Privately funded watchdog

Bodan

A new privately-funded watchdog has been set up to investigate corruption in Irish political, public and corporate life.
The Centre for Public Inquiry will look into potential scandals that are brought to its attention by whistleblowers or concerned individuals.

It will be chaired by Justice Fergus Flood, the former chairman of the Planning Tribunal, and will employ a team of investigative journalists and researchers.

Journalist Frank Connolly has been appointed its executive director.

"It's an investigative journalist project, it's independent and it is being funded by Atlantic philanthropies which is an international foundation which has put something in the order of €600 million in the university sector in Ireland over the past decade or more."

"They have given us the funding for first five years."

Good Idea or Bad Idea ?
In my opinion its a bad idea , because i dont believe it will be independent . If you look at think tanks in the States or public enquiries in the Uk like the Hutton report , they are far from independent and are slanted in one way or another , sometimes to the extreme . It will be interesting to see what they throw into the mix and see if the mass media take them seriously . Someone whos views are unknown and claim to be independent will probably turn out not to be so neutral . Given that they are "Atlantic philanthropies" they will probebly turn out to be liberal and maybe should be held with the same suspicion as the extreme right until they have proven otherwise.

If they do turn out to be a propaganda group , i can see more groups been set up to counter them . This begs another question , should foreign nationals be allowed to interfere with our Nations State .

gandalf

Well I have alot of respect for Fergus Flood and Frank Connolly so I would say lets see what they do. It is slightly sinister that they are funded from the US but Newstalk mentioned the guys name (sorry I missed it was watching what the Taxi was doing in front me, he didn't indicate as they normally don't!) but he is an Irish American Millionaire (probably a billionaire).

I think we need something that is separate from the normal organs of the state to scrutinise what politicians get up to in a more timely fashion but then again what difference will this make. Unless there is a better end result when corruption is found then it is pointless. Putting just Rambo away after all these years is not really value for money for the Irish taxpayer, slapping a few of the bribers away would be going in the right direction thou

As for your final point foreign nationals interfere with our Nation State all the time, from Multinationals setting up and closing down, US troops using Shannon, funds being donated to the IRA and so on ans so on.

Sparks

Strikes me as odd that we don't know who precisely is putting up the money for this. Sounds more like it's going to be generating pages on www.sourcewatch.org than generating investigation into corrupt individuals even-handedly...

Sparks

Story on this today in the Sunday Independent:

FRANK Connolly, the journalist leading an organisation to investigate Irish public figures, is being probed by gardai about allegations that he travelled to Colombia on a false passport in 2001.

Connolly is a brother of Niall Connolly, the Sinn Fein representative in Cuba and one of the so-called 'Colombian Three' who is on the run after he and two IRA men were sentenced to 17 years.

The new investigative organisation, the Centre for Public Inquiry, is bankrolled to the tune of €4m by Irish American Chuck Feeney through a foundation called Atlantic Philanthropies, which has an office in Dublin. The foundation also spent over $720,000 funding a Sinn Fein office in Washington for three years.

One board member of the New York-based organisation which is funding the venture said he was not aware of the connection between Frank and Niall Connolly. "You are going way beyond any knowledge I have," said Frederick A O Schwarz Jnr, a New York Senior Counsel. The Sunday Independent has also been told that the respected former judge, Feargus Flood, who is chairman of the board of the Centre for Public Inquiry, was advised by people close tohim not to get involved in the organisation.

The new organisation was accused of "introducing a kind of McCarthyism into this country" by Senator Brian Hayes of Fine Gael yesterday. "I have concerns aboutthe people involved - are they above reproach themselves?" he asked, referring toMr Connolly.

The leader of the Seanad Mary O'Rourke stated that she was "particularly wary of the staffing arrangements" of the new organisation - which Mr Connolly took to be a reference to himself. He later contacted her but she declined to disclose what was said.

Progressive Democrat spokesman John Minihan said: "If this body feels there are shortcomings in the present system for investigation, I feel it would be more appropriate for them to make recommendations to the appropriate bodies."

Last week Atlantic Philanthropies, which includes the former Provost of Trinity College Thomas Mitchell on its board, revealed that the new organisation grew out of discussions between Frank Connolly and Chuck Feeney. But Connolly and the board will be entirely responsible for who will be targeted for investigation and the methods used to expose them.

I can see why the politicians in the Dail would be worried, but in this case I have to say I feel some agreement with their position - the idea of a group being funded to "go after" people when those providing the funding don't even know who they're giving the money to... well, it's distinctly dodgy. I may be incorrect, it may work out wonderfully and be a positive thing for all, but right now it's in the "hackle-raising" category as far as I can see.

A Dub in Glasgo

The old brothers in arms question about Niall Connolly being used to discredit Frank Connolly already. Of course, It is entirely in the interests of a paper like the Independent to do that and it is not the 1st time. Frank Connolly has never hidden the fact that is brother is Niall.

Sparks

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

The old brothers in arms question about Niall Connolly being used to discredit Frank Connolly already. Of course, It is entirely in the interests of a paper like the Independent to do that and it is not the 1st time. Frank Connolly has never hidden the fact that is brother is Niall.

And yet the financial backers didn't know that. Which is, believe it or not, the whole point. :rolleyes:

A Dub in Glasgo

Sparks wrote:

And yet the financial backers didn't know that. Which is, believe it or not, the whole point. :rolleyes:

According to that paper..... :rolleyes:

I find it very hard to believe that somebody would pump money into a venture without knowing the people involved (not that there is a problem with Connolly)

Sparks

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

According to that paper..... :rolleyes:

Well, yes and no - they didn't give their opinion on whether the backers knew or not, they quoted a backer saying that he didn't know. Now, it's true, they could be lying through their teeth, but given our libel laws, I tend to think that papers don't lie quite so blatently or make up quotes. Edit them, yes. Massage numbers as far as the degree of error in the numbers allows for, yes. But actually come out and make a quote like that up in the most widely-read newspaper in Ireland? That's making yourself too large a target for a libel suit I think.