Month: December 2010

In case you missed it

I have an econo-crush on Simon Johnson, I think. Honestly, I giggle whenever anyone mentions his name.

I joke, I joke. Still, this one is well worth a read. I’m not going to bother quoting any specific section, it’s all relevent.

A fair few of the comments refer to Ireland.

Also, close watchers of The Digest – see right hand column of this website – will have already read “The clear correlation between crisis and corruption” by Sigrún Davíðsdóttir. Davíðsdóttir is the London correspondent for RUV (Icelandic national television) and has been spending some time in Dublin of late.

You may also have picked up on “Assange accuser worked with US-funded, CIA-tied anti-Castro group“.

“Must not Sleep, Must warn Others”

Anglo Irish Bank – a public authority?

Readers may recall that at the start of this year we submitted two Environmental Information Regulations requests (EIRs, not FOIs). One was sent to the National Asset Management Agency and the other was sent to Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Limited – the nationalised bank. Both organisations replied by saying that they did not consider themselves to be public authorities for the purposes of the Regulations.

I have already blogged extensively about our argument with NAMA, that we believe it is clearly a public authority for the purposes of the Regulations. For a chronological look through that argument try these links

NAMA denies status as a public authority April 21, 2010
NAMA submission April 22, 2010
NAMA status June 30, 2010
Is NAMA a public authority July 27, 2010
NAMA reply August 1, 2010
The NAMA saga continues September 27, 2010

We are now awaiting a binding decision by the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information in relation to NAMA’s status as a public authority for the purposes of the Regulations.

Events have also now moved forward in relation to Anglo Irish Bank. In February this year I started the process by seeking information from Anglo in relation to its loan book, and to the travel expenses of its executives. Anglo denied it was a public authority and I appealed the decision to the OCEI. I have now received a copy of Anglo Irish Bank’s submission to the OCEI giving its legal argument as to why it believes it is not a public authority.

However, Anglo has sought to exert confidentiality over its 16-page legal submission (a copy of which I and the OCEI have), stating that the submission contains:

details of the management of the bank, its relationship with the Minister for Finance and the relationship framework established under the Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Act 2009 constitute confidential management information which should not be disclosed further than is necessary for the purposes of dealing with the appeal to the Commissioner

The OCEI have stated that they have not formed a view on the status of the information contained in the submission. However with the help of a very dedicated individual we have now drafted and completed our reply to Anglo’s submission. We will be publishing our submission shortly. We are unsure as to the status of Anglo’s submission in legal terms – but will seek advice from OCEI about whether we have a legitimate right to publish their submission.

Wikileaks and Ireland

I had a brief chat with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange earlier this summer in London, just prior to the Afghanistan war logs being released. He is an interesting character. Not many leaks from the latest release so far have related to Ireland, but here are the three we have found, of over 900 to come:

So what infrastructure in Ireland does the US have an interest in?

Ireland: Hibernia Atlantic undersea cable landing, Dublin Ireland
Genzyme Ireland Ltd. (filling), Waterford, Ireland: Thymoglobulin

Not many things then.

Meanwhile in another cable released last week, it was stated

2. (C) XXXXXXXXXXXX met recently with XXXXXXXXXXXX, who sought UNHCR support in facilitating the movement out of Afghanistan of Brahmdagh Bugti, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s grandson and head of the Baloch Republican Party. XXXXXXXXXXXX reportedly told XXXXXXXXXXXX that the Government of Ireland was willing to receive Brahmdagh Bugti, who “had to get out of Afghanistan and would not be safe returning to Pakistan.” XXXXXXXXXXXX also contended that the USG would be supportive of this transfer. (Note: XXXXXXXXXXXX has met with Embassy poloffs several times to float the idea of moving Bugti, sharing with us that Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister is willing to help Bugti gain asylum there. End Note.)

The other Irish related cable to troops transiting through Shannon.

Security costs for politicians – OPW

Some time ago we sent a request to the Office of Public Works seeking information on how much had been spent by that body on any works at the homes of Irish politicians. We sought a breakdown of this information and sought to understand if anything other than works in relation to security had been carried out at the homes or constituency offices of politicians, particularly ministers.

The OPW initially refused our request citing several exemptions under the FOI Act. We appealed the decision, at a cost of €75. Four weeks later our appeal was rejected. We then appealed the decision to the Information Commissioner. It appears to have taken the OPW some time to deal with the Information Commissioner’s office (we started this process several months ago).

In a settlement reached via the Information Commissioner, it was agreed that information related to expenditure would be released but in an anonymised format, due to security considerations. We agreed to this.

As far as we can understand much of these costs are in relation to some things you can see on Google Street View, such as the green structures outside the Taoiseach’s house, and the home of the former Taoiseach. It also might relate to the laying of cables, triple glazed windows and security systems.

Politician A
€ 3,300.00
€ 48,160.00
€ 262.00
€ 20,640.00
€ 52,168.35
€ 13,270.27

Total: €137,800.62

Politician B
€ 15,600.00

Politician C
€ 13,850.00
€ 25,681.50
€ 38.974.00
€ 10,861.50
€ 4,428.28
€ 2,400.00
€ 780.00
€190,572.50

Total: €248,573.78

Politician D
€ 74,450.39

Politician E
€ 1,440.00
€ 1,895.00

Total: €3,335

Politician F
€ 20,000.00
€ 385.00
€ 9,900.00
€ 2,850.00
€ 87,950.00
€ 96,650.00
€ 68,000.00

Total: €285,735

Overall total: €765,494.79