[Crossposted to thestory.ie]
Readers may recall a blog post I wrote back in December detailing my dealings with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism (DAST). After gleaning information from the footers of Ken Foxe’s FOIs concerning John O’Donoghue, I established that the Department was using Oracle iExpense software to store expenses information.
I wrote an FOI request in October asking for a ‘datadump’, of the entire database since inception (in other words, a copy of the database). The Department refused both the original request and the appeal for internal review (conducted by a more senior official in the Department).
In January I appealed the decision to the Office of the Information Commissioner. The request, internal review and appeal have cost a...
Our esteemed Senators have been at it again. Hold onto your hats. Senator Donie Cassidy kicked it off:
Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail): Senators Fitzgerald, Coghlan, Quinn and Norris congratulated the Jekyll and Hyde foundation for the wonderful work it is doing. Senator Fitzgerald outlined the huge difference between the cost of the services being provided by the foundation and those provided by the HSE. It is something we must examine—–
Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael): It is the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
Dominic Hannigan (Labour): Jekyll and Hyde is something different.
Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail): My apologies. It is the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation….
Your tax euros hard at work there....
You would have to wonder whether you could call the proposal for a bank inquiry an ‘inquiry’ at all. It certainly does not appear to have much in the way of grilling the people who caused the mess, or of dealing with the decisions post September 2008, all of which were the critical ones.
I made the point earlier to Senator Dan Boyle (who is said to have offered his resignation over the inquiry). I tweeted to him: “…forgive my cynicism then. Will I see TV pictures of our leaders for the past 12 years being held to account for their decisions?”
To which he replied:
Brian Cowen, at least, is a start. But Bertie Ahern, being the Taoiseach who oversaw the entire period would be another must see. And Messrs McCreevy (Finance), Cullen, Dempsey, Roche and Gormley...
I have received copies of all financial support given by Enterprise Ireland for 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. It details tens of millions of euro worth of grants to companies throughout the country. The supports are broken down by county.
For now I have not ‘cleaned’ the data, ie I have not removed spaces and extra sentences that are not needed for the purposes of better presentation. The document is ‘as
is’ and is based on PDFs which have been imported into Google spreadsheets.
Enterprise Ireland grants 2005 – 2008
You can view each year of data by clicking the respective year at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
[cross posted to thestory.ie]...
[Cross posted to thestory.ie]
Last month I put an FOI request in with the Department of the Taoiseach for the following:
(1) All transcripts of public sittings of the Moriarty Tribunal from its inception to the date on which this request is received.
(2) The contract for transcription services and a breakdown of fees charged for transcription services.
(3) The breakdown of fees for the maintenance and building of the Moriarty Tribunal website, and the contract for this.
Today I received the reply. I had to read it twice to let it sink in.
Moriarty reply
I can, in some way, live with the fact that the taxpayer spent the bones of €1 million on transcription fees since the inception of the Tribunal in 1998. But I cannot fathom how a) the transcripts are not available online and b) that...
I can’t really add much to Mr Kelly’s excellent analysis. What it says to me is that the next 12 to 18 months are going to be among the most difficult, if not the most difficult, time this country has faced. I encourage everyone to read the entire document.
I will emphasise his conclusion:
Despite having pushed the Irish state close to, and quite possibly beyond, the limits ofits fiscal capacity with the NAMA scheme, the Irish banks remain as zombies whose only priority is to reduce their debt, and who face complete destruction from mortgage losses. The issue therefore is not whether the Irish bank bailout will restore the Irish banks sothat they can function as independent commercial entities: it cannot. Rather it is whether the Irish government’s commitments to bank bond...
I don’t want this post to seem like an “I told you so” post. But it might appear that way. I started irishcorruption.com/publicinquiry.eu back in 2005. One of the biggest issues myself and my uncle Anthony covered, and still cover on that blog, is the lack of regulation of the banks. And when the country was in a credit boom, and nobody was asking questions about regulation of the banks, myself, and to a much deeper degree Anthony where highlighting this issue ad nauseum. Almost all of these posts were also copied to the office of the Financial Regulator.
August 22, 2005 Toothless IFSRA
August 25, 2005 Allied Irish Banks investigates itself
September 28, 2005 Banana Republic
October 10, 2005 Irish/Italian accountability
November 15, 2005 The sheriff is not for the good...
Two good articles by IT journalists over the weekend.
First up, Simon Carswell, via FoI:
THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) told the Government that the definition of “long-term economic value” on bank loans in the draft Nama Bill was “masterful” as it was “sufficiently specific” and “sufficiently vague” to allow “appropriate flexibility”.
Steven Seelig, an adviser at the IMF, made the comments in an e-mailed response to a request by the Department of Finance for his opinion on the draft National Asset Management Agency Bill published last August.
“It is both sufficiently specific and sufficiently vague to allow appropriate flexibility. I hope you can retain this language,” said Mr Seelig, an expert on “bad banks”, in a private e-mail to department...
[Crossposted to thestory.ie]
I will post the document first and tell the story below, it’s worth a look. The information contained in this FOI, is I believe, valuable.
Cost-benefit analyses, impact reports or preparatory reports for NAMA
Why is this information valuable? It contains a timeline of what companies were involved in consulting the Government on the formation of NAMA, and gives us insight into the process. It also contains previously unknown titles, such as HSBC’s “Project Neo”. This is likely relates to the rumoured formation of a “New Anglo Irish Bank” in 2010. And it gives us an idea as to the level of involvement of Merrill, Arthur Cox, Rotschilds, PwC and HSBC.
The background:
A little bit of a saga ended today, finally. It is worth...
[Cross posted to thestory.ie]
I was interested in some FOI work that Deputy Joan Burton had been doing lately on Anglo Irish Bank, so I contacted her and asked for any documents or refusals she had received. She was kind enough to copy everything and post them down to me. I have now scanned and OCRd the documentation.
First up is Ireland’s notification to the European Commission surrounding the injection of €1.5bn of capital into the bank. It runs to over 50 pages and contains some curious stuff. Many of the handwritten notes are I believe by Deputy Burton herself, or her staff. But there are other curious oddities, some of which are highlighted.
Firstly the document appears to have been poorly redacted. There are strikethroughs throughout the document with notes afterwards such...
[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:
In relation to the break down of allowances I wish to clarify the following:
1. Telephone Allowance is paid as an annual allowance on a quarterly basis to all Members. The allocation of this allowance to specific telephone bills is a matter for each individual Member, consequently the allowance is not quantified into land line calls and mobile phone calls. Any expenses incurred by members over and above this allowance have to be met by the individual Member.
2....
Note the prominence of words like “review”, “ensure” “support” and “develop”....
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 force this resignation.
Mr O’Donoghue is a national disgrace.
But the FOI work continues....
For the record:
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)
JOD Part 9 (Turin)
JOD Part 10 (Stuttgart)
JOD Part 11 (Paris)
Incurred as Ceann Comhairle, 2007 – 2009:
Explanatory document on CC expenses
Schedule 1 – Allowances and Expenses
Schedule 2 – Domestic flights
Schedule 3 – Details of foreign travel
Schedule 4 – Official entertainment
DOC
Domestic Travel 1
Domestic Travel 2
Domestic Travel 3
Domestic Travel 4
Domestic Travel 5
1 Stop Shop Constituency Expenses...
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 light, in a small way, was how little in-house expertise the Government has. Reports were written for the Government by Merrill Lynch, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Cox, Peter Bacon, Rothschild, and HSBC. If you are wondering who drafted the NAMA legislation, the answer lies somewhere between all of these companies and people, the Department of Finance and the Minister. It would also be fair to say that the Irish banks must have had...
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....
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
Schedule 2 – Domestic flights
Schedule 3 – Details of foreign travel
Schedule 4 – Official entertainment
DOC
Domestic Travel 1
Domestic Travel 2
Domestic Travel 3
Domestic Travel 4
Domestic Travel 5
1 Stop Shop Constituency Expenses...
[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 any other costs borne by the Department for a trip taken by the Minister to India in January 2006, and a breakdown of any expenses claimed.
I will upload the schedule later. The total trip cost €26,421.14. Flights cost €20,912.84. Ms Hanafin’s flight alone cost €8,990.28.
For now, here is the spreadsheet of costs (go to the bottom of the sheet and click “costs India trip” :
Hanafin India 2006
I do not believe removing the...
The Independent leads tomorrow with a story about €100m in outstanding loans on which former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick is apparently not paying interest. That’s an interest bill of €400,000 a month, but no repayments are being made.
This actually partly relates to my story the other day about Anglo-Irish Nominees Ltd.
We know Mr FitzPatrick had personal loans from Anglo. But those loans did not include lending like the Atrium deal set out below. Money was lent to a company in which he had a beneficial interest. I wonder how much of Anglo’s lending related to Mr FitzPatrick’s personal interest in investments? This is on top of the personal loans we are already aware of.
And how many more of Anglo’s staff have loans, directly or indirectly,...
Some time ago I sought the following information from the Department of Finance:
1) The titles, dates and authors of all cost-benefit analyses, impact reports or preparatory reports that have been carried out by the Department in relation to NAMA
2) The titles, dates and authors of all cost-benefit analyses, impact reports or preparatory reports that have been carried out by people or companies working on behalf of, or at the request, of the Department, in relation to NAMA
Outside of the FOI (though I still intend pursuing this information through FOI, whether or not it is rejected) I received the following information:
Merrill Lynch (engaged by NTMA)
A number of reports setting out options for the Irish banking sector, including the treatment of impaired assets
PwC (engaged...
[cross posted to thestory.ie]
The Daily Mail and Sunday Times have commented already on Lenihan’s diary as published here last week. The Daily Mail concentrated on the meeting with Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone on November 12, 2008. The Sunday Times was more concerned with all the constituency work Mr Lenihan was doing when he perhaps should have been doing more important work.
For my own part I’ve been parsing the document to see what dates coincide. I’ve also drafted and sent two follow up FOIs on the basis of information gleaned from Mr Lenihan’s diary. There will likely be follow ups to those too.
However, the diary itself raises a number of question that I will list here.
1) Why was a meeting with Sean FitzPatrick on September 18 not listed in the......
The first in a multipart series looking at the companies and subsidiaries of Anglo Irish Bank, now a State-owned entity. Happily the series almost coincides with the first anniversary of the bank guarantee announcement. Onto the details:
First up is Anglo-Irish Bank (Nominees) Ltd.
Second a definition: A nominee company is a company formed by a bank or other organisation for the purpose of holding shares on behalf of the beneficial owner. Nominee company employees carry out all the paperwork and other tasks associated with the documentation of shareholding and arrange for necessary transfers when a share is purchased or sold.
The company has an address at Stephen Court 18/21, St. Stephens Green Dublin 2, like many Anglo Irish companies.
The company was incorporated on the 23rd of...
For two weeks now I’ve been trawling the companies wholly owned, or party owned, by Anglo Irish Bank. It’s tough going. I plan to tabulate all the information so people can see just what was nationalised, and just what we now own. I’ve already found some curious connections, curious companies, and some newsworthy items.
Shall I dump it all in one go, or drip feed it? :-)...
[cross posted to thestory.ie)
Last month I sent the following Freedom of Information request:
FOI Unit
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2,
August 13, 2009
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 act, I wish to request access to the following records which I believe to be held by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (”the Department”):
1) The portfolio prepared by the Department in advance of Mary Coughlan (”the Minister”) becoming Enterprise Minister on May 7, 2008, in order to brief her on her new role.
2) All briefing notes prepared for the Minister for an interview on RTE Radio with Marian Finucane, in...
[cross posted to thestory.ie]
As part of my FOI request seeking the diary of Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, I also sought briefing documents used by himself and the Department’s Secretary General David Doyle. My request asked for:
1. The diary of the Minister for Finance (dates given)
2. Briefing notes prepared for the Minister for Finance for an appearance before the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, and
3. Briefing notes prepared for the Secretary General of the Department of Finance for his appearance before the PAC.
I have uploaded the full extent of my request, and their response.
Item two was refused outright.
Item three. Is largely granted but a number of records or parts of records have been refused. Furthermore, records relating to the President do...
[cross posted to thestory.ie]
I’ve made a stab at tracking the web of companies that fall under the various Morston Investments companies. There are a number of curious facts about these companies, clues of which can be found in some of the locations and names of companies. The number after each company name is my own, to help me distinguish between the various Morstons.
Liam Carroll spreadsheet
I was especially curious about Morston UK. Mr Carroll does not appear anywhere on the company information for the UK firm. However, Morston UK has a Dutch subsidiary called Vantive Finance (interesting name), which in turn has an Irish subsidiary called Vantive CC (which does list Mr Carroll as a director). Why this complex structure? And who are the curious pair who direct Morston UK?...
There has been much talk in recent months of Liam Carroll’s ‘complex web’ of companies, which all seem to owe each other money. Take one down, it has been said, and they all fall. But no one has yet tried to construct exactly what this web looks like. I think I’ll have a go. It is complex, so I am open to correction, but this is the best I can make out. I will place this in a tree structure to try and demonstrate the ultimate owners, and the various subsidiaries. In all cases I am referrign to Irish registered company in the table below.
Morston Investments Limited (Ultimate owner of all companies).
a) b) c) d) e) f) g) are all subsidiaries of Vantive Holdings.
1) Vantive Holdings
a) Danoval Limited
a i) Bulwark Limited
i) Jarmar Properties...
[cross posted to thestory.ie]
I have blogged previously about my request for information concerning the Morris Tribunal website, and its disappearance earlier this year. I noticed that since my FOI was submitted, the Morris Tribunal website had reappeared. It seems this was as a result of my request.
To recap: I submitted the following request
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...
[Via bostonorberlin on the Pin]
We are all to blame, we are all to responsible, we all had our heads in the trough
MYTH/LIE/SPIN
2,000 individual loans make up the €77 billion in toxic bad loans the tax payer is taking on.
150 individuals are responsible for €50 billion of the toxic bad loans the tax payer is taking on.
€32 billion of the bank bailout is belonging to just two banks, chaired by two individuals who have since retired Michael Fingleton and Sean Fitzpatrick
There are just over 160 Members of Dail Eireann
There are 84 TDs in Government FF, Green, Independents
There are 81 TDs in Opposition
We have reached the Bottom (I) – Brian Lenihan
MYTH/LIE/SPIN
He provides no report, countrywide analysis or figures to prove this, it is simply a soundbyte.
If we have hit the...