That sign-in thing

So some cheeky journalist has apparently sought details of how often Members of the Oireachtas actually go to work. It is expected to be released around now. One Member of the Seanad was not happy about this at all though. Senator Michael McCarthy (Labour) said [emphasis mine]:

There has been a huge chipping away at the terms and conditions of Deputies and Senators and at those of their colleagues on cash-strapped local authorities. After the introduction of the swiping system on 1 March, one would have imagined that journalists’ appetites regarding where Members are and what they are doing would have abated somewhat. However, a freedom of information request has been made, the response to which, incidentally, will cost the State money, as to how many people swiped and how often they swiped for a two-week period in March. Given the enormous economic difficulties faced by thousands of people, one would imagine that journalists’ time would be better spent in concentrating on the real issues.

Ah yes, the real issues. Down with those media types, trying to bring greater accountability to the parliament.

For my own purposes, I will be seeking the results of that FOI, writing a fresh one, and then possibly integrating attendance records into KildareStreet.com. I wonder what Mr McCarthy will think of that.

Terrible costly for the Oireachtas to click a few buttons, and export a spreadsheet, so it is. I do have another FOI in with them which has been extended by four weeks. More on that later in May.

Yet more strange bike-scheme related decisions

There has always been something odd about the development of the bike-for-billboards scheme. Contracts were kept secret from councillors; the council refused to release contracts to journalists under FOI; by international standards a disproportionately small number of bikes were introduced for a large number of lucrative billboards; the majority of profit is going to the billboards-and-bikes company, not the council. I could go on. Just weird stuff that doesn’t add up, and lots of it. Even the Green Party’s Ciaran Cuffe termed it a “dodgy deal” back in August ’08.

The story got yet odder in the last few days when it emerged more structures, yet to be erected, will be exempt from planning permission, despite many applications for such structures having been rejected by An Bord Pleanala in the past. This will result in 10 per cent more advertising for the company running the scheme, JC Decaux. Continue reading “Yet more strange bike-scheme related decisions”

Export subsidy payments

This dataset contains €457 million of export milk subsidy payments made between January 2001 and December 2009. It was requested from the Department of Agriculture. The dataset contains the name of the country to which it was exported, the date of export, the weight and the amount claimed.

I also sought the names of all companies which received subsidy payments, but this was refused under Section 27 (1) (a) and (b) of the FOI Act (Commercially sensitive). I disagree with this decision and will be appealing.

This request was carried out partly on behalf of the good guys over at followthemoney.eu.

Export subsidies Ireland (Milk) 2001 to 2009

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I have also included subsidy payments (about €22m) in relation to sugar over on Google Spreadsheets.

Anglo strangeness

There’s something awfully odd about this.

Just what is Anglo Irish JCF 1 LLP?

It was incorporated in the UK in October 2008, and members were appointed as follows:

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED SEAN FITZPATRICK
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED PAUL COULSON
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED EUGENE POWER
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED CAROL WRIGHT
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED BERNARD MCNAMARA
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED DAVYCREST NOMINEES LIMITED
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED ANGLO IRISH ASSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED BENTICO TRADING LIMITED
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED DONAGH BARRY
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED MICHAEL CARMODY
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED GARY MCGANN
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED JOHN SISK
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED JEREMIAH O’REILLY
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED RADICAL PROPERTIES LIMITED
16/09/2009 LLP288a

LLP MEMBER APPOINTED GERRY BARRETT
16/09/2009 LLP288a

September 2009? Eh?

As far as I can tell Bentico Limited is run by William McCabe, formerly of Skillsoft/Smartforce. Radical Properties is a company based in Galway, directed by Gerry Barrett. Donagh Barry appears to be of the Barry’s Tea family.

But what is Anglo Irish Assurance Company doing there? I believe it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo, the bank we now own. And it was becoming a member of Anglo Irish JCF?

Digest – April 25 2010

Yadda yadda yadda…

HOME

Stephen Kinsella has an open letter to all leaving cert students, he’s dead right. I got a monumental 210 points in my leaving cert, I’m one of very few journalists under the age of 25 working full-time (alebit, that may say more about journalism than the importance of the leaving cert), I’m doing alright, it wasn’t the end of the world. I love studying but I can’t learn in the way the leaving cert and academia demand. Batt, stick the Kinsella fella in charge.

Nyder O’Leary, once again proves he’s one of the best current affairs commentators in the country. Weaves a web about transparency around the Terence Wheelock case – on which we recently released some new information, which was almost completely ignored elsewhere online, strangely, unfortunately – and Fianna Fáil remaining in Government. Lovely writing, great commentary. Oi Nyder, when TheStory can afford it, you’re hired, chief editorial writer.

Gene Kerrigan on a government, led by Brian Cowen, that never takes responsibility…

The folks trying to swing the vote on the “reform” cuts continued to hammer Richie and he folded. And a spokesperson for Mr Cowen promptly welcomed Richie’s surrender. And noted exultantly that it was “in response to public concern” — get this — “as was reflected by the Taoiseach earlier today”.

Tuesday, the scandal had nothing to do with Mr Cowen. Wednesday, we’re told it’s his triumphant blow that has felled the evil Baron Richie of Top-Up.

Truly, the man is an embarrassment.

Reactions to the FCO Memo story (UK minister insults Pope in internal communications); short one from Gerard Cunningham (although he wants any [freelance] journalists reading to check this one out instead) and longer from Splintered Sunrise.

Turbulence Ahead, “surf’s up”.

Will the internet save us from the next global disaster? That’s the fascinating thesis put forward by David Eagleman. He has featuredonce or twice in previous posts – he’s always guaranteed to challenge your thinking. David’s talk at the Long Now Seminar series identifies six easy steps to avert the collapse of civilisation. A noble ambition. They range from ‘trying not to cough on one another’ to ‘mitigating tyranny’. All his steps have one thing in common: the ubiquity of the internet and its capacity for distributed productivity, learning and knowledge storage…

WORLD Continue reading “Digest – April 25 2010”

DocumentCloud

We are pleased to be joining a rather illustrious list of document contributors, including the Huffington Post, the New York Times and The Atlantic, to the beta of DocumentCloud. I believe we are the first Irish contributors.

We have been using Scribd.com for third party document storage for some time, and while it has its uses, it lacks many of the journalistic features we need. DocumentCloud are adding features, and taking feature requests.

We will be testing DocumentCloud over the coming months, so you may see a switch away from Scribd.com.

Eurostat documents – Ireland

I’ve taken all of the letters and documents from the Eurostat website in relation to NAMA, and OCRd them for posterity. To make things a little easier for searching, I have combined a series of letters, and the results of two Eurostat visits to Ireland. There are some gems in the documents.

Euro Stat

One of my favourites is this one. In the appendix to the letter, under Risk Analysis, it says, my emphasis: (MV is Market Value)

There are two main linked areas of risk, which relate to uncertainty about the current and future state of the property market in Ireland and worldwide:

a) Prices will continue to fall below the purchase-date MV.
b) The adjustment factor applied to the MV to obtain the LTEV is too large, so that the market will not recover sufficiently to allow the assets acquired to be sold for at least the purchase price.

It is difficult to quantify the level of risk involved in (a) and (b) above. However, NAMA have been advised that, while there may be some short-term fall in MVs after assets are purchased, ‘based on capital values, the bottom has been reached in the US, UK and Europe’, and in Ireland ‘the market expects that the bottom may be reached in the last quarter of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010.’

Based on the available expert advice, NAMA and the Department of Finance have concluded that NAMA will be profitable over its expected 10-year lifetime, estimating its net present value at some €6 billion.

Eh, no. NAMA have locked in values at November 2009 levels, and prices have continued to fall since then. And in my opinion prices will continue to fall for another 18 months at least. But then back in 2008 when I was out taking photos of ghost estates a good 18 months before the media realised their import, and even before that whole Lehman Brothers thing, it was clear prices had a long way to fall, despite the best efforts of property shills telling us now was a good time to buy, and we were near a floor in the market.

And when many of the loans NAMA is taking on had no collateral to back them, 33% of them in the case of Anglo, then even the increase in the value of any lands or properties within NAMA won’t bring us a profit. It can only bring us a loss.

FOI logs

I will be publishing all logs I receive in both PDF and spreadsheet format, where possible. For now I have two FOI logs, one for the Department of Health and the other for the Department of the Taoiseach. I will be adding to these in the future.

Department of the Taoiseach log 2006 to 2009 (spreadsheet)
Department of Health log 2007 to 2009 (spreadsheet)

There are many advantages to publishing logs, yet most bodies do not publish them. First it guides people as to what others request, which can help in drafting your own FOIs. Second it shows you what other people are asking for. Third it reduces duplication of requests, although strangely many Departments do not keep copies of releases, meaning further search and retrieval for documents that have already been released. I plan to FOI all logs for all the major Departments over the coming months, and later for all bodies. This will cover the period 1998 to 2009.