Taoiseach’s Mayo village cycling club hits jackpot with Lottery grant

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

This.

This whole thread is off. Enda Kenny has more than likely abused his power in this situation, and mostly a member or two of the club in question. Posting videos of club members or making derogatory remarks about them is out of order. Demanding "they" explain themselves is unhelpful as I'm sure now that they have to go into pr mode and consider everything they say carefully and honestly after investigating the situation.

I made a joke about the stress of writing the application, hardly derogatory. Nothing to consider if your not ashamed of the truth or not going to get in trouble for it. All they have to do is put up a timetable for their future spin classes and an invoice from the company that they ordered them from.

As for this "investigating" by members on here, well done on unearthing the most basic level of corruption. The usual Crap we'd moan about locally. Maybe now you can use your energy doing something positive like volunteering with the homeless etc. The self importance in the thread is sickening.

Back at you, I volunteer my time here and there, very little though, i am a selfish ****. I didn't investigate anyone, in fact most of the thread I have defended the club if you read back, I probably would have tried the same for my club if we had such classes that we could offer in such a capacity but we don't so I won't. There are several clubs though that could in a "Man shed" capacity and be successful.

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

The ire in this thread has mostly been directed at the club not the Taoiseach. Snidely at times.

Explanations have been demanded of the club. Not the Taoiseach.

As for justified anger. I too volunteer at grass roots level. The €20k would have helped track cycling in Ireland a lot. So I get it. The target is off.

The target is way off but I am not targeting the club. Everyone I know in Mayo (admittedly only 3 people) who has heard about the story has linked the holiday to the money. Which is unlikely considering the timelines but organisational requirements. FFS they can't think that would not have been picked up on. They literally only have to put up a facebook post with a picture of the new spin bikes or even a comment on their new classes for the locality starting up because said spin bikes are on the way. Instead, there is silence. Silence breeds suspicion. The way some of the posters I have met here talk in the pub, you would swear Enda dropped the 20k in cash on their doorstep and took a kickback. I have no doubt that it is crooked but to be honest, that doesn't really bother me that much if they had at least fufilled the grant requirements, do that and I am happy.

Doc07 wrote: »

I agree , the real blame lies with the awarding authority ( unless the club told blatant lies, which doesn't seem to be the case). I feel the same frustration when I read about dodgy doctors in the media. The interview panel or head of HR or DOH hiring policy never seem to be held to account.

However, it's not just the DOH civil servant at fault here is it? The email from an Taoiseach had the application attached, I'm not sure if any of the other applications came with the same ringing endorsement.

It will wash off the taoiseach as all he done was place an enquiry ( I know what he really done, just stating the facts). The civil servant will be permanent, it will be loosely within the guidelines, unlikely to get punished there. The awarding authority should be held to account, but also the minister but they will shut up shop and that will be that, the story will blow over for the most part, because as Harry said, it's hardly the crime of the century and not interesting enough to grab front page headlines for prolonged periods (unless you could of course show it in multiple areas from the same government, which in fairness, would not be difficult, but then what paper is going to print it nowadays, probably one of the UK ones).

Long story short, EK possibly only brought it up as a role as a TD. Probably a thousand emails like this over the years for projects that were not successful. So the only question is, who should take the blame, Simon Harris for pushing it or the civil servant who scoring system was so skewed that they are clearly inept at their job. I have to write up a score sheet for similarly funded projects that are kept on file should they ever be investigated, it has to be there for this project (if its handled like other funding projects in the civil service).

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

@cramcycle If you did no investigating then the comment re investigating doesn't apply to you? If you made no derogatory remarks then my comment concerning that does not apply to you? You're defending yourself from accusations that are not made against you.

Fair enough, I had put up the video, more in jest of what I expect my father would have said and what my uncle did say, but you are right in that having a go at the club members is out of line unless something is proven. At worst one or two of them is guilty of cute hoorism, if we went after everyone here guilty of that half the country would be behind bars. Christ my fathers only question would be, could they only get 20k?
There are a number of things that should be done but lets be realistic won't be.
The Taoiseach should be called to account because we all know his intention. This will not happen because as I said, every TD has done it, he will claim it was in his role as a TD, loads of similar emails coincided with grant awards or denials.
The minister should be called to account, it is his department, but lets be honest, unless he got himself recorded asking for it to be swayed in that direction, he will play the minister card, just in the door, did not oversee the scoring system or weighting system.
Out of those two, with their experience, Simon is the most likely the one stupid enough to have it recorded.
Lastly, call the department to account, all that will happen here is a review, it may or may not happen again, if it does, they will make sure the grants are better written. The civil servant who allocated the weighting will have nothing happen, the person who is meant to double check, will claim it is a random selection for double checking, hence how it slipped through.
The club undoubtedly were given a nod and some instruction on how to write said grant, they done what most would do.
The best resolution is for once one of the senior civil servants breaks ranks and goes on record that he was instructed but that won't happen due to self preservation, liking the system or union interference.
or
The club fulfill the grant requirements, which to be fair, if it succeeds in getting more people interested in getting out bar those with an interest already, is not a bad resolution, even if you think there are more worthy projects.
Basically we are pissing against the wind, and you are right, does not mean it should not be pointed out now and again.

RayCun wrote: »

The terms of the application are not met, and they do not fit the grant requirements.
There is a whole other fund available for sports capital grants, a fund to which this club could have applied.

If they applied for it as a health grant, to encourage the elderly, isolated and other groups in the community to come out and socialise, increase excercise, then a health grant is a perfect fit.

The Health fund is very clear

It is.

A cycling club buying equipment for use of its members does not qualify.

My understanding is that the application would (or should have) stated that it is not solely for the club members, but for the community. Does anyone have a copy of their application.

This application should not have been accepted.

Quite possibly not, but until someone shows it here, that is a jump.

Now if the club use it for something other than what the grant stipulated, that is a different matter (fraud) or don't open it up to the community at large and actively promote it to the community (failing to meet the purpose). Now the far bigger issue for me, based on the belief the club fill those requirements, is that was this really the most deserving grant (DoH issue and wider governmental issue). Spiderski, did your FOI pertain to the grant application as well, do you have a copy? Or does anyone know who you would ask for a copy of the weighting given during the application.