Author: Ken Foxe

The Irish government was offered a special deal to buy two new aircraft for €8.3 million but opted to buy only one amid concerns over a shortage of pilots and available hangar space.

The new Pilatus PC-12 NG was purchased in March under special EU rules that allows normal procurement practices to be put aside in “crisis situations”.

Amongst the reasons put forward for its purchase were maintenance concerns around the government Learjet and the fact that two other Air Corps planes had amassed more flying hours than almost any comparable aircraft in the world.

Internal Department of Defence records reveal concerns were raised about how the Taoiseach, and other senior ministers would be able to leave the country at short notice given the lack of available state aircraft.

A “security sensitive” briefing note – which has been released under FOI – said emergency travel might be required arising from the Covid-19 pandemic or other “Brexit-related travel”.

The note said: “Commercial travel in the current developing situations may be unavailable, unreliable, insecure or too risky to contemplate.”

An internal report from the country’s largest maternity hospital warned that parts from an obsolete scanner could become dislodged and land on a new-born infant with “catastrophic” effect.

The fluoroscopy machine at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street has been in use since 2006 and was supposed to be replaced before it was ten years old.

However, the machine continued to be used well past its “end-of-life” causing patient transfers, cancellations, and rescheduled appointments.

An internal report – published here by Right to Know – warned of the risk of parts from it becoming dislodged due to its age.

It said: “Should this happen while an infant was being examined, the resulting injury could likely be catastrophic as these parts are generally very heavy (in the amounts of kilos).”

These are Cabinet records from the government decisions of 2011 and 2012 surrounding arrangements for ministerial transport.

In 2011, a decision was made to abolish state cars for all but the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Minister for Justice, the DPP, Chief Justice, and the President.

Other ministers would be allowed to hire garda drivers, use their own cars, and claim mileage.

A separate decision was also made that ministers would be allowed to use bus lanes against the advice of then Transport Minister Leo Varadkar.

The records were obtained under FOI by Right to Know. Cabinet records are available under FOI after five years unless still considered exempt.

These are copies of all submissions to Minister Simon Harris relating to the outbreak of Covid-19, first in China and later in Ireland.

They have been obtained under FOI by Right to Know following an internal review to the Department of Health.

They cover a two-month time period from the very first submission relating to a “cluster of pneumonia cases” in Wuhan from January to emergency shipments of personal protective equipment in March.

The records provide a clear picture of the spread of the disease, from a “low likelihood” of spread to getting ready for the surge.

They also give new detail on PPE shipments from China and how the HSE could not go through “their normal due diligence processes”.

Details surrounding the decision to postpone establishment of the Cervical Check tribunal are also published here for the first time.

The Government made significant cuts to the level of pay for the chair and board members of Nama because the agency is in “wind down” mode.

The fee payable to the chairperson of the asset management agency has been decreased from €150,000 per year to €100,000, according to records obtained under FoI.

It will be further cut to just €45,000 from the beginning of next year with the new annual rate of €100,000 already applying to Nama’s recently appointed chairman Aidan Williams.

Fees for ordinary board members have also been chopped by almost a quarter, and have been reduced from €50,000 to €38,000 since January 1.

The cuts were quietly made on foot of an instruction from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who said the decreases were now considered “appropriate”.

In the 2011 programme for government, the Fine Gael and Labour coalition made a commitment to hold a referendum on the abolition of the Seanad.

In October 2013, 51.7% of the electorate voted for its retention.

These are the Cabinet records covering that process.

This is a list of all purchase orders of more than €20,000 from the Department of Justice in 2019.

A huge portion of the bill related to the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers in the direct provision system.

The other expenditure – on IT, media services, transport etc – is all general spending by the department last year.

While some of it may relate to direct provision, most of it will relate to the day-to-day business of the Department of Justice.

These lists of purchase orders worth more than €20,000 are supposed to be published by all public bodies as a matter of course.

The Department of Justice had ceased this practice and the record was obtained under FOI by Right to Know.

The department has now committed to publishing it to their website and hopefully will resume routine publication of this important information.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the Data Protection Commissioner was only partially included as part of the new law.

This means that only administrative records from the office can be sought under FOI and that all other records relating to investigations, including high-profile ones like those into Facebook and the Public Services Card, are entirely out of reach of the public.

This document is a submission by the Department of Justice explaining why they believed the Data Protection Commissioner should be protected from the full scope of the FOI Act.

Back in February 2015, Right to Know made a request for access to details of use of what is known as the ministerial air transport service by the President of Ireland.

Little did we know that it would take four years to get a decision.

The case was delayed time and time again with the government claiming at one stage it could impinge on state security or more bizarrely that use of the jet constituted personal information.

This, despite the fact, that such information is published as a matter of course for the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and all other Ministers: https://www.defence.ie/ministerial-air-transport-service-mats

Ultimately, the Commissioner for Environmental Information ruled that the details were environmental information and that the travel logs should be released.

You can read them below:

MORE than €930,000 has been spent on commemorations and events for the one hundred year anniversary of the first sitting of Dáil Éireann this year.

The expenditure included €16,500 on VIP services at Dublin Airport, almost €20,000 in accommodation at two of Dublin’s finest hotels, €200 for a harpist, and just over €10,000 for 5,000 Dáil branded hats for the event.

Details of the €934,000 spend were released under FOI with the Oireachtas saying the Dáil anniversary had been one of the key commemorative events in the Decade of Centenaries programme.

As part of the celebrations, they invited speakers and chairpersons from all EU member state parliaments and from the United States.

In total, 31 “overseas parliamentarians” along with 44 support staff travelled to Ireland with €7,708 spent on “local transport costs” for car and bus hire.

An accommodation bill of just under €20,000 was run up at the five-star Westin Hotel (€13,030) and the four-star Davenport Hotel (€6,968), according to the records.

Another €16,567 was paid out for “fast track airport reception” and other VIP facilities at Dublin Airport.

Entertainment costs came to just over €9,000 with €200 spent on a harpist to entertain the visiting politicians and €8,898 on catering for a dinner hosted in Leinster House.

An itinerary for their trip shows how the visitors were taken on a tour of Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the university’s famous library, and also to the Guinness Storehouse.

Another €228 was spent on “Irish confectionary” with a further €228 paid out for photography costs, the records say.

The Oireachtas said significant costs had been incurred in “dressing the round room” of the Mansion House to make it historically authentic for the centenary events.

Six days of venue rental cost €29,970 with another €30,247 spent on lighting for TV production. There was a further €33,000 spent on production design and €17,152 for “room dressing”.

Furniture hire cost €5,250 while music composition, arranging, and music rights cost just under €11,000.

One thousand bound commemorative booklets were also produced for the event with each of them costing €13.50. Another €3,240 was spent on photography while €1,885 was paid out for design of invitations, running order, and booklets.

A total of €35,000 was spent on Dáil 100 merchandise, which included 15,000 tote bags, 5,000 hats, 15,000 pens, 4,000 commemorative pins, and 10,000 badges.

Catering costs, which included public engagement days, a press gallery dinner, a staff reception, and meals for those working, came to €22,742.

As part of the “public engagement experience” that ran as part of the event, €22,000 was paid out to actors for their part in a theatrical performance of centenary-related events.

Another €1,959 was paid out for a fabric pop-up photo booth, while €10,409 was spent on a photography exhibition.

One of the largest projects was the digitisation of historical records, which was done in conjunction with the National Archives, and cost €37,400.

The Oireachtas said there had also been an estimated cost of €15,000 for historian services but that a final invoice was still awaited.

Extra staff costs came to €40,900, according to records with 96 staff brought in for cleaning, usher, and “meet and greet” duties over the course of the events.

A specially designed website was also set up for the commemorations with history articles, photographs, and historic records made available online.

The design cost for the dail100.ie page was €33,075 with another €152,478 spent on the “build cost”.

The Oireachtas said the commemoration had been staged “to give a full and proper context to the formation of the First Dáil as one of the key events in our history as a state”.

They said: “The programme runs all year and includes events from the Centenary sitting in January to the Dáil na nÓg event in November 2019.”

Costs involved in the fit out of the Mansion House were significant because “as a venue, it required a great deal of professional work and services to create the look and feel appropriate to the historic nature of the Centenary occasion”.

They said arrangements for parliamentarians from other counties were “in keeping with normal hospitality” and that additional staff costs covered ten days of duties for civil servants, cleaners, ushers, service officers and catering”.

A statement said: “Some of the expenditure incurred is for products and services which will be used throughout the year such as … merchandise for students and other visitors to Leinster House.”