Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Green Party programme wordle
Note the prominence of words like “review”, “ensure” “support” and “develop”.
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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…
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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)…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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Sean FitzPatrick's loans
[cross posted to thestory.ie] 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…
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Reports prepared for NAMA
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…
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Some questions for Mr Lenihan
[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…
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