A briefing for the boss of the IDA said the €13 billion Apple tax judgment against Ireland was “not reputationally damaging, although unfortunate.”
Speaking points prepared for CEO Michael Lohan said feedback from international clients suggested it had not changed the perception of Ireland for investors.
Mr Lohan “if pushed” on what the Exchequer should do with the tax windfall was advised to recommend “continued investment in infrastructure” to help attract foreign direct investment (FDI).
The briefing said there had been constraints in “supply and planning” and this might be an area the government could look to as it spent the funds.
The speaking points were prepared for Mr Lohan in September after the European Court of Justice ruled Ireland had given Apple illegal tax advantages.
Mr Lohan was told the judgment should be put in context as an “historical case” and one that needed to be looked at through a “different prism.”
It said it related to just a single company and that tax was only one of the many reasons foreign firms came to do business in Ireland.
The speaking notes then suggested the IDA CEO should “pivot to all the reasons why companies invest.”
It said Ireland did not give preferential tax treatment to any company and that this was “the government position and that of IDA Ireland.”
A county council was able to buy an historic house and gardens for €10 million after being told it could fetch as much as €15 million on the open market.
South Dublin County Council bought Lucan House and Demesne from the Italian government this year with a view to transforming it into a visitor attraction along the banks of the River Liffey.
A private real estate company had told the owners it could have secured a price of between €12.5 million and €15 million in an auction.
However, a deal was struck for €10 million – which was €500,000 less than a valuation given in an independent assessment by Dublin City Council’s Valuation Office.
This said Lucan House and Demesne was made up of a Palladian country house of over 15,000 square feet along with a boathouse, a stable block, two gate lodges, worker cottages, and “other structures of archaeological note.”
The property itself covers around thirty acres along the banks of the River Liffey and even has a small island in the river connected by an iron footbridge.
The valuation said that South Dublin County Council should seek agreement on “the inventory of fixtures, fittings, furniture, and art” inside Lucan House, which were also of considerable value.
It said: “There is scope perhaps, for the council to purchase certain bespoke items of intrinsic historical value, which would support and enhance the future use of this important heritage property.”
The valuation said a similar Palladian mansion, Seafield House in Donabate, North Dublin, had achieved a sale price of over €9 million.
“Smaller property, inferior location, layout and scale of rooms not as impressive. Doesn’t have the same architectural prestige,” it said.
One of the country’s largest hospitals warned of the danger of a “catastrophic technical failure” of their computer systems after an IT glitch caused chaos during the summer.
The Mater Hospital was hit by a failure of their patient record computer system in July which led to the cancellation of surgeries and a plea to the public not to attend its emergency department.
A report prepared in the aftermath said the hospital’s PatientCare records system was beyond “end of life” with no technical support available for critical elements.
It said: “Services were affected for the entirety of the outage; this included an unknown level of harm to the patients.
“No assurance can be given that [the] system will not fail at any point into the future. Furthermore, if the failure is in one of the unsupported elements of the system, the failure may be unrecoverable.”
The report detailed how July’s IT outage left the hospital exposed as medics were forced to revert to the use of paper files without access to electronic records.
It said that sixty procedures – including thirty-two surgeries – had to be deferred including “time sensitive urgent care.”
The report added: “Support for outsourcing surgical activity in the private hospital system was denied by the HSE.”
Asked about the outage, a spokeswoman said: “[The hospital] worked as quickly as possible to rectify the situation, but some patients were affected, which the Mater Hospital regrets and apologises for.
“The hospital has been working for some time with the HSE to update and replace the existing ICT system and it is now part of the programme to introduce a new National Electronic Health record.
“Pending that new system being in place, the Mater Hospital has instigated a range of measures to mitigate against future systems failures.”
Justice Minister Helen McEntee was told jails had no capacity to safely accommodate a sudden rise in prisoners following “widespread public disorder” because of record levels of overcrowding.
The minister was warned that the appointment of extra judges and increased court sittings could also lead to the system becoming even more overwhelmed.
With record numbers of people in custody, a department submission said: “Operating above capacity has become an unwanted standard in 2023 and into 2024.
“This has considerable negative impact on safety and the functioning of the prisons, but it should also be noted that the Irish prison estate currently has no space to safely accommodate any sudden surge in its population.”
It said this type of ‘surge’ could happen in the event of public disorder, such as the widespread racist rioting and looting that took place in Dublin last year, or from increased activity in the courts.
In another briefing, Ms McEntee was told that inappropriate conduct by a small minority of prison staff had led to unsafe acts and conditions in jails.
Ms McEntee was advised that “unethical, and in some cases, unlawful behaviour” by employees was being tackled.
One briefing said enhanced supervision and appropriate support for staff with “declared issues” had been introduced by prison management.
The justice minister has been repeatedly briefed on Ireland’s creaking jail system this year, with prisons frequently operating at above 100 percent capacity.
One document earlier this year said: “The prison service considers that the population should not go above 95 percent … of the total capacity. Going above this risks the safety of staff and prisoners alike.”
Asked about the records, which were released to Right to Know under FOI, a Department of Justice spokesman said significant capital funding had been made available to provide extra prison spaces.
He said: “The Irish Prison Service continues to engage with the Department of Justice to progress plans to bring on stream accommodation for over 1,100 prisoners between 2024 and 2030.
“Budget 2025 provides funding of €525m for the prison system. This is an increase of €79m or 18 percent on 2024 funding.”
Right to Know has won a case where we sought records on pre-budget discussions between An Bord Pleanála (ABP) and its parent department under FOI.
ABP refused to release the records citing Section 40 of the FOI Act which covers release of information that could affect the “financial and economic interests of the state.”
This part of the legislation is generally used for ‘macro’ level information of a type that might be held by the Department of Finance.
At internal review, we told An Bord Pleanála they were misinterpreting the FOI Act and how Section 40 was intended to work.
They upheld the decision.
We appealed to the Information Commissioner who also said An Bord Pleanála appeared to be “misunderstanding” how the exemption worked.
The decision said: “At no point in its submissions to this Office has ABP identified how the conduct of general commercial activity in the State could be disrupted by the release of the records at issue.
“Having considered the matter, it is also not evident to me how the release of 2024 budgetary projections for ABP could reasonably be expected to result in an undue disturbance to the ordinary course of business in the State.”
The case unfortunately highlights one of the glaring weaknesses of how FOI works in that the appeal process can be very lengthy.
The records at the heart of this decision relate to Budget 2024 and have now been superseded by similar correspondence that would have been generated ahead of Budget 2025.
We have sought a copy of the newer records this week and hopefully it won’t take quite as long to get sight of them.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) was hoping the €336,000 bicycle shed at Leinster House could become a model design to be adapted and reused at other historic properties.
New documents also detail how the OPW looked at prefabricated shelters for the parliamentary complex but “none were found suitable for [the] location.”
An architectural heritage impact assessment said the project was proving a “challenge” because of its sensitive historic location.
It said the bike shed needed to be “carefully treated and considered,” so as not to ruin vistas of Leinster House, the National Gallery or the Natural History Museum.
The assessment said the Oireachtas had also asked for the shelter to be “visible” to the public to help “demonstrate leadership in this sustainability action.”
However, the project was beset by delays and ended up costing €335,000, expenditure described as “inexplicable and inexcusable” by Taoiseach Simon Harris.
The chairman of the OPW John Conlon told an Oireachtas Committee last week the cost was “extraordinary” and wasteful public expenditure is likely to be a key issue in the general election.
Records released by the Oireachtas under FOI laws describe how several possible sites were looked at for the project including one that was dismissed on security grounds and garda advice.
The architectural assessment said: “The structural element of the shelter is to be as visually light as possible and of good quality material.
“This design could be adapted and used in other heritage properties. The rain screen will be glazed for least visual impact.”
It also said the shed needed to be “reversible” so that the main part of the shelter could be moved to a different location if needed in the future.
“The design should allow for the shelter to be extended without significant alterations to the existing structure,” said the report. “Shelter should be easy to maintain and repair.”
The assessment said the installation would be for 18 stands, catering for 36 bicycles, and “beneath a bespoke steel-framed, glazed canopy.”
The High Court has found in favour of the Information Commissioner in a Right to Know case over access to records on a land deal involving IDA Ireland.
It’s a landmark victory for transparency in a case where the IDA has already spent more than €80,000 in taxpayer funds to fight disclosure of the documents involved.
The case centres on a request made in 2021 for valuation reports and other documents around the purchase of a 39-acre site in County Louth by the state agency.
It went through the usual appeal process and the Information Commissioner directed release of the documents with a small amount of redaction in this decision.
The case was appealed to the High Court by the IDA with the judgment delivered today (Friday, 15 November 2024) by Justice Siobhán Phelan.
It is a big win for Right to Know, the Information Commissioner, and anybody interested in transparency in Ireland.
The IDA’s primary argument was that the original decision was inadequate and did not engage sufficiently with the arguments they made.
It seemed as if the IDA wanted to turn every FOI review into a highly complex legal process with each argument dealt with line by line in exhaustive detail.
It had the potential to make the work of the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) almost infeasible.
However, Judge Phelan found the OIC had made their decision properly and had dealt with all of the IDA’s arguments sufficiently and fairly.
Some of the highlights of the judgment.
The Information Commissioner is obliged to carry out its review in an informal way and even still, this decision ran to seventeen pages.
On IDA claims that they were not given enough information in the case, and how they had then proceeded “to expound some 21 appeal grounds”.
A completely bizarre part of the case where the IDA argued that folio numbers, publicly available through the Property Registration Authority, should be withheld.
On “notably weak” attempts by the IDA to argue that the records were commercially sensitive.
On the importance of the public interest in knowing how taxpayer funds are spent.
The misuse of Section 40 of the FOI Act which is intended to protect “macro” issues in the financial and economic interests of the state.
A brand review of the state investment agency IDA Ireland found it was often “mis-quoted” and “confused” for other organisations including the Irish Dental Association, Enterprise Ireland or the Department of Enterprise.
It also detailed how it was vulnerable to bizarre fluctuations in internet traffic around events like the catastrophic Hurricane Ida when visitors to their site leapt from 1,000 impressions to 15,000 in a single week.
An internal presentation said IDA Ireland had suffered from “brand drift” where senior managers and marketing teams had become “fatigued” with the existing look and feel of the organisation.
The paper was prepared ahead of a €428,000 rebranding intended to stand for a “contemporary Ireland” for the digital age.
The presentation was critical of how their identity had evolved including a mission statement around winning foreign direct investment.
“It’s honest, direct and explains exactly what IDA are doing. However, it falls a bit flat —how are we going to be number 1?” said one slide.
The strategy document said brand guidelines were lacking in terms of direction and were not being adhered to in any case.
It said the guidelines had missing sections around tone of voice, advice on use of photographs and “many areas need improvement.”
“Effective brands are consistent and recognisable to the client [and] audience at every touchpoint. Materials should be cohesive,” said the paper.
It said colours were being used in a “free for all” and that bright colours introduced after the recession “actually jar” with the older brand.
The presentation raised concerns over confusion and misrepresentation where the IDA would get mistaken for other organisations.
It said search engine optimisation was a particular problem and a simple search for ‘IDA’ online was not always successful.
“When prospects (in the US, in this case) search Google for ‘IDA Ireland’ the click-through rate (CTR) is 42 percent,” said one slide.
“That is indicative that a large number find what they’re looking for, which is our website. When they look up ‘IDA’ the click-through rate is only 4 percent.”
Asked about the project, a spokesman said the IDA continually monitored the effectiveness of their brand in driving awareness of Ireland as a place to invest.
He said: “Our rebrand is a build on earlier successes, capturing our heritage while reflecting our current strategic focus of digitisation and sustainability.
“It is an investment that will support our efforts for the coming decade in securing FDI [foreign direct investment] projects across the country.”
These records were only released following an appeal to the Information Commissioner by Right to Know (decision here).
A briefing on a €9 million plan to buy phone pouches for schools said they were easy to use, cost effective, and better for “equity” among students.
A Department of Education document said it also avoided mobiles being put “on display” which could be divisive for pupils over who had the most expensive or up-to-date device.
Six schools were contacted about their experiences in using pouches with all of them “very positive” about how it worked.
The briefing said there were half a dozen solutions to avoid use of phones, including placing them in school bags, handing them in at a central location each day, or using a locker.
The other ideas were specific transparent phone lockers, mobile lockers in classes, and the controversial “lockable phone pouch” suggestion.
The briefing said: “All schools have indicated that a solution where students retain responsibility for their phones rather than placing them in a central location is preferable.”
Of schools consulted about pouches, department officials said they were paying between €14 and €27 per pouch with some buying them outright and others renting.
The briefing said one school which had been an ‘early adopter’ of pouches had been able to get them for just €11 each.
Department officials said a working estimate of €20 per pouch would lead to a cost of around €8.57 million in the first year of use.
They estimated a replacement rate of around 20 percent each year meaning there would be a further annual bill of €1.7 million into the future.
However, officials said it was probable a discount could be achieved given the scale of the purchase envisaged.
An inspection of the Cliffs of Moher walking trail found visitors ill-equipped for conditions, people ignoring warning signs, and a humanist wedding where participants were standing close to the cliff with their backs to the edge.
The review was undertaken by Sport Ireland in mid-August after two youngsters tragically fell to their deaths at the County Clare cliffs during July.
The inspection report said many walkers were simply ignoring warning signs, climbing over flagstone barriers, and going straight towards the cliff edge.
The report said: “In summary it was observed that walkers were unprepared for this grade of walk [and] warning signs were unheeded.
“The volume of walkers was too high for some sections of the trail and unofficial events were being held close to the cliff edge.”
It said the facilitation of things like wedding ceremonies near the cliff edge gives “the impression that these are officially sanctioned events.”
This in turn led people to believe that it was “safe and acceptable” to go off the official trail and towards the cliff edge.
The review found parts of the trail where it was not obvious which was the “official” or “unofficial” route and people could easily stray onto the wrong one.
It added: “In some locations the official trail was too narrow to cater for the volume of walkers travelling in both directions making the unofficial path, which is often wider, more attractive.”
The inspection highlighted several locations where people were most likely to stray off course, sometimes deliberately and while “engaging in risky behaviour.”
It said the trail was unsuitable for the type of people it was attracting and that the inspector saw multiple examples of “dangerous [or] risky behaviour.”
The inspector’s view was that the trail “be closed immediately” to make it safe, according to a copy of the report that was released under Freedom of Information laws.
Asked about the report, Sport Ireland said “several safety issues” had been identified with some sections of the trail kept open while others were closed for renovations.
They said all issues on the trail that remained open had been successfully addressed and that other sections would remain closed until any unresolved safety issues were dealt with.
