Where is the Opposition & a vote of no confidence in this govt for its fraud & sleaze?
Damien English, fraudster & god-knows-what with his vulture dealings
Paschal Donohoe, tens of millions for his secret benefactor
Coillte - secretive sale of forests to Pat Cox's British outfit
Micheal Martin wants a review of Coillte yet his FF agri minister has been kept in the loop on the deal for months
Tolls roads - gifting €26m to John Moran's Limerick toll company despite Comptroller and Auditor General objections
Gifting €40m a year to bottom line of national newspapers which are all profitable. Gifting €15m to RTE, funding three journalists, Simon Harris Solas giving #todaycb €42k/mth sponsorship,allowing RTE to transfer its costly orchestra elsewhere
No wonder we depend on the Ditch!
And have we finally discovered the motive for Leo Varadkar sending his good-looking friend/not-a-good-friend, a confidentail government document, and seeking Maitiu O'Tuathail home address even though O'Tuathail business was on Kildare St across from Taoiseach office?
And Simon Harris installed as acting justice minister, despite his own party colleague jnr min Patrick O'Donovan conducting a sting which exposed him for giving Cabinet meeting details, the Zappone appointment, to a certain journalist in return for favourable coverage.
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Feb 2016, Paschal Donohoe accepts €1k of election work from Michael Stone and doesn't declare it
July 2016 government appoints Michael Stone to head up the North East Inner City task force and gives it €38.2m [up to 2022] for "projects"
Paschal Donohoe claims he had no role in the appointment of Michael Stone to the position, but Paschal was Minister for Public Expenditure and the TD for.... the North East Inner City. That seems incredible, so it does.
Main Media mis-reports the name of this body. It's the North East Inner City group whose website is here. neic.ie/about/overview
Incredible that Paschal wouldn't have had any role in this appointment given his ministerial role holding the purse-strings, and his constituency.
Twitter has removed "show latest tweets" so you're now being served tweets on your homepage which Twitter thinks you should see. Didn't @elonmusk himself advise us to choose "show latest tweets" always to defeat the pesky algorithms?
Twitter claims not to be a publisher, but it is now choosing what tweets to serve you on your homepage. You can no longer just select to see tweets from people you follow in chronological order.
That looks a lot like publishing!
Tue, we learned Simon Coveney's Irish Aid gave €540,000 in 2021 to the "charity" founded & chaired by Denis O'Brien to protect journalists [part of €4m overall given by govt to the charity]
Today we learn journalist Sam Smyth has received a "large 6-figure sum" in compo for 1/2
2/2 compo for the illegal hacking of his records while he worked at Ireland's biggest press group. The hacking was paid for by Denis O'Brien.
Sam Smyth had covered a Tribunal which concluded Denis O'Brien gave a FG minister €1m when the minister was selling a mobile licence.
No word on how much Brendan O'Connor, whose records were also hacked, was paid. Doubt he'll be covering it on his weekend RTE show!
What about journalist Maeve Sheehan whose records were also illegally hacked?
Micheal Martin is giving out about the Shinners suing for libel. It's "chilling", he says.
What ever must he think of this shower...
First up, FF TD and serial driving offender Barry Cowen who threatened the Sunday Times if it published details of his driving offences. They went ahead and published anyway. Baz has never sued them.
Next up, and related, we have Thomas Byrne who told local radio in Louth he was "consulting with my solicitors" about claims made by party activist Ken McFadden, about leaking Barry Cowen's transgressions. Thomas never sued on this occasion. But he has previously sued Google.
How come Robert Troy left his name off ALL the planning applications relating to 25a Rathdown Road in Dublin, with all the applications in the name of his 50% partner John Noel McGivney?
Troy doesn't like any publicity at all, does he?
Does FF still regard itself as a "bit to the Left" because the application to Dublin City Council for a social housing exemption cert at the 25a Rathdown Road development strongly suggests Robert Troy has other leanings!
25a Rathdown is Robert Troy's most successful property deal. Bought for €545,000 in 2015, he fought against the odds to get planning permission for two 3-bed houses in "the garden". The "garden" was sold, with market sources suggesting it was worth €300k.
This is Robert Troy property which the Land Registry calls
26 Ash Lawns, Clonbalt Wood, Longford
Troy calls it
26 Ashelawns, Conbalt Woods, Longford
[the only bits that match are '26' and 'Longford']
Troy doubled his money in 100 days with Council.
Robert Troy claims he didn't know he had to register a property if he didn't own it on 31 December of the declaration year. But you can see why there would be intense interest with this property. Coincidence that Troy "didn't know"
This property was bought from a FF councillor, and in 100 days was flipped to Longford County Council for 2x original price, plus Longford County Council claim their €163k was below market value. And Troy claims he "didn't know" he had to declare it?