Oireachtas Committees changes

http://politicalreform.ie/2013/09/12/dail-reform-announced-by-the-government/

http://www.merrionstreet.ie/index.php/2013/09/government-publishes-programme-of-dail-reform/


http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2013-09-24a.158&s=pre-legislation#g161.r

Enda Kenny met with the whips of all the parties and groups days before the Seanad referendum just so he could say he did.

http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2014-01-15a.229&s=pre-legislative#g302

http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2013-11-28a.238&s=pre-legislative#g265

Fingal Budget

Fingal Budget

Fingal Budget webcast
Fingal open Data

Council budget meeting postponement blasted Decmeber 2013

Council Budgets delayed from december to january because government still decided re Irish Water budgets with statutory period running out days later.

Fingal County Council 2014 Budget passed tonight 17 votes to 6 votes January 2014

Councillor Ruth Coppinger's statement on Budget

Draft Annual Budget 2014

Fingal Budget on OpenSpending

Fingal Council Data tema have worked to provide the data behind this treemap on open spending.org

Fingal Budget Income and Expenditure .csv on Fingal Data

Fingal Annual Budget 2013 .pdf




Fingal Budget 2013 Sankey Diagram


^probably wrong^
Data for Sankey


IBM Many Eyes - Drill-down Stack Graph of budget over 4 years. (yes its java, but its IBM, update, allow, trust.)



Data for Stack Graph

Local Government Fund

Local Goverment Fund

localauthorityfinances.com

Another good website by publicpolicy.ie (funded by Atlantic Philantrophies) which shows how much council spend on each service per person and where it gets its income from and then you can compare different councils to each other they also provide the data they used.


Cormac O'sullivan writes about Building Local Authority Finances.com, he mentions "The budget for Dublin City Council goes beyond the required statutory budget tables to provide additional analysis of the source and use of income for each division", I'll jave to look into that to improve my sankey maybe try one for Dublin, designed again by Brightspark

Oireachtas correspondent writes articles about TDs dail speeches and sends them to local media who print them

Oireachtas Correspondent writes 'articles' about TDs speeches and sends to them Local Media each week who publish them. He collates and reformats Oireachtas speeches into articles for publication in local/regional newspapers. Another Oireachtas correspsondent does similar with audio clips for radio stations.

This is rewrite of a thread I started on Politics.ie, thanks to user reckless who dug up a bit of key info.

Local Media Reports, Houses of the Oireachtas

Local Media Reports
Each week the Oireachtas Correspondent reviews what members from a particular constituency have said in the Dáil, Seanad and in Oireachtas committees and compiles newspaper reports based on these contributions. These reports are sent to local and regional newspapers in an article format highlighting the contribution of members of the Oireachtas from the previous week of proceedings.

These articles will be listed by the constituencies that the relevant newspapers cover and sometimes will also be listed by interest area where a magazine of a specific interest carries the reports. Articles will remain on the Oireachtas website for a 10 week period before being removed.

On this page you will find reports, which, are compiled by an independent, impartial journalist on behalf of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The reports are put up on the Oireachtas website in categories by constituency or by subject, week by week and then taken down every few months as new weeks are put up. (though the you can still access the old by following the url format).

You can see an example of it in the Corkman, Overstaffed HSE is inefficient claims TD Collins - News - Tim Ryan - Corkman.ie and the version on the Oireachtas website I archived.

Some say this has always gone on, that papers often regurgitate party political speeches, yes this may have always happened, but this looks worse for local newspapers, not only are they just repeating what just one local politician said they can't even rewrite the speech for themselves? two degrees away from journalism.

Oireachtas Correspondent
The articles are often bylined the Oireachtas Correspondent, that person is Tim Ryan a public affairs consultant and journalist. See some of his bylines Tim Ryan, Oireachtas correspondent.

Hayes seeks automatic medical cards for cancer sufferersThe Nationalist.
€1.6m spent and still no sign of Cromane pier Kerryman.ie.

This guy says he does public relation for lobbies TDs and Senators on behalf of companies and various organisations _and_ also puts articles in newspaper across the country paid for by the Oireachtas.

In June 2011 Tim was appointed to the Government’s High Level Group on Business Regulation. In February 2012 he was appointed a Director of the Private Residential Tenancies Board by the Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government, Phil Hogan TD

Apparently he was editor of the E-Dail Digest in 2000, a preview of what was happening in the dail that week online The Irish Times - Sat, Jun 03, 2000 - Getting round the Dail

He writes for and edits the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers magazine

In this article he quotes a speech about the PRTB (Private Residential Tenancies Board) of which he is a board member. And all the other times

Radio
Ken Murray does pre-packaged news reports for radio, (having done them for INN), seems he does the same for the EU Linkedin

Currently providing weekly Irish parliamentary round-ups for commercial radio stations in Ireland.

Ireland Correspondent for Radioec.com providing EU Commission news for public and commercial radio stations in the Republic of Ireland.

Ken Murray is the Oireachtas Correspondent for local radio,eg on LMFM who don't say who he works for, the Oireachtas.

Ken Murray, our Parliamentary Correspondent brings us the 1st Oireachtas report of 2013 featuring our local public representatives#MREADE

— LMFM RADIO (@LMFMRADIO) January 18, 2013

An example of Oireachtas Correspondent Radio report on the Michael Reade show LMFM at 38 minutes (mp3)

...where he just talks about audio excerpts from the Oireachtas, where Louth/Meath TDs talk.

Jan 18th Oireachtas roundup doesn't mention who he's working for, the broadcasters says "our Oireacthas correspondent".

Tenders
Two tenders for Oireachtas correspondents for radio and newspaper.

Oireachtas Radio Correspondent

Short description
2012/1024 - Professional Correspondent Service to Provide Local Radio Reports for the Houses of the Oireachtas
Detailed descriptionThe Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (“the Commission”) wishes to engage Correspondent Services to edit and present live and pre-recorded relevant information reports for local radio from Leinster House.

Oireachtas local newspaper correspondent

Short description
2012/1025 - Professional Correspondent Services to edit and present relevant coverage of proceedings of the Houses of the Oireachtas to Local/Regional Newspapers in Ireland
Detailed description
Professional Correspondent Services to edit and present relevant coverage of proceedings of the Houses of the Oireachtas to Local/Regional Newspapers in Ireland. The intention is that the Oireachtas will pay for this service on the basis of per article published.

found via Tender opportunities for journalists

Oireachtas PR man Mark Mulqueen says they've had Oireachtas correspondents since 2007.

Declaraion

Reckless found this in the Kilkenny Reporter - 23 Jan 2013

'At The Reporter we are delighted to welcome new columnist Tim Ryan
who will keep our readers up to date with happenings in the Oireachtas'

a self promotional freesheet doesn't mention they don't pay him to write these, he is paid by the Oireachtas, they pretend they've hired a columinst.

Is this clear? NO, there needs to be a clearer form of words for what he does, as he reproduces Dail speeches.

Papers

list of some of the papers that use the oireachtas correspondent

Newspaper	Publisher
The Evening Echo	Thomas Crosbie Holdings
The Irish Farmers Journal	The Irish Farmers Journal
Donegal Democrat	Johnston Publishing Ltd.
The Liffey Champion	The Liffey Champion
Connacht Tribune	Connacht Tribune
The Kilkenny People	Johnston Publishing Ltd.
Tullamore Tribune	Alpha Newspaper Group
Connaught Telegraph	Connaught Telegraph
Tipperary Star	Johnston Publishing Ltd.
Waterford News & Star	Thomas Crosbie Holdings
The Evening Herald	Independent News and Media
Kilkenny Reporter	Kilkenny Reporter
Corkman	Independent News and Media
The Southern Star	O'Regan family
Limerick Leader	Johnston Publishing Ltd.
The Nationalist	Johnston Publishing Ltd.
Munster Express	Munster Express Ltd.
Kerryman	Independent News and Media

Radio Stations
LMFM

Update
Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Minutes of Meetings of 21 January 2014

6. REPORT ON COVERAGE OF OIREACHTAS BUSINESS

The Commission noted the information note provided on the local newspaper and
radio station service. It was agreed that the Communications Unit would continue
to pursue local radio stations to broad en the base of stations that broadcast
the weekly report until Easter, at which point the continuation of the service
will be reviewed. In relation to local newspapers, it was agreed to continue to
rollout the delivery of the weekly reports to the regional areas not currently
serviced in line with demand

I don't think there is massive conflict here but it should be made more clear in print and on radio what he is doing and who he is doing it for.

will it continue, should it?

Can you tell me in the comments any more radio stations that use this service.

Independents Together, Networks, Movements, Unions or Parties?

another new 'movement' in the register of political parties 'Independents For Equality Movement' Mick Wallace TD Register-of-Political-Parties-3-April-2014 (doc) put in register on 4rd of April

Local Election Launch- Horse and Hound, Ballinaboola, : mickwallace Candidates for Co. Wexford, Independents for Equality Movement Launching the local election campaign of four people around Wexford Facebook event

There is also the Independents Network

Independents' Network | An Online Hub for Independent Politicians in Ireland with Catherine Murphy TD and Thomas Pringle TD, Finian McGrath, John Halligan TD Marian Hawkin MEP ( and Patrick Nulty) Thomas Pringle T.D. -

The Independents’ Network aims to encourage and assist independents to contest at Local Government level in order to capture the energy of the large numbers of people who are very active at a community level and who can bring those community values into the political arena.

dedicated P.ie thread independents-network-online-hub-independent-candidates-launches-sunday-march-30

Independents Together

Independents Together formerly the irish citizens party IrishCitizensParty

Independents Together (formerly Irish Citizens Party) Synopsis of social and economic policies | irishcitizensparty

IT will act as an umbrella for Independent candidates on issues, such as, a better health service, urban disadvantage, unemployed, equality in education, negative equity victims, rural issues, disabilities, small and medium business enterprises, Banking, protecting our constitution, etc. Candidates representing general issues are also welcome. IT is not hung up on political ideologies of left, right or centre.

which means they are right wing/libertarian.

National Independent Party who used to be Slí Níos Fearr who I've only seen registered as third party Register of Third Parties - Standards in Public Office Commission not on the Party register
National Independent Party

To reclaim the current political landscape for the betterment and protection of Irish Citizens. To sponsor social responsibility, reward enterprise and promote education amongst its people and not least, to reform the governance of the current Republic for the wellbeing of this country’s inhabitants, with due regard for health, opportunity and security. Mission and Vision | National Independent Party

dedicated P.ie thread national-independent-party-new-party-ireland

Direct Democracy Ireland Leader Jaan Van de Ven with Ben Gilroy, Raymond Whitehead
Tom D'Arcy says he's stand in the Euros constant-markievicz-bloke-standing-ddi-eu-elections

...empowers sovereign citizens with the ability to call a referenda on any issue (initiative). This creates a platform of direct consent for participatory decision making on a local and national level.

there's also the Stop The Water Tax -Socialist Party now officially in political party register but strangely there is also Socialist Party registered separately with the same details apart from the name

there is also the Anti Austerity Alliance 'not a party' Anti Austerity Alliance

and Thomas Broughan TD's finally picked a name and registered it Social Democratic Union Tommy Broughan
Former Labour TD launching new 'political movement' Irish Independent

The People’s Candidates

The People’s Candidates are all those individuals who have committed to THE PEOPLE’S CONTRACT and allowed their names to go before the people for election. THE PEOPLE’S CONTRACT provides the basis for the empowerment of the people, seperate from any particular organisation that individual candidates may be associated with, if any

there is Seamus Healy's Workers and Unemployed Action Group with his cohort of councillors Workers_and_Unemployed_Action_Group who were in ULA but left.

the United Left Alliance of SP and SWP (and WUAG and former labour) only worked during a once in century election and would never work long term.

Clare Daly TD, Joan Collins, Pat Dunne, Cllr and Declan Bree are now in a party called United Left no longer an alliance with the SWP or PBPA or anyone else?

I see independence as strength, that means forced unity is a problem, unless your right wing and your happy to follow along like a sheep, left wingers get mocked for splitting, not bad in my eyes cos I do't like my leftwingers with too much power either.

but anyway aslong as these are just loose alliances and advice and shared resources for candidates that's fine, most of these groups don't want a whip.

its seems if you want a group name associated with multiple candidates you have to register it as Party

Catherine Murphy put in private members bill so you can be put down on the ballot as Independent rather the negative non-party.
Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2014 [PMB] (Number 24 of 2014)

Bill entitled an Act to amend the Electoral Act of 1992 to enable candidates for election who are not members of a political party to identify themselves as independent on a ballot paper and to provide for related matters

no sign of the Reform Alliance registering as 3rd Party Register of Third Parties - Standards in Public Office Commission but there are other groups there United Left Alliance - Deregistered as third party but there is now a party under the name United Left.Who are the "Alliance for Freedom and Democracy"?

there also still from previous elections Fis Nua, Senior Solidarity Party Dublin, Eirirgi, Letterkenny Residents Party, People before Party Alliance [SWP], South Kerry Independent Alliance and the Catholic Democrats (The National Party) and as Third Parties registered for 2014 Libertas

The Christian Solidarity Party aren't on the Party Register anymore, it was noted that they were cross campaign with Direct Democracy Ireland
christian-solidarity-party at the irishelectionliterature blog.


dedicated P.ie thread Can a new Left Grouping/Party emerge ?


Register of Political Parties, Houses of the Oireachtas updating regularily these days