Author: Ken Foxe

The operators of light rail networks in other countries strongly advised Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) against any attempt to prolong the life of forty Luas trams that have been in service for more than two decades.

TII were told that so-called “life extension” programmes for the vehicles sometimes ended up costing over double what was anticipated.

A review examining the future of the forty original trams from the Luas network said they already had a “very low level of reliability” and that significant investment would be required to bring them back to perfect condition.

It said the ‘design life’ of the trams was thought to have been 30 years but that in other cities where similar vehicles were in use, they had given around 25 years of useful service.

The report said that while ‘life-extending’ the trams might initially appear a good option with potential savings of €20 million, problems of reliability were likely to continue even after they were modernised.

It said “soundings” had been taken from other countries that operate light rail networks with all but two advising against any life-extension programme “if at all possible”.

Transport operators in Boston and Melbourne said they had modernised some of their fleet, but only because they had left it too late to order replacement trams and they effectively had no alternative.

The report said: “They advised that in all cases of life-extension programmes, the final outturn costs compared to the original budgets inclusive of contingencies and risk allocations were always significantly higher, in some cases ‘more than double’.”

Ambulances were involved in crashes or prangs more than 400 times over the past four years.

The National Ambulance Service said there were also nineteen occasions last year where one of their vehicles broke down due to a puncture, mechanical failure, or warning lights which needed immediate investigation.

In the first half of this year, ambulances were in 69 collisions while the full-year figure for 2022 was 114, according to figures provided under FOI.

There were a further 117 crashes or mishaps involving emergency vehicles in 2021 and a total of 113 in the year prior to that.

The National Ambulance Service said that the number of incidents of vehicle damage was very low and that many were minor incidents.

They added: “Approximately 40 per cent of all vehicle damage arises from reversing incidents, i.e. narrow gates or overhanging obstacles during poor visibility in emergency situations.”

Justice Minister Helen McEntee was inundated with dozens of angry  emails and letters from the public after her ‘walkabout’ in Dublin’s north inner city following a spate of violent incidents in the capital.

The overwhelming majority of correspondence was deeply critical of comments made by Ms McEntee that Dublin was a “safe city” with many criticising the lack of garda presence on the streets.

In a handwritten note, one person explained how they had been visiting Dublin’s city centre for decades.

“[I] would not entertain being out alone after 7pm,” they said, “I could easily see addicts shooting up [and] was shocked at the aggression in those gangs of feral youths loitering at so many locations.”

Another visitor to the city wrote about being asked by an “addict” why they were not wearing a bikini given that the sun was out.

Their email described how they had been called a “big fat c***” saying the abuse had been a terrible experience and that in their time in Dublin, they had not seen a single garda.

One letter said they had been walking up Talbot Street when a group of men began “aggressively firing glass bottles” at another person.

“There was absolutely NO garda presence … at this time (6.00pm on a Saturday evening) despite the recent attack on an American tourist in this vicinity.”

In an email, one member of the public said anybody who thought Dublin was safe “must be living in cloud cuckoo land”.

Briefings for ‘influencers’ to promote horse racing asked one celebrity to talk about the “unbelievable care and attention” given to horses.

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) spent close to €200,000 paying influencers to help market racing over a five-year period with campaigns involving former rugby player Rob Kearney, RTÉ presenter Doireann Garrihy, and the 2 Johnnies.

A briefing for Doireann Garrihy said they were not looking for a “huge output” from her and that they would love input from her on creating content “that will speak to her audiences … and she knows them best”.

In a creative plan, Horse Racing Ireland said they would like the RTÉ presenter to announce to her followers that she would be attending the Dublin Racing Festival last year but that it should not come across as “a sales message”.

The brief said: “She’s excited to go, what should she wear [Outfit] A or Outfit B.”

The Irish Prison Service is spending around €320,000 at three jails on a graphic design project to try and lift the “mundane and dreary” atmosphere in prison yards and landings.

The wall graphics are intended to brighten up the most “austere” areas of Castlerea Prison in Roscommon, Cloverhill in Dublin, as well as Cork Prison.

The decorations include inspiring quotes intended to lift the mood of prisoners and staff, as well as photographs of nature and iconic snaps of crowds in Croke Park and the Sam Maguire being hoisted in front of Hill 16.

A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said: “An important part of providing equivalence of mental health care is the provision of ‘whole population’ preventative approaches, often witnessed in the community.

“The Prison Service have commenced a program of upgrades to enhance the aesthetics of the exercise yards in a number of prisons across the estate. The Irish Prison Service intends to rollout this program across the entire prison estate.”

A decision by the Department of Health to exclude frontline blood transfusion workers from a COVID-19 bonus payment scheme led to plummeting morale for the workers who were rejected.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) said that 434 of their staff had faced higher exposure to infection because of working closely with thousands of donors, blood, body substances, and potentially infectious materials during their every-day work.

In an appeal to the Minister for Health, the IBTS said they were “very concerned” about the exclusion of their staff from the €1,000 pandemic bonus scheme and that it was having a “very negative impact on staff morale” when they were struggling to retain people.

Correspondence reveals how the Department of Health said that blood transfusion staff had not been exposed to COVID-19 because people with symptoms were urged not to attend donation clinics.

In response, the IBTS said this was difficult to square with the fact that an entire team in Cork had been exposed, and subsequently developed COVID-19, after being involved in providing services.

They also said there were multiple occasions where non-symptomatic people had attended clinics with their donations subsequently recalled due to notification of a positive test.

A letter from the IBTS said: “We accept that we asked donors with symptoms not to attend donation clinics, but so too did every other health service provider, including hospitals.”

Criminals convicted of human trafficking, organising prostitution, rape, and stalking were among ninety two citizens of other European Union countries who were sent back home from Ireland over the past two and a half years.

Figures from the Department of Justice detail how thirteen people were the subject of removal orders in the first six months of this year.

Of those returned to their home in another EU state in 2023, offenders had committed crimes including money laundering, being involved in a criminal gang, sexual assault, and tax evasion.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was told to prepare himself for “anachronistic upper-class mannerisms” as well as “controversial traditionalist views” ahead of an online meeting with the UK politician Jacob Rees-Mogg.

In prepared notes, Mr Varadkar – who was then serving as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise – was briefed on the “retrograde steps” the British government had taken over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Ahead of a conference call with Mr Rees-Mogg, the briefing said Mr Varadkar could emphasise how both the Irish President and then-Taoiseach Micheál Martin had attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.

The notes said this had led to a “renewed focus on the strength and depth of the bilateral relationship” between the UK and Ireland.

However, the briefing – mostly prepared by the Irish Embassy in London and the Department of Foreign Affairs – said that this “spirit of partnership and mutual respect” had been damaged by recent post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union.

The meeting last October was held not long after Liz Truss began her ill-fated seven-week stint as prime minister of the UK.

The briefing notes said Mr Varadkar should emphasise that the people of Northern Ireland “categorically reject” the confrontational approach the United Kingdom had taken in Brexit discussions with the EU.

A staff survey carried out at the chief state solicitor’s office found that some employees had overheard racist and homophobic comments from fellow workers, as well as “talking down of inner [city] Dublin communities”.

The survey from the Chief State Solicitor’s Office (CSSO) also flagged concerns from some staff about an “us versus them” split between people working in the legal and administrative sides of the office.

Asked whether the CSSO did not tolerate bullying, harassment, or any form of discrimination in the workplace, 14 per cent of the people working there said they could not agree with that statement.

Employees were also questioned about what a new equality, diversity, and inclusion team within their organisation should focus on.

As a result, concerns were raised by some staff about recent “gender equality in the office as regards men” and the need for more social inclusion in the legal profession.

CSSO employees also said there should be zero tolerance for certain language and behaviours – for example, around racism, and derogatory comments about inner city communities.

The Chief State Solicitor’s Office had originally refused to release a copy of the survey under Freedom of Information laws; however, they were later directed to do so by the Information Commissioner.

You can read the decision from this case here.

A fire inspection at one of the country’s busiest maternity hospitals said the emergency escape light system was not being routinely maintained, that most of its fittings were falling or faulty, and that some exit signage for use in the event of a blaze was not operating at all.

The report on the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin said it was clear the system would not provide the minimum light levels or escape signage that would be needed to provide safe escape in the event of an emergency.

It said it would not be financially viable to repair, update, or extend the current system and recommended the installation of a completely new system of emergency lighting.

A board meeting last year heard that the total cost of a project to fix all fire safety issues at the hospital could be in the order of €2.4 million and would take between two and three years to implement.

The investment was approved following a report carried out by expert consultants Titan Fire at the hospital in late 2021; the Rotunda had originally refused to release a copy under FOI laws but were directed to do so by the Information Commissioner (OIC).

You can read the decision from the OIC in this case here.