Liveline thread 28/09/16 to date

Glad I didn't tune in today to hear Joe's latest exploitation of a vulnerable person who needs professional help and intervention and not the condescending nonsense no doubt dispensed by the great buffoon for his own perverse enjoyment.

vicwatson wrote: »

Here's another bit of the madness - http://www.kenfoxe.com/

Some beauties from that:
€15.8M in rent, €250,000 for moving furniture and €222,000 for business class flights – a year of spending at the Department of Foreign Affairs

By kenfoxe | Published: October 4, 2016
A MONTHLY rent bill of €5,400 for a residence for Ireland’s Ambassador to the Vatican, over €250,000 for moving furniture, and in excess of €222,000 on business class flights … just some of the money spent by the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs last year.
A data dump of €64 million in Departmental spending obtained under FOI has given a detailed look at how and where our diplomats spent taxpayer’s money in 2015.
The figures include enormous figures for rent with €5,400-a-month being spent on a residence for the Ambassador to the Holy See.
In articles in the Irish Catholic newspaper last year, it was described as being located on the Piazza Rondanini and “situated just across the Tiber river from the Vatican in the shadows of the iconic Pantheon”.
Vast rental costs have also been incurred at the embassies in Geneva, Tokyo, Singapore, New York and in Brussels, according to the records.
The monthly rental bill in Tokyo comes to just over €40,000-per-month according to the database with another €27,000-a-month spent at the Consulate General in New York.
In Singapore, the monthly rent bill is just over €20,000 while in Geneva, it averaged €16,260 in each month of 2015.
By far the biggest cost was rent, which between costs for chancery buildings and residences came to more than €15.8 million during the course of last year.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said they seek to “minimise the cost of rental properties to ensure value for money”.
They did say however that the recovering world economy is putting increasing pressure on rent and that the weakness of the euro against the US dollar was impacting in many non-EU countries.
Over €2 million was also spent on airfares, with around €220,000 – or roughly 12% – of that total going on business class flights.
Many of the most expensive flights, including tickets costing €5,908 and €4,784, were charged to the office of the Minister or Ministers of State at the Department.
The Department said business travel was only used in very limited circumstances, only for flights of more than seven hours in duration.
Close to €180,000 was spent on hotels, with the single biggest bill of €5,752 charged to the Protocol Division by the five-star Glenlo Abbey Hotel in Galway.
One of the biggest areas of expenditure was on what was described as “major maintenance” primarily to houses and embassies rented by the Department.
One contract from last September came in at just over €210,000 though no details have been provided on where or what the money was spent on.
Cars cost more than €750,000 with €69,000 spent on vehicles in Ethiopia, €64,000 in Mozambique and €37,000 in Uganda – all countries where Irish Aid are active.
Details on the nature of the vehicles bought are scant apart from one entry listed as €31,115 paid to BMW and coming out of the human resources budget.
The Department said they had replaced 22 vehicles across the world, including five to support the Irish Aid programme. They said vehicles were only replaced when it was “absolutely necessary”.
With so many civil servants working all over the world – the costs of moving both furniture and other items was also significant.
More than €1.76 million was spent on storing and moving equipment, with another €259,000 spent moving furniture.
The Department explained that in 2015 more than 250 staff had moved country and that costs were incurred transporting their “personal and household effects”.
New furniture also proved costly with just under €300,000 spent on “furniture and fittings” in 2015, the largest sum of €58,000 paid to an Irish carpentry company that specialises in kitting out offices.
A large bill of just over €475,000 was also run up on official state entertainment, which included significant costs for chauffeurs with one company paid in excess of €50,000 for driving services.
The Dublin Airport Authority was paid just over €16,400 for VIP lounges and other services. A florist company Floral Events got just over €2,000 while a piano company were paid €695.
Across the network of embassies and consulates, the bill for cable and satellite TV came to just over €72,000 with the largest bills run up at Ireland’s UN office and consulates in New York.
Cleaning bills for the diplomatic buildings exceeded €1 million with the cost of keeping Ireland’s EU Permanent Representation spick and span coming to €63,000 alone.
Rail and bus fares cost just over €9,000 while €85,000 was spent on taxis, the vast majority of it in Dublin and the Department’s other Irish offices.
The Department also had to pay out a total of €186,654 in what were cryptically referred to as “settlement costs” in the database.
In a statement, they explained that these were the final payments made to former local staff at the Irish Embassy in Lesotho following its closure in 2014.
More than €550,000 was spent on diplomatic mail across the globe, while €2.2 million was spent on regular postage, much of it by the Passport Office sending out passports.
A further €132,000 was spent on “items of artistic value”, €142,000 on translation fees, €579,000 on mobile phone costs, and €280,000 on language courses.

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Ireland’s €4 million annual rent bill for ambassadorial residences including €46,000-a-month for a property in Tokyo

By kenfoxe | Published: September 26, 2016
THE Department of Foreign Affairs is paying a staggering €46,000-a-month for a residence for the Irish Ambassador to Japan.
The colossal rental fee, which comes to more than €550,000 each year, is paid for a property in the upmarket Tokyo suburb of Moto-Azabu.
It is located in the embassy belt in Minato City where rental costs are at a premium and is by far the most expensive ambassadorial residence leased by the Irish government.
Although property prices in Tokyo are high, the rental figure for the property is still astronomical.
On one of the city’s best known luxury rental websites Century 21, the single most expensive property listed costs €33,000 per month … 30% less than the Irish Ambassador’s residence.
The revelation was made in an article I did yesterday for the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday for which I took a certain amount of criticism on Twitter.
One described it as “sensationalist nonsense”, another asked if I wanted ambassadors to live in a shed at a roundabout, because apparently to question such extraordinary payments displays no understanding of what is required from our diplomatic network.
One pointed to criticism of St Patrick’s Day as being in a similar tabloid vein.
When I explained how St Patrick’s Day trips in 2007 had cost €500,000 and by 2010 were down to €200,000 – because of media scrutiny – and with no discernible impact on our diplomatic relations … there was no response.
Following the story, the Department of Foreign Affairs has now confirmed it is actively seeking to buy a residence in Tokyo because the rental payments are so extraordinarily high.
In all, more than €4 million was spent last year on a network of homes for ambassadors and consul generals around the world in cities where the state does not actually own a building.
Details of the individual rents of each of the properties were released following an FOI request.
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs refused to release the rental agreements for the properties saying that they were commercially sensitive.
That means it’s not possible to discover how long the leases are for, who the landlord is, and whether penalties would apply if the state tried to extricate itself from the costliest ones.
The ambassadorial residence in Tokyo was more than twice as expensive as any of the other properties, according to the records.
The next highest rent was paid for a home for the Consul General in New York.
That property is located on UN Plaza directly beside the headquarters of the United Nations in midtown Manhattan.
A residence for the Ambassador to Singapore is costing the Irish taxpayer €20,050 every month. It is situated on Peirce Hill, one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the city.
Renting a house in the Swiss city of Geneva is costing €15,925 in rent each month. The house is on upmarket Rue de Moillebeau and overlooks the city’s famous Parc de Trembley.
Just over €10,000 a month is also paid in rent for the official residence in Helsinki while another €10,000 gets paid out each month for a home for the Ambassador in the Polish capital Warsaw.
In at least half a dozen other cities – including two in Brussels, Bucharest, Rome, Vienna, Paris, and Vienna – the state is paying between €5,000 and €9,000 per month.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that to “fulfil [their] objectives” they needed to be based in the main capitals and economic hubs.
They said: “Because of the economic and strategic nature of these cities the cost of operating in them is high, in particular rental rates.
“The Department always seeks to ensure value for money in all its operations and in particular rental agreements.
“The Department has commenced an exercise to look at how it can convert rental payments into long term assets in these locations which are strategic partners for Ireland.”
They said the heads of each embassy or consulate were required to negotiate savings with landlords and agents before signing any rental agreements.
In the Estonian capital Tallinn, the embassy and ambassadorial residence moved into the same building and that cut costs from €17,235 a month to €11,295.
Similarly, in New York, the Consul General moved to a new residence which brought rent there down from €29,022 a month in 2015 to €21,319 this year.
Over the past four years, the Department has paid out €16.7 million in rent for diplomatic residences with the bill highest in 2013.
The Department said they had a long list of requirements for suitable homes for their ambassadors around the globe.
The houses are subject to inspection and vetting “with regard to … suitability, adequacy, value for money from a representational perspective and its capacity to host promotional and official events”.
They also said they needed to be situated in secure areas and in general close to the city centre.
“The complex international security environment in which we operate also requires that we ensure the protection of our staff, their families and visitors to the residences and is fundamental to the duty of care of this Department,” they said.


Why would government ministers be allowed to claim higher rate of mileage twice in a single year?

By kenfoxe | Published: September 20, 2016
HEALTH Minister Simon Harris will be able to claim an extra €2,000 in tax-free mileage because of a bizarre loophole in expenses rules for ministers.
Mr Harris is being allowed to claim twice at a higher rate of mileage in a single calendar year because of a government circular from almost 25 years ago.
The “fresh start” loophole lets politicians who switch from being a Junior Minister to a Senior Minister during an election year be treated effectively as if they are new to the job.
Apparently, Simon Harris is the only one in the current government who falls into this unusual category.
The financial benefit is quite significant and means that Mr Harris will twice be able to claim for more than 6,000 kilometres at a rate of 59 cents per kilometre.
While serving at the Office of Public Works, Minister Harris claimed for 8,196 kilometres which was worth €4,302.94 in total to him.
Of that claim, 6,437 kilometres was paid at the higher rate of 59c/km and the remainder was paid at a much lower rate of 28c/km. You can see the rates on the Revenue website here.
When Mr Harris moved to the Department of Health, it would normally be expected that his mileage claims from then on would continue to be paid at the lower rate.
This is what would happen to civil servants who transfer between state bodies or departments.
However, because of a circular issued in 1992, Mr Harris was given a “fresh start” for the purposes of his mileage and the clock was effectively reset to zero.
The issue probably did not crop up in recent years because until 2011, senior Ministers were provided with a state car and did not have to make mileage claims.
However, the Fine Gael and Labour coalition abolished that system for all but the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and instead asked senior ministers to use their own cars and claim back for its use.
The 1992 letter now means that since June, Minister Harris has been paid at the higher rate of mileage for a second time this year.
In June, Mr Harris was paid €1,611.20 for 2,727 kilometres by the Department of Health, all at 59c/km, and almost €850 more than would have applied had he been paid at the lower rate.
Should the claims continue at the higher rate, the total amount paid in extra mileage will come to €1,970.
The Department of Health said the Minister had continued to be paid at the higher rate during July as well although details of his claim for that month are not yet available.
They said in a statement that this was consistent with the Department of Public Expenditure circular, a copy of which they released to back up the unusual payment perk.
The confidential document was issued in November 1992 (also an election year and of course long before the nuisance of FOI law!) to personnel officers of each government department.
It referred specifically to junior ministers and said that when calculating mileage allowances in a year in which a general election takes place “a new mileage year” would begin after polling.
It went on to say that one “fresh start” could be allowed in a single calendar year.
The Department of Health said: “[We] can confirm that the Minister’s mileage claims as submitted are fully in order. The questions which has arisen relates to the processing of the recent claims by the Department. When processing these claims the Department made an interpretation of [the] circular … however, in light of your query the Department will examine the interpretation of this circular and in reviewing the matter the Department will ensure the treatment applied to these claims is fully accurate and make any amendments deemed necessary.”
In a statement, the Department of Public Expenditure said that their Minister Paschal Donohoe had claimed mileage at the lower rate since his appointment there after serving earlier in the year at Transport.
I’ve tried to find other examples of the double claim at the higher rate but have not found one yet. Will update this post if I do.
The Department of Public Expenditure said: “The Revenue Commissioners have long regarded the public service rates as being adequate to reimburse the costs of cars and motoring where an individual uses their own car for business reasons.”
This is not the first time the Department of Health has been at the centre of mileage controversy.
Last year, then minister Leo Varadkar had to pay back almost €2,000 after it was discovered that he had been paid at the higher rate twice after switching department.


Central Bank governor’s pay 40% higher than US counterpart while deputy governor pay negotiations see €13k cut in salary

By kenfoxe | Published: August 31, 2016
IRELAND’S Central Bank chief is being paid significantly more than the head of the equivalent body in the United States, the Federal Reserve.
Internal documents deciding upon the salary level for a new Deputy Governor in the bank have revealed that the governor of the Central Bank Philip Lane gets over 40% more than his counterpart in the US.
In an email sent to staff, Mr Lane disclosed that his salary was paid at the rate of €254,048 per year – as compared to just US$199,700 (or €177,040) for the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
He suggested that the new appointee as Deputy Governor Sharon Donnery should have her salary worked out by direct comparison to his.
In an email sent in January of this year, he said: “I propose a rule that the salary of the deputy governor be set as a fixed ratio to the salary of the governor. A clean benchmark is that the governor salary is a 15 per cent premium above the deputy governor salary.”
He said a similar system was in use at other central banks and listed the salaries paid for the heads of each of them.
In the UK, the salary for the head of the Bank of England was set at GB£305,764 according to the email while the head of the European Central Bank received €378,240.
Mr Lane’s suggestion meant a salary of €220,911 for his new second-in-command Sharon Donnery, which turned out to be €13,000 lower than the amount the Central Bank had earlier planned to pay her.
Internal documents reveal there was confusion over what level the deputy governor would be paid after her appointment in January.
Previous incumbents had been paid a variety of wages with Tony Grimes on €242,540, Matthew Elderfield on €311,351, Stefan Gerlach on €230,350, and Cyril Roux on €310,000.
The Central Bank had originally planned to pay Ms Donnery €223,636-a-year and confirmed this in writing to both Finance Minister Michael Noonan and then Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin.
However, it was subsequently discovered that figure was incorrect and was almost €12,000 short of what it was supposed to have been.
An internal email from the resourcing section apologised for the error saying they “appreciate[d] the difficult position this now creates”.
When the correct salary was recalculated, the revised figure was discovered to be €235,125 and the contract for Ms Donnery was amended.
Another internal email on January 26 explained that they would now have to “send clarification letters to the relevant Ministers [Noonan and Howlin]”.
In response, Central Bank governor wrote: “Ok, it can be sorted tomorrow.”
The following day, internal discussions took place and it was decided that they would now be “taking another look” at the higher salary level.
By then, the Central Bank had made contact with a senior official in the Department of Finance to alert the government that the previously advised salary was incorrect, the email chain shows.
By the evening of January 27, a compromise arrangement had been decided upon and the salary of the new Deputy Governor was tied to that of the Governor and calculated as €220,911 per annum.
In a statement, the Central Bank said the Deputy Governor position has been filled “following an open competition, and salary was determined by the [Central Bank] Commission in accordance with legislation”.
They said: “In line with international practice and comparator central banks, the Deputy Governor’s salary was set as a fixed percentage of the Governor’s salary.
“The set salary is lower than that of her predecessors, and the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act applies to all employees of the Bank.”

foggy_lad wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/crime/they-arent-going-to-fking-well-stop-us-well-shoot-them-children-as-young-as-10-acting-out-gang-killings-35088238.html

Childer as yung as 10 doin gangland killings, there's defo a new book in this!

De Childers dat did see de LOVE/HATE on de DVD masheen and den did de killins so to speak.