidence that “those days are over” etc. The marrying of government spin with ministers on air attempting to justify the profilagacy of Mr O’Donoghue is fascinating to observe. The talking points alone are professionally done:
“We were richer back then”
“Those days are over, did you see that story about clampdowns on ministerial expenses?”
“The department decided on costs”
“It wasn’t the Minister’s fault”
“Ministers should stay in nice places when abroad, they are representing the country”
…among others. All of them nonsense, but all of them serving to distract from the core issues, which of course is their intention. Ministers are responsible for what they spend. They are grown adults in charge of departments, trying to blame everybody else.
There is one issue and one issue alone. Servants of the people are wasting taxpayers’ money. John O’Donoghue wasted vast amounts of money, not just on limos, on a whole range of things, from five-star hotels to government jet flights. That is the only point. Mr O’Donoghue should resign forthwith.