Author: Ken Foxe

The State’s only directly elected mayor asked for enhanced pension terms that would build up as quickly as that of a junior minister and faster than other public servants.

John Moran, the Mayor of Limerick, raised the possibility with government officials after he took office, saying the unique nature of the role justified a better retirement plan.

Internal records detail how the Department of Housing supported his request and prepared a formal business case for government.

However, the Department of Public Expenditure rejected the proposal and said standard pension rules would apply instead.

The documents also reveal that when the directly elected mayor post was created, no provision was made for how pension arrangements would operate.

When the business case was prepared, Mr Moran was being paid a salary of almost €160,000 per year with officials drawing comparisons between his role and that of a government minister.

In the document, officials said the Mayor of Limerick was different to “an employee” and could serve only a maximum of two five-year terms.

It said Mr Moran had no contract of employment and that “by way of analogy” the post was akin “to that of a Minister for Limerick.”

The business case explained how staffing arrangements for the post were organised like that of a junior minister.

It said enhanced pension arrangements were in place for the President, the judiciary, ministers, and members of the Oireachtas.

“Standard accrual for the office of the Mayor of Limerick would make this an outlier among those holding fulltime elected office in Ireland,” the business case explained.

It said giving only a standard pension would create “an anomaly” and said the risk of “contagion” – that is, others seeking similar special arrangements – was low.

The business case argued that council CEOs were staff members while local councillors had their own arrangements for gratuity payments on leaving office.

Its conclusion said: “The Mayor of Limerick is a directly elected, fulltime representative. All other comparable fulltime elected representatives have fast accrual pension provisions.

“This is to provide some security for roles which are subject to the will of the electorate, and to make the profession of politics an attractive choice that people can reasonably make.”

It said if a fast accrual pension was in place for Mr Moran, the only other foreseeable roles it could apply to would be directly elected mayors for other councils, potentially up to thirty.

The document explained: “There are no foreseeable risks of contagion to local authority members, or to local authority employees, who have separate arrangements.”

It said the Mayor of Limerick should be given a fast accrual pension “at a minimum” as good as those applying to a TD or Senator.

However, the business case said that Mr Moran felt the post should be treated like that of a junior minister.

It said: “To note, the Department has been engaging with the current incumbent of the Office of Mayor of Limerick, whose position is that the Mayoral role should attract a fast accrual rate equivalent to that of a Minister of State.”

The enhanced pensions allow politicians to build up pension benefits more quickly than ordinary public servants to reflect the uncertainty of the job.

TDs and Senators generally build entitlement at about 2.5% of pensionable pay for each year served, while ministers and ministers of state can accrue benefits at roughly 5% a year for time spent in those offices.

They do, however, pay higher pension contributions in return.

The request for an accelerated pension for Mr Moran ultimately fell on deaf ears in the Department of Public Expenditure (DPER).

In an email, a Department of Housing official wrote: “Last year, you raised the issue of having a pension with an accrual rate faster than standard to take account of the particular nature of the role of Mayor.

“The Department was supportive of exploring such an arrangement and made a business case to DPER.”

The official said DPER had carried out its own detailed analysis of the request.

However, she wrote: “[DPER] has now written to advise that the pension terms for the role of Mayor must be compatible with the salary level sanctioned for the role.

“This salary level is Chief Executive, Local Authority Level V, and therefore they have conveyed approval for a standard accrual only pension for the holder of the office of Mayor.”

Asked about the records, Limerick City and County Council said discussions were still ongoing over how the pension issue would be handled.

A voluntary exit programme in RTÉ failed to deliver the scale of departures needed by the broadcaster to meet plans for staff cuts.

An internal analysis said substantial work had been put into preparing early exit packages for staff but only a relatively small number eventually received offers.

It said there were challenges in running the Voluntary Exit Programme (VEP), including a narrow window to apply that placed too much strain on people considering whether to leave.

The analysis also said the criteria for the voluntary exit programme were “restrictive.”

It said redundancies could only be considered where a staff departure involved “100 percent direct suppression” of their post or “100 percent equivalent cost savings.”

All other applications that did not meet these criteria were excluded, according to records released under FOI.

The analysis explained: “The narrow window to run the VEP programme and secure exits by 31 December 2025 placed a strain on the process and on individuals in making the decision to accept, or not.

“The later opening of the scheme, April 2025, with closing date for applications on 26 May 2025, did not allow sufficient time to significantly evolve our operating model behind the exits.”

It said running the numbers for 134 early exit applicants involved “significant” effort and cost for the HR and finance departments of RTÉ.

That resulted in “forty-plus” offers being made to staff.

The analysis said: “With just a 60 percent acceptance rate, this compounds the effort / cost challenge with the 2025 terms.”

It said overall the scheme had strong governance and consistency which helped ensure fairness and standardisation across RTÉ.

“Uniform business cases and centralised data helped reduce complexity and made it easier to verify compliance with Department approval,” the document added.

However, it warned the low take-up rate could have implications for future redundancy programmes within the organisation.

It said: “If the 2025 experience was to be replicated, we would need to make around 500 offers to achieve 300 exits.”

An RTÉ spokesman said its five-year strategy stated that RTÉ plans to reduce its headcount by up to 400 in the period up to 2029.

He said: “RTÉ delivered 97 exits in 2025, 67 VEP exits and 30 additional role suppressions, with savings of €8.5 million per year from this year onwards.”

The spokesman said that each voluntary exit programme required government approval and that a business case was submitted to the Department for the next scheme.

“We hope to open [it] in the coming months, and for a longer period than the 2025 VEP,” he explained.

“RTÉ remains confident it can achieve the proposed number of up to 400 exits from the organisation across the five years of the strategy.”

A resident at the country’s biggest asylum-seeker accommodation centre pleaded to be transferred because of “visible, open drug activity” and concerns for their personal safety.

The person said conditions at the State-owned centre at Citywest in Dublin had severely deteriorated and the facility was “heavily neglected” with “critical health, hygiene and safety violations.”

In an urgent request, the resident appealed to the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) for a transfer elsewhere.

Their complaint said: “This environment poses an immediate threat to my physical safety and my mental well-being.”

The resident was told that transfers could only be considered in cases involving a medical priority or otherwise exceptional circumstances.

The complaint was one of more than one hundred made directly to the Department of Justice this year by people living in IPAS centres.

Other issues raised included infestations of cockroaches and bedbugs, intimidation by staff, aggressive residents and people getting attacked.

In another case at Citywest, a parent raised an “urgent child welfare” concern saying their children were going hungry outside meal times.

The person said they had no way to prepare food for their kids and begged for help finding somewhere they could cook “proper meals.”

The complaint said: “That would make a huge difference to their health and wellbeing.”

For the more than one hundred complaints made in the first half of this year, the Department of Justice refused to provide the location of the centre.

Among the issues logged were a “complaint re: being physically assaulted by [a] roommate” and a “complaint re: abuse from staff.”

There were multiple claims of being attacked, others about the safety of centres and one about “threatening behaviour” by staff.

Another said they were the victim of an assault by a centre manager while one said they were being intimidated by centre personnel.

There was also a complaint about damage to property by staff and one about homophobic discrimination from other residents.

Asked about the records, a Department spokesperson said they could not comment on individual cases, but that IPAS was always available to deal with any complaints.

They said: “Where a complaint is significant in nature or a resident is not comfortable raising a complaint with a centre manager, they may make the complaint directly, or through a representative authorised to act on their behalf, to the IPAS Customer Service Team.

“In general, all people applying for international protection must adhere to the requirements of the international protection process and accommodation regulations.

“The IPAS House Rules clearly state that residents must not consume or store alcohol or illegal drugs in accommodation centres.”

The spokesperson added that IPAS accommodation centres are contractually obligated to meet the dietary needs of all residents and that transfers can only be considered in medical priority or exceptional cases.

Mould, damp, pest infestations as well as broken appliances and fittings were uncovered during inspections of emergency accommodation for homeless people.

Inspectors found mould in bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and sitting rooms along with leaking taps, damaged flooring and broken windows.

Fire-safety issues were also discovered with alarm panels showing faults, overdue servicing and missing records for evacuation drills and emergency lighting checks.

In one apartment in Dublin, a catalogue of problems was detailed in an inspection report.

The report said: “Mould in sitting room, window in sitting room hinge broken, mould in bathroom, shower head keeps falling down, freezer not working, mould on freezer.”

It continued: “Freezer door won’t open. Door on fridge press cracked. Mould in second bedroom. Water pressure low in wash-hand basin in bathroom.”

Elsewhere, inspectors working on behalf of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) recorded damaged wardrobes and kitchen units.

Rooms or beds at two facilities were unavailable because of pest-control issues, records released under FOI showed.

Another report listed multiple problems: “When boiler turned on trip switch kicks in. Socket in sitting room away from the wall. Damp in bathroom water all over the floor and on the walls around the sink. Mould on inside of front door.”

At a centre housing 232 people – including 63 families and 18 babies – the fire alarm panel was recorded as being in “fault mode.”

Another site visit report detailed a fault affecting “all points” on an alarm system.

Inspectors also found cases where there was no record of required fire drills, bell tests or servicing of alarms and emergency lighting.

At one property, fire extinguishers and fire blankets had to be installed in multiple bedrooms containing cooking facilities, according to the Dublin City Council records.

Asked about the documents, Dublin City Council said since the introduction of the inspection programme, there had been an improvement in standards across emergency accommodation.

A spokesperson said: “Unannounced inspections allow the DRHE to identify issues and ensure that the … service takes corrective action.

“Issues identified at the time of the inspection are followed up with the service provider in the following weeks until rectified.”

The spokesperson said fire safety was a priority and that inspections tested for any weaknesses with follow-up action where standards were not met.

Dublin City Council said it had also engaged an independent contractor to provide a homeless accommodation inspection service looking at building standards, onsite facilities, staffing, health and safety, and food provision.

A city council refused to take over a dozen Defence Forces properties saying they didn’t have the money to refurbish them and would face legal difficulties with occupants who had no tenancy agreements.

The Department of Defence had offered the properties in Rathmines to Dublin City Council as they were considered surplus to military requirements.

However, three of the properties were vacant and required significant work to bring them up to the required standards.

In a letter in February, Dublin City Council said they had no funding from the Department of Housing to make good the three vacant homes.

It said: “It was acknowledged that the level of works required to bring these properties up to the necessary regulatory standards is significant.”

The city council also said there would be “considerable challenges” in taking over nine properties that were occupied at Grosvenor Lodge.

The residents were described in the correspondence as “overholding” and had no formal tenancy agreements in place.

The letter explained: “This presents substantial legal and procedural barriers around clarifying occupancy rights and securing vacant possession, all of which would require lengthy and complex legal processes.

“Dublin City Council is therefore not in a position to purchase these properties particularly where occupancy arrangements remain unresolved.”

The local authority said they would be happy to have further discussions over two other properties in Dublin 7.

An internal Department of Defence briefing said there was a significant issue with “overholding” in Defence Forces property.

This occurred where a person had retired or left the military and they or their family remained in married quarters without any established agreement in place.

The briefing said there were forty properties in this situation, and only five of them had formalised residency arrangements.

The wider portfolio of the Defence Forces contained 153 properties, of which more than half were considered uninhabitable.

The briefing added that efforts to recover properties that were overheld would be “fraught both politically and legally.”

Internal records also detail how the Department was paying Local Property Tax on a number of properties that were considered uninhabitable.

A review found LPT was being paid for 23 of the properties with officials saying there was no “uniformity” on how buildings were being treated for tax purposes.

Asked about the property management issues, a Department of Defence spokesperson said: “There is a clear programme underway to improve and bring vacant and derelict Defence Forces housing back into use, with the aim of increasing the availability of accommodation for serving personnel.

“To support this work, the Defence Forces commissioned an independent assessment of the vacant housing stock to determine its condition and suitability for refurbishment and conversion into additional single living-in accommodation.

“As a result, a number of properties in the Curragh and Dublin have been identified for priority refurbishment, with the procurement process for these works due to commence in 2026.”

Staff processing asylum applications are at risk of anxiety, depression and insomnia because of exposure to traumatic personal stories and graphic material.

A formal risk assessment at the International Protection Office (IPO) said staff could suffer emotional distress and “empathy fatigue” because of the nature of their work.

It said psychological injuries could build up over time or result from a single significant exposure to very disturbing material.

The assessment gave the hazard a high-risk rating before safeguards were considered to help staff cope with challenges at work.

Internal documents said employees could be exposed to traumatic material while interviewing, reading case files, or viewing images.

It explained how somebody giving their life story in person could be much more difficult than simply reading their file.

The risk assessment said: “Hearing a personal account is different to reading about it or peer reviewing someone else’s report.”

Measures in place to protect staff included rotating them away from sensitive material and taking account of how many cases of a particular type they dealt with.

Officials were also offered time buffers between interviews. “This is particularly important after a difficult encounter,” said the risk analysis.

Trigger warnings were also placed on files involving highly sensitive material like domestic violence, according to records released under FOI.

A separate action plan said officials were examining ways to reduce exposure to disturbing digital content, including the greyscaling of graphic images and the possible use of AI tools.

Other proposals discussed in the documents included weekly team debriefs, one-to-one wellbeing sessions, specialist trauma support and the refurb of a staff wellness room.

One risk assessment said steps should be taken to minimise the number of personnel “required to view graphic images.”

Asked about the records, a Department of Justice spokesperson said the health and wellbeing of staff was a “top priority.”

They said: “Under the Department’s health and safety risk management system, the International Protection Office (IPO) division has been allocated a medium rating for residual risk.

“A medium rating is an internal indicator that ensures psychological hazards continue to receive ongoing attention and regular monitoring by managers, senior leadership and the Department’s Health and Safety Unit.”

The spokesperson added that around €15,000 had been spent over the past three years on a confidential support and counselling service for IPO staff and panel members.

A government paper said large companies employing thousands of people had plotted a scheme with financial advisers to push staff into pension schemes that would yield very little in return.

The plan was introduced late last year as the Department of Social Protection finalised plans for an auto-enrolment system for workers.

An internal note said some employees were “being compelled” to join schemes that had only just been put in place by their boss.

It said this included staff whose contracts did not provide for membership of a pension scheme and that forcing them to sign up might be a breach of employment law.

The note said the only contribution to the scheme would be 1 percent from the employer “with no suggestions of any increase over time.”

The document explained: “Such a low contribution level can be described as a nominal one that is unlikely to yield any material pension benefit in terms of adequacy.”

It said MyFutureFund would offer 1.5% from the employer, 1.5% from the employee, and a 0.5% top-up from the State.

That was an introductory rate however, which would increase over time to combined contributions of 7% in 2029, 10.5% in 2032, and 14% in 2035.

The note said the companies involved in trying to circumvent the plan were “large companies employing many thousands of people.”

It said: “The companies concerned seem to have planned this, in conjunction with professional advice, to occur at the last minute as [auto-enrolment] is being launched.”

The document said that this was intended to deny the opportunity for any consultation or earlier action.

It also detailed how the Department had made direct contact with one of the largest companies involved – which had quickly “reversed [its] plan.”

The note added: “The companies involved intend to pay 1% of their employees’ pay – it isn’t really believable that increasing that to 1.5% is a significant budgetary burden that can’t be addressed.

“The commencement of MyFutureFund and the contribution rates involved have been well known for years – so all of these companies are well versed in the budgetary implications.”

The note said that companies had also taken advantage of the postponement of the scheme from September 2025 to January 2026.

This had been done to accommodate employers, and it was “disappointing that this opportunity was used to develop avoidance measures instead.”

Asked about the records, a Department spokesperson said that prior to the introduction of MyFutureFund they had received evidence about employer plans for compulsory enrolment in inferior schemes.

The spokesperson said: “These rates were lower than those provided for in the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Act (2024) and would have excluded those employees from being automatically enrolled into the MyFutureFund scheme.

“In order to address these concerns, the Minister prescribed standards through a Statutory Instrument in December that will ensure that pension arrangements outside of MyFutureFund are at least as favourable for the participating employee as they would be under the current contribution rates in MyFutureFund.”

An Garda Síochána failed to provide auditors with approval records for overtime payments despite repeated requests for the documents.

A review of a €201 million annual overtime bill found supporting paperwork was unavailable in 45 of 67 cases selected for testing.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) found examples where members were paid for more hours than were authorised.

In two cases, more than 50 hours of overtime was paid without the required approval from a senior officer.

Ten payments could not be examined after An Garda Síochána failed to organise a meeting requested on several occasions by the C&AG.

The audit said: “A meeting with members of the [garda] team to carry out elements of the testing, including overtime approval, was not arranged despite a number of requests to do so.”

The report said the system created a risk of errors, overpayments or the misappropriation of public funds.

It said there was no overarching policy on overtime in place even as costs involved had more than doubled in the space of five years.

From 2023 to 2024, costs increased from €184 million to €201 million, a rise of 11 per cent.

During its examination, the C&AG found three cases where gardaí received more money than was approved.

It found multiple instances of sergeants signing off overtime for other sergeants, and a case where an inspector cleared paperwork for colleagues of the same rank.

The report also found “instances where members booked other members in and out of their tour of duty in the absence of appropriate approval from a more senior rank.”

The C&AG also reported it had sought access to An Garda Síochána’s internal system for monitoring overtime.

However, access was denied due to the limitations of the system and because audit staff were not trained in how to use it.

The Garda roster and duty management system also could not determine which overtime resulted from illness or other staff absences.

The C&AG said An Garda Síochána needed to review its policies and procedures for managing attendance and overtime.

It said this would help “ensure they are applied accurately and consistently across the organisation in order to mitigate any processing errors on payroll.”

A garda response said significant consultation had taken place, and it was anticipated that new policy and procedure would be implemented during 2026.

It said during 2025, there had been “considerable focus on the drivers and costing of overtime.”

Its response added that work had taken place to manage the “cost-effective deployment” of garda members during the EU Presidency.

Overcrowding in jails was so severe that the Irish Prison Service planned hostage-negotiation training and considered using courthouse cells in the event of serious riots.

A response group was told “operational tensions are severe” and that the prison population would reach 6,000 by this summer.

It said the Irish Prison Service needed to be ready for further escalation with plans put in place for what would happen if cell capacity was lost because of disorder in jails.

Contact was made with the Courts Service to see if its holding cells could be used in the event of an emergency.

At the time, 5,767 people were being held in just 4,718 available spaces, with 611 prisoners sleeping on mattresses on floors.

Minutes of the response group’s meeting from January also detail how the Irish Prison Service (IPS) had sought a fixed cap on prisoner numbers from the Department of Justice.

However, the proposal had not been approved by Minister Jim O’Callaghan.

The records said: “The IPS stated that a maximum number would be reached – irrespective of agreement on a cap – due to the inability for [them] to accommodate additional prisoners once all usable, secure floor space had been exhausted.”

The minutes said increased use of video-link technology would be helpful, but progress was limited and “at the discretion of individual judges.”

It said judges had visited prisons to see how the technology worked but that this had not led to “a significant shift in practice.”

The Irish Prison Service also lamented the lack of halfway housing to support public safety when criminals were released.

Concerns were raised as well about the increasing number of people on remand with little data available on why bail was objected to.

There was a particular problem with what was called the “holding cell phenomenon,” according to records released under FOI.

This involved cases where a person was held on remand, sometimes for months, yet later released without a custodial sentence.

Efforts to preserve up to 100,000 records linked to institutional abuse were repeatedly stalled after government departments became bogged down in legal and data-protection concerns.

Archivists were pulled from parts of the project and reassigned after more than 100 staff days were spent cataloguing and rehousing files held by the Department of Children.

Internal records warned that continued delays could undermine the State’s flagship research and remembrance project in the eyes of survivors and others affected by institutional abuse.

The National Archives believed the Department of Health alone could hold close to 100,000 relevant files – more than three times higher than earlier estimates.

An internal memo said work had begun on identifying records in 2023 but was soon delayed amid worries over the “legal basis” of archivists working with the files.

In 2024, the project was resumed when two archivists were allowed to continue the work after signing a data processing agreement.

However, it said progress was slow and the work involved was new to officials from the Information Management Unit of the Department of Children.

A memo said: “Initial procedures were very cumbersome and slowed overall progress.”

The work remained challenging because the material had not been boxed in any particular order, while advice from the Attorney General meant National Archives staff could work only on files more than thirty years old.

The memo added: “By September 2024, it became clear that there was continued reluctance within [the Department of Children] to transfer records despite assurances.”

At one stage, the department suggested transferring just 70 files from 670 that had been painstakingly organised by archivists.

“This would involve the removal of random files from the order in which they had been catalogued and boxed,” the document said.

“[This] would result in the undermining of all the work undertaken over the previous year, effectively requiring re-cataloguing, reordering and re-boxing of those files.”

The memo also detailed how some files were later removed from special archival boxes.

“Archival boxes supplied to the Department by the National Archives were then destroyed,” the memo said.

“This resulted in the archivists having to restart the process. Files that had previously been catalogued were found dispersed throughout bankers’ boxes.”

The National Archives then decided to halt the work while it awaited developments.

It said in the memo that archivists had been trying to help Department staff, and this was intended as “a means of support and the most efficient use of time and limited resources.”

The memo also explained that the Department of Children had twice sought the return of files from the National Archives.

It said: “These recalls have been refused as there is no legal basis for the Department of Children to recall files transferred by another Department.”

In correspondence, the Department of Children disputed suggestions it had been unwilling to cooperate, saying there were genuine legal difficulties over the transfer of records.

The department said some records contained personal information about living people and could not be certified as suitable for immediate public inspection under existing law.

Another document, among a batch of records released under FOI, describes a serious underestimate of how many files were actually held.

An initial audit had indicated around 2,500 files but further information saw that figure increase to 30,000.

However, the National Archives believed that too was a likely underestimate and that the true figure might be closer to 100,000.

Asked about the records, a spokesperson said: “The National Archives continues to work with colleagues in the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and the Department of Education and Youth on the transfer of records relevant to the National Centre. 

“It is anticipated that records that do not contain sensitive information will begin to transfer to the National Archives over the coming weeks under s.8.1 of the National Archives Act 1986.”

The spokesperson said proposals would then be brought forward that would align transparency and openness while protecting the privacy of survivors’ personal information.

A public consultation would follow before draft legislation was brought to Government as outstanding legal issues were still being worked through.