Access to Information Updates
In December Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan amended the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations (AIE) using a statutory instrument (SI 662/2011). This amended the original Regulations SI 133/2007. Thanks to the excellent Fred Logue, here is a consolidated version:
As I referred to last week I am publishing all Garda expense claims in all categories. Google spreadsheets can’t handle a 641,576 row database so I am using Socrata – the data is downloadable from there in a variety of formats.
The data contains anonymized individual expense claims for all Gardai over a 6.5 year period, totaling some €181,605,359.30*. The number of Gardai on the payroll in 2009 was approximately 17,000. The data was anonymized not because it was redacted but because it was the most effective way for the data to be released. Under the Criminal Assets Bureau Act, members of the force who are part of that Bureau cannot be named. In order to expedite the release of the data, I agreed that the column containing names of members of the Gardai generally could be removed – however this does not stop people from seeking it.
Some of the larger individual expense claims appear to be aggregated and relate specifically to the Corrib Gas project.
*Additionally I can’t speak much to the provenance of the data – or how it was exported – but it was from an Oracle system. Indeed there may be duplicate claims if the data was exported in a way related to ‘version history’ of claim. However it is often the case that multiple Gardai will be able to claim precisely the same amount under each category.
ECB President Mario Draghi has refused to release a letter sent to then Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan in November 2010, the contents of which Lenihan claimed led to Ireland being “bounced” into the EU/IMF bailout.
In the letter Mr Draghi said:
“…the letter to the Irish Finance Minister, is a strictly confidential communication from the ECB President to the Irish Minister of Finance expressing the ECB’s Governing Council’s concerns about the then extraordinarily severe and difficult situation of the Irish financial sector and their repercussions on the stability of the Irish financial sector…”
He said the letter ‘invited’ “the Irish government to take swift and bold action in order to address those concerns.”
“With this letter, the ECB aimed at protecting the integrity of its monetary policy and the stability of the Irish financial system in the interest of the euro area citizens,” he continued.
And (emphasis mine):
“The letter was sent in the context of significant financial market pressure and extreme uncertainty on the prospect of the Irish economy, with substantial spillovers for the financial stability in the euro area as a whole. The confidential communication was aimed at discussing measures conducive to protecting the effectiveness and integrity of the ECB’s monetary policy and fostering an environment that ultimately contributes to restoring confidence among investors in the overall solvency and sustainability of the Irish financial sector and markets, which, in turn, is of overriding importance for the smooth conduct of monetary policy.”
Here is the letter:
The Gardai are getting some press today for the amount spent – €14.5 million – on resources for the Corrib gas site. It is interesting to contextualise this figure. In total, Gardai travel and subsistence claims totaled €181,605,359.30 from 2004 to mid 2010.
I will publish the entire 641,576 row database shortly. It does not contain the name of any personnel.
As part of an ongoing process. This is the appointments diary of the then Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy for the year 2002.
To new visitors coming from the Irish Times, you can view the 2010 Taoiseach expenditure data here. There is an option to download the information on the right and there is a zoom function on the top.
Part of an ongoing process. This is the diary of the then Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy for 2003.
Part of an ongoing process. This is the diary of the then Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy for 2001.
Dylan Haskins has been kind enough to donate €1,000 to TheStory.ie, after he was reimbursed election expenses from the 2011 general election. TheStory.ie is not a registered charity, but any funds received are declared to the revenue, and either tax is paid on it, or I will submit a PAYE “self assessment” to show that the income was spent (it is for people receiving income from sources where some or all of the tax cannot be collected under the PAYE system, for example: profits from rents, investment income, foreign income and foreign pensions, maintenance payments to separated persons, fees, profit arising on exercising various Share Options/Share Incentives). This just means that the full amount can be spent on requests.
My proposal is this: What FOI would you like to get done? Is cost a barrier? How about you propose your FOI here, and TheStory.ie helps with your request and also pays for all costs (within reason)? If you’re a student, an NGO, or just an interested citizen – leave a comment or get in touch privately – gavinsblog at gmail dot com.
The only condition is that the results of all FOI requests will be published online for everyone to see (but it can be after you do your story, should you do one).
Late last year I asked for the follow information from the Department of the Taoiseach:
1) A ‘datadump’, (ie a copy/export of) the Oracle financial management system in use by the Department covering the time period for 2010. This datadump should contain data relating only to the following subheads:
Travel and subsistence (A2)
Training and development and incidental expenses (A3)
Postal and Telecommunications services (A4)
Office equipment and external IT services (A5)
Office premises expenses (A6)
Consultancy services and value for money and policy reviews (A7)
National economic and social (B)
Commemoration initiatives (C)
Tribunal of Inquiry (Payments to Messrs CJ Haughey and M Lowry) (D)This should include the following column heads (ie fields)
Payment date; Subhead item; Cost Centre; Vendor Name; Invoice number; Line description; Amount.
Subhead A1 covers salary data, which did not form part of this request. While the data was released in a physical hard copy format (yes printed out and posted to me), the total sum of non-salary expenditure should amount to €6.465m. Because I have not converted the documents into spreadsheets, and because some lines are entirely blacked out, I have not been able to perform a SUM calculation on the spreadsheets.
The data contains spending of all types, including telephones, post, lunches, travel, bus fares, road tolls, flights, hotels, taxis, ferries, catering, photography, books, newspapers, bank charges, couriers, tea/coffee, legal charges, uniform cleaning, footwear, mobile phones, photocopying, office equipment, stationery, cleaning, cleaning supplies, and more.