Gavinsblog.com

Category: Irish Politics

  • Anglo – requesting information

    [posted to thestory.ie] Readers will be aware that Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised in January 2009. This came after the bank guarantee scheme of September/October 2009. Anglo became a prescribed body under the Ethics in Public Office Act last summer, which was expanded through a statutory instrument in February 2010 to cover many subsidiaries of…

  • Department expense database

    [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…

  • Jekyll & Hyde

    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…

  • Cowen to appear for bank inquiry?

    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…

  • Enterprise Ireland grants

    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…

  • Moriarty transcripts

    [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…

  • Morgan Kelly

    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…

  • The Regulator

    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…

  • More NAMA stuff

    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…

  • Fuck you Deputy Stagg