The Ditch (2025)

22/08/2023

SIPO is investigating electronic payments to Leo Varadkar and his explanation as to why he hasn’t publicly declared them in his annual declaration of donations. The ethics commission is also asking the taoiseach if people he claimed to have made donations on behalf of others have registered with SIPO, as is legally required.

These payments exceed €600 – the maximum sum TDs can receive from individual donors without publicly declaring. The Ditch reported last week that SIPO has asked the taoiseach why he didn’t declare a 2018 donation from Rossa Fanning, with Varadkar claiming the attorney-general had been reimbursed for at least part of the payment – which would bring it below the publicly declarable threshold.

It has now emerged SIPO is enquiring whether Varadkar is aware if the people he claimed to have made donations and were later reimbursed by others – legally known as intermediaries – have adhered to legal requirements for such donations. “Can you further confirm that the obligations on an intermediary… have been followed in each case?” wrote SIPO to Varadkar this May, asking him to “provide a detailed explanation”.

SIPO is investigating electronic payments to Leo Varadkar and his explanation as to why he hasn’t declared them.

17/08/2023

SIPO has opened an inquiry into undeclared donations received by taoiseach Leo Varadkar after it emerged he misled the commission during a 2019 probe.

The state ethics commission was forced to write to Varadkar again this week after he ignored correspondence it sent three months earlier seeking answers on undeclared donations – which include a payment from attorney-general Rossa Fanning.

Another two of the donations are from PR company Edelman. SIPO told the taoiseach this week that Edelman has contradicted Varadkar’s explanation as to why he didn’t declare its 2018 and 2022 donations, which both exceeded the legal limit of €1,000.

Leo Varadkar misled SIPO during a 2019 probe. A fresh inquiry has begun.

15/08/2023

Ex-taoiseach Enda Kenny, ex-jobs minister Richard Bruton and ex-tánaiste Eamon Gilmore took credit for almost 100 bogus jobs – which were to supposedly be delivered by a controversial, discontinued IDA scheme – in one 2013 announcement.

The Fine Gael-Labour government that came to power in 2011 and that would, three years later, run an ill-advised reelection campaign that implored voters to “keep the recovery going”, had intensified the post-crash austerity of the previous Fianna Fáil-led coalition. Announcements of jobs, which may or may not be delivered, became a feature of government’s PR campaign during these years of austerity.

With these particular jobs, RTÉ, Newstalk, the Irish Times and Silicon Republic were among the outlets that provided uncritical coverage of the jobs that never materialised.

Enda Kenny, Richard Bruton and Eamon Gilmore took credit for almost 100 bogus jobs in one 2013 announcement.

11/08/2023

The IDA attempted to block the release of the number of jobs created by a much-touted government scheme and tried to argue that publishing the figures would hurt the state.

The organisation twice refused to release the details but the Information Commissioner ruled against the IDA and has released the figures to The Ditch – which will report on just how successful the scheme was in the coming weeks.

During the appeals process the IDA tried to introduce new grounds for blocking access to the records, saying that releasing the number of jobs would harm the state’s interests.

The IDA tried to argue that publishing the number of jobs created by a government scheme would hurt the state.

08/08/2023

Housing minister Darragh O’Brien won’t explain why his ministerial mileage claim for August 2022 isn’t supported by his official diary.

Though O’Brien claimed for more than 2,800 kilometres, his diary suggests he drove less than half that – just 1,000 kilometres.

Housing minister Darragh O’Brien won’t explain why his ministerial mileage claim for August 2022 isn’t supported by his official diary.

28/07/2023

Fianna Fáil minister of state Niall Collins claimed he drove more than 2,000 kilometres for ministerial work in August 2020 – with the country five months into the Covid-19 pandemic and the Dáil on its summer break.

This is the third unusually high driving expenses claim submitted by Collins and reported by The Ditch, as well as the third claim the Limerick County TD refuses to address.

His party colleague and fellow junior minister Thomas Byrne has insisted his 1,800-kilometre for the same month is correct, while arts minister Catherine Martin has repaid €1,140 she said she claimed mistakenly.

The country was five months into the Covid-19 pandemic and the Dáil was on its summer break.

25/07/2023

Fianna Fáil junior minister Thomas Byrne has insisted one of his mileage claims is correct – despite his diary only accounting for a fraction of what he claimed.

Though the minister of state at the Department of Tourism told The Ditch his August 2020 mileage claim is “in accordance” with his ministerial work that month, he claimed for almost 1,800 kilometres while his diary suggests he drove just 300 kilometres.

He declined to comment further on the trips he took that came to this total.

Fianna Fáil junior minister Thomas Byrne has insisted one of his mileage claims is correct – despite his diary only accounting for a fraction of what he claimed.

20/07/2023

An international working group, in a report that highlights the importance of western technology to Vladimir Putin’s military, has identified Irish parts in Russian weapons used in the invasion of Ukraine.

The Ditch – in March 2022 – reported that Timoney Technology had supplied parts for armoured vehicles deployed by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. The Meath-based company, in 2012, had announced a deal with a Russian automotive company part-owned by both the Russian state and a personal friend of Putin.

Timoney Technology has now been named in a report published earlier this month by a Stanford University-backed international working group.

An international working group has identified Irish parts in Russian weapons used in the invasion of Ukraine.

19/07/2023

Having claimed to have driven more than 8,000 kilometres in three months when the Dáil wasn’t sitting, Fianna Fáil junior minister Seán Fleming has denied submitting inaccurate ministerial driving expenses claims.

He won’t however explain why his ministerial diary accounts for less than 1,000 of these claimed kilometres. One of these months is August 2020 – when government had introduced special lockdown restrictions for Fleming’s home county of Laois – and the minister of state at the Department of Foreign Affairs claimed for 2,358 kilometres.

Seán Fleming won’t however explain why his ministerial diary accounts for less than 1,000 of these claimed kilometres.

17/07/2023

Fianna Fáil minister of state Niall Collins is refusing to address a second unusually high driving expenses claim – where he said he drove almost 3,000 kilometres in a month when the Dáil wasn’t sitting and his diary suggests just 170 kilometres of driving for ministerial work.

A spokesperson for arts minister Catherine Martin on Friday, after being questioned by The Ditch, said the Green Party deputy leader had repaid €1,140 in wrongly claimed expenses. This claim was also for August when the Dáil was in recess and wasn’t corroborated by her ministerial diary.

Though Martin addressed the inaccurate claim and said it had been “rectified”, Collins has refused to address his August 2022 claim and now his August 2021 claim – neither of which are backed up by his official diary.

He said he drove almost 3,000 kilometres in a month when the Dáil wasn’t sitting and his diary suggests just 170 kilometres of driving.

14/07/2023

Green party minister arts minister Catherine Martin says her unusually high, tax-free, ministerial driving expenses claim for August 2021, a month when the Dáil wasn’t sitting and her diary showed only a handful of ministerial engagements, has been "rectified".

Martin’s ministerial diary for the month suggests just less than 200 kilometres of driving while her mileage claim was for almost 4,500 kilometres.

Her party leader and environment minister, Eamon Ryan, didn’t claim any ministerial mileage expenses in the same period.
Though Martin claimed more than €2,300 for ministerial driving expenses for August 2021 alone, all but seven days in her diary for the month had no entries for events or meetings related to her office.

When questioned by The Ditch, a spokesperson in Martin's department said this was down to "an administrative error", which has now "been rectified".

It remains unclear whether the incorrectly claimed expenses have been repaid.

Arts minister Catherine Martin says the matter has "been rectified" after being questioned by The Ditch.

12/07/2023

Fianna Fáil junior minister Niall Collins won’t explain his inordinately high, tax-free, ministerial driving expenses claim for August 2022 – when the Dáil was in recess and his diary showed few ministerial engagements.

For Collins’s claim for the month to accurately reflect the ministerial work he carried out, he would’ve had to have driven more than twice as much as the average taxi driver in Ireland. His total claim of more than €20,000 last year suggests the same.

While his ministerial diary for August accounts for just over 900 kilometres of driving – he claimed for more than 6,000 kilometres’ worth. The diaries of at least two of Collins’s ministerial colleagues match what they received in expenses.

Niall Collins won’t explain his inordinately high driving expenses claim for August 2022 – when the Dáil was in recess.

The Ditch