The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010 by Griffith College

Griffith College Dublin Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications

The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

s s e r p

Written by students of the Journalism and Media Communications Faculty, Griffith College Dublin Edited by Barry Finnegan

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Layout and design by Alan Gill

The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

CONT ENTS T HE MONEY SECT ION Cutbacks, Bailouts, & Tax Rises

Page

Mental Health of the Nation

Back to the Old Education System

Ending Homelessness

National Learning Network sees Recession-linked Rise in Youth Mental Illness

Dolphin House Contemplates Uncertain Future

State Services Could Cost 21% Extra

Anglo Closure Costs Exaggerated By Government

For those who step forward in search of mental health services, there is very little out there. Sophie Kelly investigates.

Cutbacks to classroom Special Needs Assistants wreaking havoc in our schools. Grace Fox investigates.

Stephen Duffy goes undercover begging on the streets for a day and investigates the rhetoric around the government’s radical plan to end long term homelessness by the end of the year.

Cutbacks in funding for mental health services are leaving young people vulnerable says NLN source. James Ward investigates.

A year ago Dolphin House in Dublin’s south inner city hit all the headlines when criminals placed a hoax bomb at a residents’ meeting. Now its future is still uncertain as plans for its redevelopment have stalled. John Dorney investigates.

Decision by the European Court of Justice means Ireland will be forced to charge VAT on state services such as waste collection, car parks and sports facilities. John O’Donnell investigates.

Analysis of the latest financial results undermines Government claims of ¤70 billion wind-down costs. Joseph Morgan investigates.

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

T HE REGULAT ION SECT ION Prostitution, Drugs & Charities

Page

Modern Irish Prostitution

Headshop Reality, Media Reality

Head Shops: Are We Using Our Heads?

Government Fails To Regulate Fake ‘Charity’ Clothes Collectors

Pandemic In A Time Of Crisis

RSA Launches Driver Fatigue Awareness Campaign

Why are our country’s legislators allowing a boom in online prostitution services? Katie Archer investigates how the oldest profession is adapting to thoroughly modern telecommunications tools.

We hear about it every day, it’s in every paper we open, every radio station we tune into. There’s no escaping, the never ending presence of head shops. Darren Cleary investigates by surveying 100 third level college students.

Suzanne Fitzpatrick talks to the medicinal and organic chemistry Course Director at Trinity College Dublin and investigates difficulties the government will find in attempting to ban specific ‘legal highs’.

The scam of door-to-door clothes collection is costing genuine charities ¤1.2m a year. Sarah Canning investigates where our good will is going and how we are so easily lead.

Allegations are growing that undue influence on the World Health Organisation to hastily declare the H1N1 global pandemic came from pharmaceutical corporations for profit-motivated reasons. Lidia Okorokova investigates.

Government failure to regulate industry leaves public at serious risk from fatigued taxi drivers. Laura Delaney investigates.

Contents

T HE INFRAST RUCTURE SECT ION

Incineration, Planning & Transport

Page

Student Travel Discount? Not

Home Sweet Dam

Dioxin Levels Set To Rise

Uniquely in Europe, Irish second and third level students need to buy a card to prove that they are students in order to get discounts on public transport. Gina Karoline Dalen investigates.

Mark O’Flynn investigates the November 2009 Cork city floods and finds the ESB, Cork City Council and property developers partly to blame.

When incinerators were being constructed all over Europe, Ireland remained critical. Now that their construction has ceased in the USA and slowed in Europe, a waste combustion plant is being built on Dublin‘s Poolbeg peninsula. Jennifer Kober investigates.

The investigative journalism in this book carried out by students of Griffith College’s Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications was submitted in April and May 2010 as part of their course assignment work.

Mental Health of the Nation For those who step forward in search of mental health services, there is very little out there. Sophie Kelly investigates.

ental health is something that we all have to deal with regardless of who we are, where we come from or how much money we have in the bank. For us to be able to function, maintain relationships and contribute to society, our mental health must be intact. However, at some point in our lives we all experience, or know someone experiencing, mental health difficulties. The stigma which has surrounded mental health for too long now stops so many of us from seeking help. For those of us who do step forward in search of help we may find there is very little of it out there.

In January 2006, the Government accepted recommendations contained in an independent report entitled ‘Vision for Change’ (VFC) as the basis for a future mental health policy. Four years have passed since then and very little, if anything has been achieved. Ireland’s suicide rate has continually grown over the last thirty years. In the early eighties, figures never went over the 300 mark but the nineties and noughties saw record highs of over 500 and the numbers have never fallen back down below 400. With such high stats, you would think that the Government of a democratic republic would be pumping millions into the mental health care system resulting in better hospital conditions for both inpatients and outpatients, slashing waiting lists and boosting the amount of services available up and down the country. Instead, this year they have allocated a measly 5.4% of the overall health budget to the mental health sector. The HSE Service Plan 2010 states that the spend for the Irish health service has been cut by €668 million to €14.070 billion. By EU standards, Ireland should be spending at least

Mental Health of the Nation, Kelly

12% on it, not 5.4%. Suicide prevention campaigner and Fine Gael TD, Dan Neville, has criticised the spending cuts. He said, “we spend ten times more money on road safety measures than on suicide prevention despite the fact that more people kill themselves than die on the roads”. However the Minister for Equality, Disability and Mental Health, John Moloney, maintains that the VFC is his main priority. Speaking at the official opening of the Centre for Living in Blackrock in January of this year, Mr. Moloney said, “the event is a reflection of They found patients were the great changes that are taking place in living in “appalling conditions the delivery of mental … toilets with no privacy, paint health services. The peeling, mould in showers, perception of an institutional style mental broken furniture, ill-fitting health service, standdoors, cramped dormitories, a ing in isolation and smell of urine, poor ventilation closed from the rest of the community is and a bare drab environment thankfully a thing of were clearly evident” the past as we move the delivery of services from a predominantly hospital-based to a community based service.” But just a month later, conditions in treatment facilities around the country were been deemed “inhumane” by health inspectors acting on behalf of the Mental Health Commission, the State’s mental health watchdog. They found patients were living in “appalling conditions” and that it was “difficult to convey the extent of the dilapidation. … Long corridors in poor conditions, toilets with no privacy, paint peeling, mould in showers, broken furniture, ill-fitting doors, cramped dormitories, a

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

smell of urine, poor ventilation and a bare drab environment were clearly evident.” When contacted, the HSE said they were unable to comment on the report published by the Mental Health Commission for the time being. There are more than 60 psychiatric hospitals or in-patient facilities in the state which accommodate about 2,700 people with mental health problems. Of this, about 15 facilities are old psychiatric institutions from the Victorian era which health authorities have been planning to close for the past twenty years. The Commission has been calling for the closure of these facilities for some time and have welcomed plans announced by Minister Moloney to invest €43 million to help modernise the sector. This money had been raised from the sale of lands from psychiatric hospitals in recent years. But many campaigners seem sceptical as to whether this plan will come in to effect. One woman I spoke to whose son is being treated for depression said she found it hard to believe: “Considering similar plans have been made to shut these institutions down by two previous ministers responsible for mental health, I am very cautious in welcoming Minister Moloney’s proposals”. The Irish Government are also failing the children of the state who are living with mental health difficulties. In late 2009, more than thirty organisations united to form what is known as the Children’s Mental Health Coalition and are urgently calling on the Government to reform the mental health care system for children and young people under the age of eighteen. The Coalition believe that the problem is that children have the right to enjoy positive mental health but that it is not fully respected in Ireland. Children and their parents are forced to endure exceptionally long waiting lists, lack of services regionally and a lack of early intervention which may prevent issues from worsening. Minister Moloney has acknowledged that for young people, mental health is a great concern. “Youth is a very vulnerable time and it is a time when 75% of mental illness emerges. The Mental Health Commission

Mental Health of the Nation, Kelly

has recently issued an addendum to the Code of Practice relating to the admission of children under the Mental Health Act 2001 which seeks to ensure that by 1st December 2011, no child under 18 years will be admitted to an adult psychiatric unit.” However, in the meantime in-patient capacity is just thirty beds for children and adolescents: ten in Galway, 12 in Dublin and eight beds in Cork. Figures for the year 2008 show nearly 250 children were treated in adult inpatient facilities because there were no children or adolescent places available. Two twenty bed-units are under construction at Bessboro, Cork and Merlin Park, Galway with completion expected this year but considering the economic climate and drastic budget cutbacks its unclear if there will be funding to staff and cater for these beds. A trend has developed that in times of recession, suicide rates have tended to rise. Those who have lost their jobs in the last two years are at a greater risk of self harming or dying by suicide. Experts say the risks for those who are the least educated are even greater and so it is vital for governments to protect those who are vulnerable by providing safety nets and support programmes to help people cope with redundancy and how to get back to work. The NGO programme, CALL, is a listening and information service for people in County Wexford who need to talk through their problems or find information on services that may help. The service is available seven nights per week from 7pm - 10.30pm. It was set up after a number of family suicides took place took place in Co. Wexford. In one case it has been alleged a family member tried to get in touch with social workers from the HSE but because it was a weekend, could not get in touch with anyone to talk to. Marie-Louise Byrne, spokesperson from CALL says offering emotional suvpport and information/ literature on mental health and related matters to people is the key to preventing statistics from rising further. “We receive calls from so many different people from different backgrounds.

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

Some issues are more serious than others but everyone who has made the call are suffering from some sort of stress or. Our trained volunteers are there to offer a listening ear and refer those in need to services in their area who can help,” she says. Marie-Louise admits funding is a constant worry: “Every year when the Budget comes around, we wait with baited breath. It can be taken away or slashed. The funding we do get goes a long way but without the support and generosity of the volunteers who give up their evenings to take calls, this service would not exist.” From my research, I have seen many organisations are very much ready and willing to help reform the mental health care system. And certainly much has been done to try and improve the quality of life for those who are going through the system. But in a time where fear and uncertainty is prevalent in our everyday lives because of the country’s financial situation, the government must stop and ask themselves how can they help those who are being left behind?Gael TD, Dan Neville, has criticised the spending cuts. He said, “we spend ten times more money on road safety measures than on suicide prevention despite the fact that more people kill themselves than die on the roads”. However the Minister for Equality, Disability and Mental Health, John Moloney, maintains that the VFC is his main priority. Speaking at the official opening of the Centre for Living in Blackrock in January of this year, Mr. Moloney said, “the event is a reflection of the great changes that are taking place in the delivery of mental health services. The perception of an institutional style mental health service, standing in isolation and closed from the rest of the community is thankfully a thing of the past as we move the delivery of services from a predominantly hospital-based to a community based service.” But just a month later, conditions in treatment facilities around the country were been deemed “inhumane” by health inspectors acting on behalf of the Mental Health Commission, the State’s mental health watchdog. They found patients were living in “appalling conditions” and that

Mental Health of the Nation, Kelly

it was “difficult to convey the extent of the dilapidation. … Long corridors in poor conditions, toilets with no privacy, paint peeling, mould in showers, broken furniture, ill-fitting doors, cramped dormitories, a smell of urine, poor ventilation and a bare drab environment were clearly evident.” When contacted, the HSE said they were unable to comment on the report published by the Mental Health Commission for the time being. There are more than 60 psychiatric hospitals or in-patient facilities in the state which accommodate about 2,700 people with mental health problems. Of this, about 15 facilities are old psychiatThe funding we do get goes a ric institutions from the Victorian era long way, but without the which health authorisupport and generosity of the ties have been planvolunteers who give up their ning to close for the past twenty years. The evenings to take calls, this Commission has been service would not exist. calling for the closure of these facilities for some time and have welcomed plans announced by Minister Moloney to invest €43 million to help modernise the sector. This money had been raised from the sale of lands from psychiatric hospitals in recent years. But many campaigners seem sceptical as to whether this plan will come in to effect. One woman I spoke to whose son is being treated for depression said she found it hard to believe: “Considering similar plans have been made to shut these institutions down by two previous ministers responsible for mental health, I am very cautious in welcoming Minister Moloney’s proposals”. The Irish Government are also failing the children of the state who

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

are living with mental health difficulties. In late 2009, more than thirty organisations united to form what is known as the Children’s Mental Health Coalition and are urgently calling on the Government to reform the mental health care system for children and young people under the age of eighteen. The Coalition believe that the problem is that children have the right to enjoy positive mental health but that it is not fully respected in Ireland. Children and their parents are forced to endure exceptionally long waiting lists, lack of services regionally and a lack of early intervention which may prevent issues from worsening. Minister Moloney has acknowledged that for young people, mental health is a great concern. “Youth is a very vulnerable time and it is a time when 75% of mental illness emerges. The Mental Health Commission has recently issued an addendum to the Code of Practice relating to the admission of children under the Mental Health Act 2001 which seeks to ensure that by 1st December 2011, no child under 18 years will be admitted to an adult psychiatric unit.” However, in the meantime in-patient capacity is just thirty beds for children and adolescents: ten in Galway, 12 in Dublin and eight beds in Cork. Figures for the year 2008 show nearly 250 children were treated in adult inpatient facilities because there were no children or adolescent places available. Two twenty bed-units are under construction at Bessboro, Cork and Merlin Park, Galway with completion expected this year but considering the economic climate and drastic budget cutbacks its unclear if there will be funding to staff and cater for these beds. A trend has developed that in times of recession, suicide rates have tended to rise. Those who have lost their jobs in the last two years are at a greater risk of self harming or dying by suicide. Experts say the risks for those who are the least educated are even greater and so it is vital for governments to protect those who are vulnerable by providing safety nets and support programmes to help people cope with redundancy and how to get back to work. The NGO programme, CALL, is a listening and information service

Mental Health of the Nation, Kelly

for people in County Wexford who need to talk through their problems or find information on services that may help. The service is available seven nights per week from 7pm - 10.30pm. It was set up after a number of family suicides took place took place in Co. Wexford. In one case it has been alleged a family member tried to get in touch with social workers from the HSE but because it was a weekend, could not get in touch with anyone to talk to. Marie-Louise Byrne, spokesperson from CALL says offering emotional support and information/ literature on mental health and related matters to people is the key to preventing statistics from rising further. “We receive calls from so many different people from different backgrounds. Some issues are more serious than others but everyone who has made the call are suffering from some sort of stress or anxiety. Our trained volunteers are there to offer a listening ear and refer those in need to services in their area who can help,” she says. Marie-Louise admits funding is a constant worry: “Every year when the Budget comes around, we wait with baited breath. It can be taken away or slashed. The funding we do get goes a long way but without the support and generosity of the volunteers who give up their evenings to take calls, this service would not exist.” From my research, I have seen many organisations are very much ready and willing to help reform the mental health care system. And certainly much has been done to try and improve the quality of life for those who are going through the system. But in a time where fear and uncertainty is prevalent in our everyday lives because of the country’s financial situation, the government must stop and ask themselves how can they help those who are being left behind?

Back To The Old Education System Cutbacks to classroom Special Needs Assistants wreaking havoc in our schools. Grace Fox investigates.

pecial Needs Assistants (SNAs) give assistance to thousands of pupils with physical, emotional and other difficulties such as hearing or sight impairment, attention deficit disorder or autism. SNAs have had their hours cut drastically. This is causing severe change and disruption to special needs children, the teachers and other pupils in the classroom. Our education system has taken a huge hit in the latest budget and the effects are being felt already. It seems that those being affected the most are the vulnerable, and Special Needs Assistant (SNA) Lynn Jennings* agrees. “The government is making their main cutbacks on the education and the healthcare system; neither children nor the sick can defend themselves,” says Jennings. Lynn has had her hours cut by a third and has been told that they will be halved again by the end of the school year. Currently Lynn works with a special needs child who has serious learning and behavioural difficulties. “I have to learn to cut back on spending, I have three children of my own and it’s not easy but we’ll manage, it’s the child [with special needs which she assists] that I am most concerned about and what these cuts are going to do to her future,” says Jennings. “My absence in the classroom is causing harsh consequences on the child and the teacher. The teacher is being forced to isolate the child

Back To T he Old Education System, Fox

from the class due to her behaviour and this is resulting in a reversal in the distance the child has come in the last two years with me.” “It is not the child’s fault or the teacher’s; she has no choice, she has to take the needs of the other 28 pupils into account.” Lynn feels that the cutbacks in special needs assistants should have been a last resort for the government and that other cuts should have been made instead. “It is impossible for the teachers to keep up to speed with SNA’s give assistance to thouthe curriculum and the hormones of their sands of pupils with physical, class students without emotional and other difficulties the support and assissuch as hearing or sight impairtance of an SNA,” says Jennings. ment, attention deficit disorder The director of or autism. Special Needs Education at the Portobello Institute says that, “the role of an SNA is paramount to ensuring teachers get the right support when providing differentiated learning in an inclusive classroom”. The reductions and cutbacks in SNA’s is going to put the Irish education system back five steps to the time when special needs students were lost in the system. Lynn Jennings has been told by the Department that they would like her special needs child to be self sufficient and independent of her SNA within the next two years. “If they enforce that I will be surprised if the child sits her Junior Certificate. Many of these children don’t have the support behind them at home and they are going to be lost in mainstream education on their

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

own. My child has come such a long way and it will kill me to see her progress go backwards, ” Jennings admits. Philip Mullen, the IMPACT trade union official who deals with SNA staff said that once the decision was made in 1993 to mainstream special needs students, a system of SNA’s was introduced. Children have been able to reach their education potential and have been encouraged to do so. Now we run It is inevitable that the ones the risk of taking this who will be affected most by away from them and these cuts are the special needs putting the special needs students to the children themselves back of the classroom again. Lynn recalls the poor treatment of special needs children when she was a child: “I used to sit beside a child in school who had very poor hygiene and no way of learning, I met that girl recently at a bus shelter, begging. We cannot allow these children to get lost in the system anymore.” The official duties of the SNA, as laid out by the Department of Education, include preparing and tidying the classroom, assisting the child in typing and writing, assisting the child at break times, assisting the teacher and engaging with the parents of the child. However SNA Lynn Jennings says that these duties are often abused and exploited by school principals. Lynn recalls several occasions in her first year of assisting where her skills and presence in the school were taken advantage of, to the detriment of her special needs child. “I was asked to clean the staff room, wash towels and prepare art displays for parents. On one occasion she [the principal] told my teacher

Back To T he Old Education System, Fox

to give me a bucket and brush when I got in and to go clean the toilets,” Jennings recalled. The department of education estimate savings of up to €7m. with these cutbacks so how can the government afford not to make them? Lynn suggests bringing in a system of ‘teacher assistants’ instead of the special needs assistants: “If we got teachers assistants for our junior and senior infants, it would eliminate the need for special needs assistants as the teacher’s assistant would be able to help manage the entire classroom and they would be able to see things that the teacher may not.” “It would save the government on assigning one SNA per special needs pupil as they would contribute with the entire classroom and also it would allow the special needs child to feel less isolated from the class.” It is inevitable that the ones who will be affected most by these cuts are the special needs children themselves. The Assistants will manage to keep going, the other pupils will cope and the teachers will adapt as they always have in the past. But the special needs children will not and this is unacceptable. * To protect anonymity the names of the SNAs have been changed.

Ending Homelessness Stephen Duffy goes undercover begging on the streets for a day and investigates the rhetoric around the government’s radical plan to end long term homelessness by the end of the year.

o experience what is an every day reality for an estimated 2,500 homeless people in Ireland, I spent a day living on the streets. The potential for that number of people on the streets to rise is very real, a recent EU survey found that more than a quarter of Irish households said there is a “high to moderate risk” of them falling behind on their mortgage within the next 12 months. So, at 5am on a cold March morning I put on my best ‘tatty’ clothes, got my sleeping bag, cardboard sign and the essential styrofoam cup and pitched up on West Mooreland St. in Dublin’s city centre outside an AIB branch and beside the €185 a-night Westin Hotel. I slotted in fast and quickly came to terms with my new situation. It’s amazing what you can accept as reality the closer you come towards it. It almost felt normal. Then the debilitating hopelessness set in, specifically that of not having a penny. Normally I’m privileged enough to not think twice about buying a coffee and as morning wore on I noticed more people on the move with their cup in hand, but I had no choice but to look on and salivate. Documents published by the Homeless Agency are central to the drive to stop homelessness in the capital and country wide. The first ‘A Key to the Door’ an action plan for 2007 to 2010, then the ‘Pathway to Home’ in 2009 targeting the acquisition of homes. These fall under the national strategy, A Way Home, which titles itself as a “way to tackle homelessness in Ireland 2008-2013”. Anyone casually interested in these

Ending Homelessness, Duffy

plans can soon get bogged down in the minefield presented by the sheer amount of plans and strategies. I put the suggestion to Lisa Kelleher of the Homeless Agency that the target to end homelessness by the end of the year was “too ambitious”. Her response was contradictory, “to be clear the target is not to eliminate homelessness, as this would not be possible, specifically our vision is by 2010, long-term homelessness and the need for people to sleep rough, will be eliminated in Dublin”. Despite all the plans, strategies and funds, homelessness is growing. Counting the exact figure is strewn with problems, but the last major survey conducted, counted 2,500 adults homeless in Ireland, which represented a 4% increase on the previous survey of 2005. Last year it was revealed by Dublin City Council management that 300 extra adults had registered as homeless in a three month period between March and July. Under the ‘Pathway to Home’ plan, one of the first shelters set for closure is Cedar House, by Eden Quay in Dublin’s centre. It is a shelter run by The Salvation Army which provides emergency shelter, methadone mainteOne of the first shelters set for nance and counselclosure (due to government ling. The closure was due to happen at the cutbacks) provides emergency end of April, however shelter, methadone mainteafter public demonnance and counselling strations, a motion was called by People Before Profit Councillor, Bríd Smith and Independent, Christy Burke, to stop the closure until adequate replacement services are in place. The motion was passed by Dublin City Council, but Cedar House is still earmarked to close by September with no

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word on a replacement as of yet. When questioned, Christy Burke said he would “raise the roof ” if the closure went ahead without replacement services ready. He said, “I remember the words at the meeting, they said ‘there is no way Cedar House will close down without an alternative in place’ and I’ll remind them of that come September”. The Minister responsible for housing, Michael Finneran, responded saying that even if the motion hadn’t been passed by Dublin City Council, Cedar House would “absolutely not” have closed down. Finneran went on to say “the local authorities and the Homeless Agency are responsible for formulating and implementing the reconfiguration of homeless services in Dublin”, and that “they have indicated that Cedar House will not be closed before September and then subject to the proviso about alternative accommodation”. Councillor Burke, who has held a consistent agenda on homelessness over the last 20 years, explained that as it’s an executive function the City Council, Manager John Tierney would be “scared witless” to be seen to go against a Ministerial order. That implies that should the Minister request such property to close, then it more than likely would, in accordance with the governmental target to end homelessness via the proposed redistribution routes. Homeless Agency communications officer, Lisa Kelleher, echoed Minister Finneran’s words on replacement services, “it is extremely important to state that no service will be decommissioned unless there is an alternative in place”, she said. Councillor Burke speculated that the reason for the quick closure of Cedar House was due to local businesses opposing an emergency shelter beside them. He said “they congregate (the persons that use Cedar House) but they harm nobody, it’s the nature of living with a lifestyle of addiction”, although he was also keen to point out that he had no proof that local businesses had a factor in its closing but a “strong inkling”. Last year the Homeless Agency succeeded in acquiring 700 tenancies

Ending Homelessness, Duffy

from a targeted 1000. In 2010 the target is to provide 1200 long term houses to homeless people. The Department of Environment has said it is working closely with the Homeless Agency to acquire homes and units in the private market that are vacant. The prime initiative in this drive to house the homeless is the Social Housing Leasing Scheme. Through the Ap“The day I spent a day living proved Housing Bodon the street wasn’t nice. One ies the Government thing I felt for certain is that will lease affordable houses to the most no one of sound body and mind needy at reduced rates. would wilfully choose to live like There is howthat. In 14 hours begging from ever somewhat of a discrepancy in the 6am I made ¤67.” amount of houses stated to be available and the number of people in need of housing. Minister Finneran when questioned said that “accommodation will be sourced from the significant stock of unsold units” which, when you consider that there is already tens of thousands of people on housing waiting lists, seems somewhat of a moot point. Over two clinics in the week of April 5th to the 11th Councillor Burke spoke to 22 people who are on the waiting list, who according to him “won’t have a house for another 4 or 5 years”, furthermore he went on to divulge that all Councillors have been instructed to allow more long term homeless people into available units. Does the system then create a scenario were a single mother who has been on the housing list for a number of years, could be over-looked by a homeless person? Burke agrees and states that “if we’re not careful we’ll end up with people jumping from the housing to the homeless list and

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

the creation of resentment”. Overall, Burke is supportive of the seemingly altruistic goal of ending homelessness but he feels there should be a ‘phasing’ out of emergency shelters instead of a sudden closure and believes that there will “always be a need for emergency services”. When I spoke to Minister Finneran over the phone he reiterated that there will be replacement services in place, but all utterances on the matter have been vague. If there are to be “200 temporary places” available, as Mr. Finneran has said, then one would think that action taken to get these places would have to be very soon if they are to be ready by the end of 2010. The day I spent a day living on the street wasn’t nice. One thing I felt for certain following it is that no one of sound body and mind would wilfully choose to live like that. In 14 hours begging from 6am I made €67, which was donated to the Simon community. For every couple of coins and good will thrown my way there was a look or remark that made me feel like the proverbial dirt on the accusers shoes. The lack of the common exchange of ‘morning’ not being reciprocated, alienated me towards feeling like I was half a person that day. I got talking to ‘Anthony’ from Derry who has been homeless in Dublin for around two years, I asked him how he felt when someone pretended not to hear him “you just get used to it, to be honest I don’t even notice it anymore,” was his response. The back-up alternative beds are at the core of the Pathway to Home plan and that is the area least transparent at the minute. At a practical level, emergency beds or lack thereof, could literally be the difference between life and death to members of society that are vulnerable to losing their homes. I believe that the Homeless Agency and Government in general have been brave with this initiative and have genuine intentions to end homelessness. Time will tell and our streets will tell if it’s been successful.

National Learning Network Sees Recession-linked Rise In Youth Mental Illness Cutbacks in funding for mental health services are leaving young people vulnerable says NLN source. James Ward investigates.

he average age of those accessing the National Learning Network’s (NLN) mental health rehabilitation courses has dropped significantly during the past two years. Over 80% of patients coming to the NLN through the HSE’s psychiatric services are now under the age of 30. According to a source at NLN, with whom I spoke under conditions of anonymity, in the past those accessing their services were mainly middle-aged people with long-term mental illnesses. Now increasing numbers of young people are presenting with disorders ranging from depression to schizophrenia. “More young people are coming through the system now compared with just a few years ago; the recession is a factor in many educated and skilled people in their teens, twenties and thirties developing mental illness,” the source told me. “Young people are vulnerable due to failures in service provision throughout the mental health system,” the source said. The source confirmed that HSE funding for the NLN’s rehabilitation courses has been cut by 8% per client. The NLN, a non-governmental organization, is an internationally recognised leader in the provision of high quality accredited training and specialised support to approximately 5,000 people annually “who

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

are distant from the labour market”, provides psychiatric rehabilitation courses funded by the HSE and vocational courses funded by FÁS. The source indicated that the NLN’s courses compensate for the lack of psychiatric rehabilitation within the HSE itself. The source stressed that the HSE’s mental health services are suffering across the board: “They can’t afford enough beds, nurses or psychiatrists; if you develop mental health difficulties in Ireland today and need care, you’re in trouble,” the source said. The source stated that places on the rehabilitation programs at NLN centres around the country are accessed by “very lucky people”. On a course with for example 12 places, “there are on-average 40 to 50 people just hoping for a place”. When patients are released from the psychiatric units in hospitals, they spend eight hours each day, Monday to Friday at local health centres. According to the source, patients attend local health centres just to stay in the system: “They sit around, with nothing to do; no activities, no rehabilitation; they are dreary places to be”. Recent cut-backs have ended the limited activities such centres once provided. Some patients attend local health centres for over a decade. The source told me: “When patients go without rehabilitation they deteriorate, become institutionalised, and can’t feel the benefits of our courses; they no loner have the ability to change”. A two year NLN rehabilitation course might lead to progression onto a vocational programme for reintegration to the workplace. However, the source indicated that due to a lack of vocational places, many are simply sent home without any further support. Initial access to psychiatric care is difficult due to bed shortages in regional hospitals with psychiatric health facilities. The source spoke of one regional psychiatric unit, with 20 male and female beds, including long-stay patients. The source indicated that as few as 12 beds are available there at any time for emergency cases. This stretched psychiatric unit has a catchment area covering six rural

National Learning Network Sees Recession-linked Rise ..., Ward

counties. The source believes that planned closures of regional psychiatric care facilities, such as St. Loman’s psychiatric hospital in Mullingar, will further damage this inadequate service. Due to bed shortages patients are kept for a maximum of one week. The source added: “Some will be discharged for weekends and “If you develop brought back in on Mondays; most will be put mental health on medication, and sent home having been told that their fine”. difficulties in Patients can then attend local health cenIreland today tres during working hours; however there is no and need care, support services out-of -hours or at weekends. Grow and Aware are two non-governmental you’re in agencies operating in the community that go trouble” some way to filling this growing void by providing weekly support groups. Due to the lack of a twenty-four hour service, NLN staff finds themselves having to provide out-of-hours support. “Most of our clients don’t have allocated social workers; the system is very underdeveloped,” the source said. The source recalled one out-of-hours incident involving an NLN client called ‘Martin’ (not his real name). She received a call from the Gárdai one evening telling her that Martin had attempting suicide at a local waterway. Martin asked the Gárdai to contact the source. “As the Gárdai hadn’t a car available, I took Martin to the nearest [hospital with a] psychiatric unit for assessment. He waited over two hours to be seen by a psychiatrist, who deemed him to be of no danger to himself,” the source said. There wasn’t a bed available to keep Martin for supervision. He was told to contact a nurse at the local health centre in the morning; “That’s providing he survived the night; it’s a very loose arrangement,” the source added.

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The source believes that the HSE’s mental health service just doesn’t offer people time; this is something the NLN tries to do: “Although we are not psychiatrists or councillors, it’s a role we have to fill, without HSE training”. The source feels that the government’s 2006 mental health policy document, A ‘Martin’ had attempting suicide Vision for Change, at a local waterway … There is little more than a “glossy booklet”. The wasn’t a bed available … He source said that there was told to contact a nurse at is little confidence the local health centre in the among NLN staff of services improving in morning; “That’s providing he the current economic survived the night” environment. An opposition party County Councillor I spoke to agrees: “Apart from the sale of HSE property, little has progressed with ‘A Vision for Change’ since 2006,” the councillor told me. The councillor believes that a current three year plan to close St. Loman’s hospital in Mullingar will have devastating consequences: “The plan will leave 120 residents homeless, and not a sod has been turned to provide the modern accommodation promised,” the councillor said, adding that of the €36m made from the sale of lands at St. Loman’s, four year ago, not a Euro has been reinvested in the hospital. “I think there is still a need for hospitals like St. Loman’s; the institution offers security to those in need, that is hard to replicate out in the community,” the Councillor added. “The modern community-care model calls for large investments in

National Learning Network Sees Recession-linked Rise ..., Ward

terms of services and training; the resources just aren’t there anymore. The government needs to invest in the existing infrastructure and services; providing beds and staff. The needs of vulnerable people must come first” the County Councillor added. The NLN source believes that the rights of psychiatric patients are being ignored: “If you have private health insurance there’s a chance of a bed in St. Patrick’s or St John of God’s. Otherwise, you’re at the mercy of the public system.” “Mental health patients are treated like scum in the public system,” said the NLN source. “In my experience, animals would be treated better than patients in some of the public psychiatric units, ” the source told me. The source concluded by saying: “In the mental-health-service we have today there’s no care; no one understands the meaning of compassion. I’m afraid we have a long way to go”.

Dolphin House Contemplates Uncertain Future A year ago Dolphin House in Dublin’s south inner city hit all the headlines when criminals placed a hoax bomb at a residents’ meeting. Now its future is still uncertain as plans for its redevelopment have stalled. John Dorney investigates.

n April 28, 2009, residents of Dolphin House, sick of drugdealing and crime in their estate, called a meeting to demand a permanent Garda presence in the area at night-time. Before the meeting was over, hundreds of cars in the estate had been vandalised and someone placed what appeared to be a bomb with a fuse at the community centre where the meeting was taking place. The “bomb” turned out to be a Pringles crisp box with wire a attached, but the message it gave was clear enough: the criminals were giving a warning to the community. Since then, according to local councillor, Críona Ní Dhalaigh (Sinn Féin), the situation at Dolphin House has “greatly improved”. The Gardaí now have a permanent and visible presence in the area and walls have been built where the flat complex borders the canal. “Before”, explains Ní Dhalaigh, “there were loads of ways in and out, now there is only one”. Previously people selling drugs could escape to the path along the canal whenever the Garda entered the estate. “Fear is slowly breaking down”, she says, “even if the problem has just been moved down the street”. Many of the dealers have just moved across the canal into Crumlin, which is under the jurisdiction of a different Garda station. Dolphin House is a fortress-like social housing complex situated

Dolphin House Contemplates Uncertain Future, Dorney

beside the Grand Canal in Dolphin’s Barn. It is surrounded by high grey walls on its street side and 12 blocks of red brick flats loom Bad planning and the poor over the canal. The complex was built in quality of the housing at the 1950s, in the era Dolphin House, along with when the corporation poverty and neglect by the state desperately needed to clear Dublin’s inis partially to blame for social ner city slums and reproblems house their residents in a hurry. Its 436 flats are home to over 900 people, the largest public housing project in the city and second only to the now demolished flats in Ballymun. The problems of crime, drug dealing and anti-social behaviour have long dogged the estate. But Dolphin House also has a proud tradition of community activism. Back in 1983, the “Dolphin House Community Development Association”, led by a man named John ‘Whacker’ Humphries, helped to start a popular campaign against heroin in Dublin. In the 1990s, there was again a wave of activism against drug dealing in the area. At that time, the practice of community activists was to march on drug dealers’ houses and demand they leave the area. But according to Críona Ní Dhalaigh, “Those days are gone. There are some people from that generation that say we need an anti-drugs movement again, but at the end of the day, it’s the Gardaí who are paid to keep the law.” Ní Dhalaigh argues that bad planning and the poor quality of the housing at Dolphin House, along with poverty and neglect by the state is partially to blame for social problems there. For 13 and 14 year olds in

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the area, she says, the prospect of a criminal career has a certain allure: “They see the pushers in fancy cars and with lots of money – the criminal culture is glorified in some of these estates”. Dublin City Council has long had plans to knock down and rebuild Dolphin House but there has been friction between the Council and local groups. The Council’s preference was for a Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, in which half of the complex’s 400 units would be sold for private “afford“The market value is not high able housing”. The enough to justify the costs. community, Críona State funding will now be Ní Dhalaigh says, were against this as it necessary and I can’t see it would “dislocate the [redevelopment] happening in community”. the immediate future” Instead, Rory Hearne, the regeneration officer for Dolphin House, initiated a consultation between the local community and Sheridan architects, who were brought in to design an alternative plan for the estate. The consultation process took place over seven months, according to Owen Kelleher, the Sheridan architect responsible for the project, in which each flat block had its own meeting with the architects. It turned out that what the residents wanted differed substantially from the Council’s plans. Kelleher says the final design he proposed included more social housing and fewer commercial units. The flat blocks would now be sealed off to anyone except residents – in part to stop the drugs trade – and play areas were over looked by balconies, “so people could watch their kids at play”.

Dolphin House Contemplates Uncertain Future, Dorney

The problem is that, since the redevelopment was first mooted, the Irish economy has been hit by a severe recession. According to Owen Kelleher, the original PPP scheme is now unlikely to take place. “The market value is not high enough to justify the costs. State funding will now be necessary and I can’t see it [redevelopment] happening in the immediate future,” he says. The Dolphin’s Barn estate is, in any case, unfortunately behind nearby St Theresa’s Garden’s in the Council’s timetable for redevelopment. While Dolphin House may have to deal with formidable social problems and must now wait for its shiny new housing, the people there have seen off worse in the past and bring at least their sense of togetherness and community into the uncertain future.

State Services Could Cost 21% Extra Decision by the European Court of Justice means Ireland will be forced to charge VAT on state services such as waste collection, car parks and sports facilities. John O’Donnell investigates.

rish businesses and consumers could face an increase of 21% in charges for state and semi-state services from the 1st of July. The government must try tov decide how best to respond to the European Court of Justice ruling that Ireland has been in breach of EU law by not charging value added tax on public services. The result of this ruling is that Ireland must introduce legislation to eliminate any unfair advantage government bodies can gain in any market by not charging VAT. The ruling could have implications for a wide range of economic activities. Services run by local authorities, such as car parking and waste management are most likely to face an increase in prices. Public amenities, such as sports facilities and libraries, as well as areas such as health and education are also likely to be affected. KPMG’s global head of indirect tax services, Niall Campbell, believes different sectors will be affected in different ways by the introduction of VAT on public bodies. “There are going to be winners and there are going to be losers out of this, because I don’t think it’s uniform. You’ve got a couple of sectors here; you’ve got sectors that have been essentially competing with the state for the last number of years and have been at a competitive disadvantage [because they had to charge VAT]. Those sectors will welcome this decision because they’re now in a position where

State Services Could Cost 21% Extra, O’Donnell

they can compete more effectively. If you take for example, car parks, that’s a classic example. Others in that boat include the property sector, waste management sector, health, education, sports facilities, etc. There are a number of those types of business who have been up against competition of different types from state or state type entities and will now be on a level playing field. They’ll welcome it,” said Campbell. “There is of course on the other side of it, the businesses who are on the receiving end of these charges from state or local authorities or state entities. In particular, those entities that aren’t entitled to VAT recovery. If you take for example, the banking sector, insurance sector, again health, education; a lot of those sectors where they will be incurring charges where heretofore they haven’t incurred VAT. Their VAT cost is going to go up as a result of now being subject to VAT on these charges in the same way that private individuals can’t recover VAT and charitable organisations and other non-VAT recoverable organisations will now be suffering essentially an additional cost on things like waste management, parking, sports facilities and similar services so I think it’s probably not a uniform answer. You’ve got to look at the profile of the particular business or organisation and decide whether they fall into the winners or losers box,” said the KPMG spokesperson. Families are likely to fall into the losers box, with all of the negatives of higher service charges but none of the benefits felt by businesses competing with the state. Niall Campbell thinks that the outlook is not a positive one for Irish families, and they will feel the pinch the most. Campbell said, “It’s certainly going to be predominantly in the area of things like waste management and car parking. There’s no positive answer there, in the sense that it simply is the case that in those sectors where there is private competition I think it will be clear that the state or the local Council is going to have to levy VAT. The cost of providing those services is going to go up.” However, Niall Campbell went on to explain how the government could assume the burden of VAT so that consumers don’t have to:

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“There’s a political choice here. We have to remind ourselves just because Irish law is changing, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the public has to suffer. If Dublin City Council or any Council is required now to charge VAT on their services, it’s a decision which is as much a financial, as well as a political decision, as to how much of that do they actually pass onto the consumer. It can’t be assumed that 100% of that is going to get Government must try to decide passed onto the pubhow best to respond to the lic, there may be social European Court of Justice reasons or policy reasons why a particular ruling that Ireland has been in Council may decide breach of EU law by not that they want to precharging value added tax on serve charges at the current rate. Given public services the financial environment, that’s going to be difficult for them but I think something that needs to be aired is that there is a political decision and an economic decision to be made as to whether this additional VAT liability is something which should be borne by the state entities or should in fact be passed on to the tax paying public, and that’s not something that’s automatic.” People Before Profit Councillor, Joan Collins, fears that the introduction of VAT will put extra strain on households already suffering from the economic downturn. “As far the People Before Profit Alliance is concerned it’s going to have a huge impact on families because, what you’re talking about is all public services, user type things like swimming pools, car parks, waste charges, right across the board. It means nearly a 13.5% or a 21% increase on the cost of going to a swimming pool or on waste charges. Waste charges have gone up 5% already in the estimates for this year, and waivers have effectively been withdrawn. People have

State Services Could Cost 21% Extra, O’Donnell

to now pay for the pick up of the bin and that means another 13.5% or 21% on the pick up price of a bin, so it’s going to have a big impact on old age pensioners as well in relation to their outgoings,” said Collins Cllr Collins had a motion passed at the February meeting of Dublin City Council in which she called for the Dublin City Manager to meet with the Revenue Commission to negotiate the level of impact that the introduction of VAT on state activities was going to have on families. Families are She hopes that meeting would see the govlikely to fall ernment incorporate VAT into existing prices. into the losers “Definitely there are going to increases either by 13.5% or 21%, and that should be subsumed box, with all of into the costs that are there already. So for exthe negatives ample, a [bin] pick up is €6.40, if there’s 21% VAT then it should be around €4.80 and then of higher 21% on top so that it doesn’t actually impact on service people’s pockets. 21% is quite a lot of money. charges Already with the waivers going, old age pensioners face at least a €4 cut in their old age pensions per week, and with this on top of that again, it will definitely have an impact. Prices seem to be going up while wages and social welfare are cut. It’s a nightmare for people,” said Cllr Collins. All EU member states signed up to a common VAT directive in 1977 which called for states to introduce legislation to prevent unfair market advantage being gained by avoidance of VAT, but it was not properly implemented by Ireland. In 2006 an EU directive was introduced to try to bring new members states into line with European VAT law. A complaint to the European Commission by a multi-storey car park operating in Dublin, led to the 2009 European Court of Justice case of ‘the Commission of the European Communities versus Ireland’, in which it was decided that Ireland

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should be forced to bring its VAT laws into line with the rest of the EU. The European Commission claimed that the European Court of Justice should declare that by failing to transpose correctly into Irish legislation the directive, and consequently by excluding from the scope of the tax all economic activities in which the state, local authorities and other bodies governed by public law engage, with certain limited exceptions, Ireland had failed to comply with its obligations in the directive on the common system of value added tax. In Ireland, the state and local authorities are treated as taxable persons only in so far as a specific order to that effect has been made by the Minister for Finance. In the Commission’s view that situation is contrary to the scheme laid down in the 1977 VAT directive in several respects. First, no provision is made for the taxation of public bodies There is a political decision where they act other than in their capacity and an economic decision to be as public authorities. made as to whether this Secondly, no general additional VAT liability is someprovision is made for the taxation of pubthing which should be borne lic bodies where they by the state entities charges act in their capacity but none of the benefits felt by as public authorities but engage in an ecobusinesses competing with the nomic activity whose state non-taxation would result in a significant distortion of competition. The taxation of public bodies is wholly at the discretion of the Minister for Finance, and no criteria for his decision are contained in the relevant provisions.

State Services Could Cost 21% Extra, O’Donnell

The Department of Finance is currently compiling a directory of services carried out by public bodies to assess which services could be considered competitive businesses and would therefore be subject to VAT under the ECJ’s ruling. The Finance Bill, due out later this month, will just provide the provision for charging VAT on state services. The full impact of the ECJ’s decision could take some time to be fully felt as Niall Campbell points out: “This is a process which the Revenue are undertaking right now themselves. I mean they’ve actually gone out to all state entities, and what they’re doing right now is trying to compile almost like a telephone book of all of the circumstances where state or state entities charge the public, or charge businesses for services. Campbell, the global head of indirect tax services at KPMG went on to say: “It is important to note that it’s not a case that the state is going to have to charge VAT on everything, it’s still the case that their only required to charge VAT in circumstances where non-operation of VAT would give rise to distortion of competition. There are still plenty of examples of services where the state is the sole provider, or it is a function of state to deliver certain social services or public services or even services to business, and in those circumstances where it’s not giving rise to distortion of competition because there’s nobody of a private sector nature in the market or being kept out of the market by lack of competition, then those services would continue to not be subject to VAT. The cost of these new taxes will benefit some private companies, while at the same time it’s likely this government will choose to lay many of increased costs, at the doors of citizens.

Anglo Closure Costs Exaggerated By Government Analysis of the latest financial results undermines Government claims of ¤70 billion wind-down costs. Joseph Morgan investigates.

he Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, claimed on the evening RTÉ news of 31st March 2010 that closing down the State-owned Anglo Irish Bank could cost the taxpayer as much as €100 billion. The previous day, in a speech outlining the scale of the banking crisis in Ireland, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, claimed that it would cost up to €70 billion to close Anglo without defaulting on any of its debts. The subsequent release of Anglo’s financial results for the 15 months to the end of 2009 undermines both of those claims. The bank posted a loss of €12.7 billion, the largest deficit in Irish corporate history, after writing off €15.1 billion in bad loans. According to an analysis of Anglo’s financial statement by Karl Whelan, Professor for Economics at University College Dublin (UCD), the Taoiseach’s assertion that it could cost up to €100 billion to close Anglo down can immediately be dismissed as their total liabilities are currently €81 billion. Even if the bank had no assets, €81 billion would be the worst-case scenario in winding it down. To date, the Government has recapitalised Anglo with €4 billion last year and a further €8.3 billion within the past few days, to replenish its capital after the latest losses wiped out its reserves. Current Department of Finance predictions are that at least another €10 billion will be required by next year. The final figure could be higher still as future losses have yet to be quantified.

Anglo Closure Costs Exaggerated by Government, Morgan

Brian Lenihan originally stated in January 2009 that the maximum cost of Anglo’s recapitalisation would be €4 billion and that the State would provide just €1.5 billion in the short term. It was also originally estimated that Anglo would transfer €28 billion in toxic loans to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). This figure has now been revised upwards to €35.6 billion. Its first tranche of Nama loans had a book value of €10 billion but were discounted by 50 percent to €5 billion due to the loss in value of the property assets underpinning those If Anglo’s wind-down were loans. The current prophased over the next four years, jected recapitalisation there is around ¤67 billion in is now over €22 billion realisable assets to pay off and this could go even higher, depending on liabilities of ¤81 billion the level of discount applied to future loans being transferred to Nama and any further deterioration in value of the non-Nama loan book. There is little confidence among economists that this figure will be accurate as Nama asset values have deteriorated with every major government announcement. The original Government argument for not shutting Anglo down was based on the premise that it was of ‘systemic’ importance. It was stated that closing it down would cause a collapse of the entire banking industry in Ireland and a loss of faith by the international money markets. Brian Lenihan told the Dáil in January 2009 that, “As a country, we cannot afford to have the message going out that we will let a bank fail.” That position has come under severe criticism over the past year and the Government now seems to have moved its argument to one where the cost of closing Anglo down would be too prohibitive. In his latest

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speech, Brian Lenihan said, “Finding a long-term solution for Anglo Irish Bank is by far the biggest challenge in resolving the banking crisis. The sheer size of the bank means there are no easy or low-cost options. Winding up the bank is not and was never a viable option.” “The starting point for any useful discussion about what to do with Anglo has to be its balance sheet,” said UCD’s Karl Whelan. An analysis of that balance sheet, as reported on page 38 of Anglo’s latest financial results, shows that they have €81 billion in liabilities. The €70 billion claim made by Brian Lenihan would therefore imply that the bank has only €11 billion in assets. However, after the Nama transfers, Anglo’s assets – excluding the non-Nama loan book - are as shown in the table below. Government-backed Nama bonds

¤17.8 billion

Government promissory notes

¤8.3 billion

Other Government bonds

¤6.2 billion

Other financial securities

¤1.7 billion

Loans to other banks

¤7.4 billion

Total

¤41.4 billion

According to Karl Whelan, these assets might sell at a discount if they were sold off quickly but given their current value, they would not fetch as little as €11 billion. “If the bank was wound down over four years up to 2014 and the securities were sold gradually and loans allowed to mature, it’s hard to see the bank recouping too much less than their par value of €41.4 billion,” he said. However, the non-Nama loan book looks more problematic. €35.6 billion in original value loans are currently held on the balance sheet at €30.8 billion due to bad loss provisions. €9.5 billion of these loans are impaired, and €4.7 billion are past due. Whelan makes a soft estimate that this loan book may only be worth as little as €20 billion by the time all loans have been repaid but that the majority of whatever is going to come in from these loans is likely to come in prior to any potential

Anglo Closure Costs Exaggerated by Government, Morgan

wind-down. According to Karl Whelan’s estimates, if Anglo’s wind-down were phased over the next four years, there is probably around €67 billion in realisable assets to pay off liabilities of €81 billion, €11.5 billion of which is ‘intra-government’ (owed to the Irish Central Bank). He said, “the vast majority of these losses will stem from the nonNama loan book and the fact that the Nama assets are worth less than currently listed. So these losses will be incurred regardless of whether the bank is kept open or wound down. From my reading, there’s not much evidence that there would be huge losses on gradual sales of the bank’s financial assets over the next few years.” The likelihood then is that a structured, orderly wind-down over a period of four years will make the cost of closing Anglo far less than is being suggested. The reality is that it is more likely to be in the range of €15-20 billion; some €2-7 billion lower than the current minimum projections of €22 billion in further recapitalisation to keep the bank going. It may well be that the Government realise this and perhaps even plan to take this wind-down option but have not made it public in order to avoid any possible run on the bank. People are unlikely to leave deposits in a bank they know is going to be closed. The stated plans for Anglo are that it will be split into a good bank/ bad bank and the good bank will be put back into the economy as a business lender to small and medium-sized enterprises. Although a business plan has been submitted for approval to the European Central Bank (ECB), as is the case for all Irish banks receiving Government subsidies, it is still awaiting approval and has not been made available for public scrutiny. However, downsizing and cleaning Anglo up, then selling it as a small business lender is not likely to recoup anywhere near the amount being spent on recapitalising it. Anglo has been mired in controversy since the financial crisis began in 2008. It emerged in 2008 that Sean Quinn secretly accumulated a 25 per cent indirect stake in Anglo, just as the bank was faltering. Quinn’s

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decision to convert this holding into a direct shareholding of 15 per cent led to the infamous “Golden Circle” transaction, where ten other Anglo customers were loaned money to buy up Anglo’s shares and stop the price from collapsing. It also later transpired that Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) deposited, short term, €7.5 billion into Anglo in September 2008 in order to give an incorrect picture of The reality is that [the cost of Anglo’s balance sheet. closing the bank] is more likely Sean Quinn is back to be ¤15 to ¤20 billion; some in the Anglo story. The picture is now fur¤2 to ¤7 billion lower than the ther complicated by current minimum projections Anglo’s involvement of ¤22 billion – encouraged by the Government - in the recent Quinn Insurance administration. It may well be that the Government realises that the ‘cost of closure’ argument is too weak and that they need to move it back to the ‘systemic importance’ basis. Injecting a cash-generating business, Quinn Insurance, with 5,500 Irish jobs, into the heart of Anglo would certainly make the bank much more difficult to close down. Quinn Insurance was placed into temporary administration by the Financial Regulator, Mathew Elderfield, because their solvency levels did not meet the minimum legal requirements. Anglo is proposing to raise €700 million to pay off Quinn’s bondholders and inject cash into the insurer’s reserves. Where this money is to come from, considering they need further recapitalization, has not been made clear but further calls on the public purse appear to be the only option.

Anglo Closure Costs Exaggerated by Government, Morgan

The Quinn family and Quinn Group of companies owe Anglo €2.8 billion. The Quinn Group also has borrowings of €1.2bn from the likes of Barclays Bank and international bondholders. These have first call ahead of Anglo. Should that call ever be exercised, there is unlikely to be anything left over for Anglo and the cost of recapitalisation will increase again. There seems to be a determined effort by the government not to wind Anglo down. If there are any further dark secrets in there, closure would certainly reveal them.

Modern Irish Prostitution Why are our country’s legislators allowing a boom in online prostitution services? Katie Archer investigates how the oldest profession is adapting to thoroughly modern telecommunications tools.

rostitution in Ireland is a far cry from the secretive and seedy back-alley affair many people still deem it to be. Prostitution, or “escorting” as it is now more commonly referred to, has become a finely tuned business and it is now easier then ever to fulfil your fantasies and get your kicks with any escort of your choice. Like everything else in our contemporary life, prostitution in Ireland has become computerised. There are dozens of Irish websites dedicated to helping men, and women alike, get the best service they can. These companies feature women (and men), with their photos, their statistics, verified pictures, a price list, their sexual favourites, a bio and the facilities their premises offers for example: Wheelchair accessible? Drinks on arrival? Shower? Check, check, check. Prostitution in Ireland has become like shopping online. There are forums for punters to discuss their favourite girls, you can write reviews on your experiences, and whether you would recommend your girl to a friend or not. These men speak about women as if they were a DVD they rented and discuss them and their experiences as casually as if they were discussing a football game. Escort-ireland.com seems to be a huge contributor to this growing phenomenon, it being the number one Google search for ‘Irish escorts’. As well as the above features discussed, they offer an ‘eejits guide’ to escorts, for first time clients, an A-Z of ‘escort lingo’ and the likes. They also offer articles and readings against sex trafficking and are promoting the legalisation of prostitution in Ireland. A regular escort client commented on one site’s forum stating that “with

Modern Irish Prostitution, Archer

the Internet it has got too easy to access escort services. I have become addicted and am trying to give it up. It is hard, as it is an addiction like smoking, drinking, gambling or drugs. I think it will be a growing problem in Irish society.” Many people in Ireland think that prostitutes are disgusting people with no morality seeking to feed drink and drug addictions. It is thought that nobody would become one unless they had no alternative or unless they were victims of trafficking. This is still quite common for ‘street walking’ prostitutes. According to a male escort I interviewed who wishes to remain anonymous “The only advantage is it’s easy money.” The disadvantages he says include “STD’s, being physically and emotionally hurt, ... it is emotionally unbalancing, mentally destructive and just horrible.” When asked if he would suggest it as a career choice he answered: “As a last alternative to living on the street, yes. But if there is anything else you can do, do it.”. To become an escort you simply have to click the ‘employment’ section from one of these websites, some ask you to fill an application and even offer a professional sex photographer so you can advertise your merchandise as well as possible. These profiles are posted on the internet either for free or for an ‘advertising fee’. Some escort websites post your profile for free. Your number and e-mail address are included and this is how prospective clients contact you. For the purpose of this investigative article I set up one of these profiles using a generic photo sourced from google and within the first week I received 26 phone calls from men seeking my ‘services’. May I add that I was advertising at €300 an hour. What recession? Few of the men who rang whispered or sounded embarrassed. Most spoke naturally and confidently, asked if I was working that day and if they could book an appointment as if I was the local barbers. I was the one who spluttered and stuttered as I lied that I was booked out at the moment or that I was in a meeting. I also applied to an escort agency to work for them instead of independently. A lovely, well spoken woman then rang me daily, told me the company’s different

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shifts, and assured me they could work around my schedule and that my inexperience as an escort was not an issue. She informed me I could expect to see an average of four clients daily. I was called for interview and a trial. I was informed that a trial was working a shift to see if I got on with my prospective co-workers and if I fit in with the company. It has become too easy to become an escort. People have become lazy and figure that if they enjoy sex and are attractive why not make some easy money? If that thought has ever crossed your mind then take heed to this comment from a working Irish escort I spoke to: “It’s horriFor the purpose of this ble, it takes away your investigative article I set up sense of being and makes sex between one of these profiles using a you and anyone else generic photo sourced from near meaningless, it google and within the first destroys your relationships.” week I received 26 phone Peoples’ pre-concalls from men seeking my ceived assumptions ‘services’ ... at ¤300 an hour would lead them to believe that every man who hired a prostitute in Ireland was a dirty, smelly, lonely, older man. Yet, according to an Irish escort clients’ survey conducted in 2006, the average Irish punter is a native white male, aged mid-twenties to mid-forties, with 41.7% being in the 25-34 age bracket. A massive 74.2% had completed third level education and the most regular occupations of the clients surveyed were engineers, accountants, executives or self-employed business owners. They were most likely in a relationship or married and using Irish escort services for sexual gratification. There has been speculation before now that escort websites en-

Modern Irish Prostitution, Archer

courage the use of escort services and this survey appears to confirm that, with over 80% of the respondents indicating either that they feel escort websites have encouraged them to use escort services more or that they didn’t use escort services prior to the existence of escort websites. 73% were accessing escort sites from their home computers. This survey indicates that dangerous unprotected sexual activities are currently commonplace in Irish escort transactions which is allowing and encouraging the spread of sexually transmitted diseases throughout the country. One man who “It’s horrible, it takes away your completed the survey sense of being and makes sex commented, “I believe that all men who use between you and anyone else escorts are lacking in near meaningless, it destroys some way, shape or your relationships” form, me included. I also believe that all escorts are victims and that no matter what some of them may say, they all hate what they do, it can only shatter their self esteem. I know since using escorts my self esteem has gone way down. I always hate myself afterwards.” People seem to forget that prostituting oneself in Ireland is illegal and always has been, so why have these sites not been regulated? Why have our country’s legislators not done anything when escorts and escort companies alike so brazenly advertise their phone numbers, addresses and services? The prostitution policies of the Irish state have changed over a long time from an unambiguous prohibitionism towards a partial abolitionism, overall policy is characterised by inconsistency and contradictions and legal changes have occurred outside of a comprehensive policy review. As Ireland is integrated into a globalised sex industry, with

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a consequent restructuring of the vice trade, prostitution itself may remain largely beyond the reach of the state. Since 2001 in Germany, persons who sell sex have been seen as professionals, the parliament approved a law with the aim of integrating sex sellers into society. Since then prostitutes have been entitled to unemployment benefit, sickness benefit and pensions. Sweden decriminalized the selling of sex and criminalized the buying of sex in 1999. Whereas in Ireland, buying sex, if done indoors, is not illegal. Sweden has social service funds aimed at helping people get out of a life of prostitution. When I asked my anonymous escort interviewee whether he felt Ireland should legalize prostitution, he said that “yes, at least that way there would be more safety in the profession, we’d have legal rights and it wouldn’t be so dangerous. Regulation would be the way to go, basically needing a license to do it. That would mean you could avail of legal aid if you need it and don’t need to lie if you are arrested, hospitalized or even raped.” Legalising the selling of sex in Ireland will of course have benefits to those in the sex trade. However, gender inequality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit women by prostituting them and as long as women in this country continue to forget their worth and potential.

Headshop Reality, Media Reality We hear about it every day, it’s in every paper we open, every radio station we tune into. There’s no escaping, the never ending presence of head shops. Darren Cleary investigates by surveying 100 third level college students.

he picture painted by many newspapers and by the Joe Duffy sect of the country is far detached from reality. Head shops are endemic, the legal high culture is not reserved for out of control teens in disadvantaged areas, this is gripping the nation in a way the scaremongers have irrationally overlooked, preferring to focus on “Billy, 17, who took some drugs and jumped in front of a bus”. However, in all actuality this is something that runs far deeper, it’s a craze that’s sweeping the professional sector and the college scene too. Under it’s fancy façade, the exclusive fee paying institution that is Griffith College has a drug culture that is alive and well, albeit a legal one. As a student for the past two years of the college, I’m extremely shocked by the sudden appearance of a drug scene, this is not by coincidence and it’s something I’m sure is quickly becoming prevalent on campuses nationwide. Last year aside from a slight over indulgence in drink, the college was for most intents and purposes much like any other you’d see the length and breadth of Ireland. So for me it’s obvious that the appearance of a drug craze on the Dublin 8 campus almost directly coincides with the opening of the Nirvana ‘head shop’ on Leonard’s Corner, close to the college in September 2009.

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

I took my questions to the students in a bid to establish some hard numbers to get some kind of conclusive understanding of how prevalent the legal high craze has become. The results were shocking. On a survey of 100 This could have been a turning students of the seven point in Ireland, a form of faculties in Griffith regulation and accountability College, almost six out of every 10 people toward drugs. A chance to take have taken legal highs it out of the dark alleys of Ireat some point, while land, or at least hurt the drug 31% have dabbled in illegal drugs such as dealers trade cocaine and ecstasy. With almost 80% of the media faculty students surveyed admitting to trying the products sold over the counter at head shops at some point. Despite the high level of students admitting to, at some point sampling the drugs, a staggering 93% surveyed believed the substances contained in the legal highs are harmful; and 38% believed they were less harmful then their illegal counterpart. Almost half of everyone who had taken the drugs admitted they would do it again, while a shocking 28% of people saying they would recommend others to try it. The fact that these drugs are legal and sold over counters in shops all over the nation breaks down former social taboos: users are all to happy to talk about their experiences. I spoke to one journalism student about their experiences. The student said, speaking by a lift at midday one Thursday, “over Christmas I found myself drinking a lot as people do, and one night looking for company I called some of the lads who I figured were pretty

Headshop Reality, Media Reality, Cleary

much guaranteed to be out drinking, and they were doing it and I tried it”. Going further into detail on their first time the student said, “ I was completely naive to this stuff, I did the stupidest thing possible, went the jacks on my own, polished off about five lines and by the time I stumbled back into the room I was off my face”. When I asked about the physical effects the young student paused briefly before smiling, “It was much different to drink. When your drunk you get quite difficult, quite hard to manage, falling around, maybe puking etc but this wasn’t like that. I was off my face, but I was gripped by a love buzz and immediately I felt comfortable, and that I could talk to these people I was with about anything, and talk I did, it was like a time warp, next thing I knew it was morning, and not like 6 am morning it was coming up to noon and I was still high as a kite…” The student’s reflections were not so fondly reminisced upon when asked about the downsides of legal high’s. “Pretty rough comedown very abrupt; one minute your high, next minute you hit the floor hard. Which I mean, makes you want more and more of the stuff so it’s not hard to get addicted”. Another student I spoke to in the Meagher Building echoed much of the same sentiments, answering in a relaxed demeanour: “Living on campus you have to do the stuff to keep you sane”. The Law student quipped, “I think a lot of people will start using ‘Wild Cat’ [sold as a bath salt at the local head shop] instead of drink, you just get a happier buzz, you don’t get tired, makes your nights longer and better” . When asked about the regularity of his use, the student said, “ probably about once a week usually on a Monday. I arrive back up Sunday evening, class on the Monday, then to celebrate the golden day a couple of us will go in on a gram and do it in the halls (of residence)”. I enquired about how long they have been doing this and has security ever become suspicious or ever discovered one of these ‘sessions’? “Nope not once have we had a bother and this has been going on since before

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

Christmas, it’s not a gargle buzz, your not loud, your not messing, your chilled out, having a few sniffs then you flake and go to bed when it’s all hoovered”. So you’ve become a regular at the head shop I asked? “Yeah well, on Monday’s anyway. ‘Parking Permit’ knows us well and pretty much every week gives us a half gram sampler bag for free”. Parking Permit’ I quizzed? “Yeah well, I don’t know his real name but I call him that cause on Rag Richer and more powerful Week I ran outta criminals, less money into the money and swapped him my Griffith parkeconomy, more poisoned ing permit for three teenagers = result! grams I don’t drive so Apparently! it was a good deal for me”. These kind of comments can be uttered by many on campus, who chances are, one year ago, would have been drug virgins. Now however, people are experimenting in their dozens maybe even their hundreds with these legal highs, that the media has largely promoted awareness of. Two weeks ago, I, like 56% of students surveyed was in favour of closing head shops, but now having gained insight into the issue, I think closing head shops won’t end the demand and will ultimately force these substances into the hands of the drug dealers and give them a host of new drugs to sell on the black market and invariably just make the problem worse. This could have been a turning point in Ireland, a form of regulation and accountability toward drugs. A chance to take it out of the dark alleys of Ireland, or at least hurt the drug dealers trade. There’s

Headshop Reality, Media Reality, Cleary

accountability if you buy something over a counter, if it kills you, I’m sure someone will be able to say: “that was bought at X head shop, they are accountable for this death”. While if you buy something down a lane, from one of the shadiest of characters walking god’s green earth, and it kills you, chances are he won’t be there if you go looking for him. However, all this makes little difference as it has become increasingly likely that head shops will very soon have all their cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana substitutes outlawed by new legislation. The drug dealers must be celebrating. I believe we’re taking money out of the hands of the government, and putting it in the hands of illegal drug dealers and criminal gangs. I’m not sure exactly what the government or the people gain from this, other then keeping the Joe Duffy lynch mob at peace until the next time something comes along that they don’t quite understand. What would new legislation leave us with? Richer and more powerful criminals, less government income meaning in it’s most basic form: more taxes, more cuts in public spending, former head shop employees lengthening the dole queue. Making sure that the drugs, that let’s face it, are still around, will be less pure and no doubt mixed with more harmful chemicals, and therefore much more dangerous. Richer and more powerful criminals, less money into the economy, more poisoned teenagers = result! Apparently!

Head Shops: Are We Using Our Heads? Suzanne Fitzpatrick talks to the medicinal and organic chemistry Course Director at Trinity College Dublin and investigates difficulties the government will find in attempting to ban specific ‘legal highs’.

t’s a topic that’s been streaked across the news for months now. The invasion of Head Shops in Ireland has sparked disagreement and concern amongst the public, both pro and anti-drug campaigners alike. Everyone has gathered their own thoughts on the issue but what evidence is there to back each argument up? Also, we tend to think that this influx of legal high sales is a new thing when in fact it is not. Legal highs have been around since the mid 1960s; with records of use of cannabis and alcohol going back over 5000 years. In the mid 1800’s, China announced war against Britain after the latter tried to ban opium trade between the two nations. However, it is only in recent years that the numbers of resulting legal highs have made their way to Irish shores. The first Head Shop was established in San Francisco on January 3rd, 1966. It was opened by a former war veteran named Ron Thelin and his brother, Jay. Head Shops spread as establishments that were once indie poster and candle shops began selling psychedelic and hallucinogenic substances as well as apparatus used to consume drugs. This was at the time when psychedelic-‘hippie’ culture was all the rage in the USA, with pro-high vocal injections from the likes of The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. It went hand-in-hand with the anti-Vietnam war, the idealistic hippie culture. The new Head Shops were places flooded with this hippie

Headshops: Are We Using Our Heads?, Fitzpatrick

or indie, unfettered culture; substances to get you high, alternative music, art and free sprits. Of course, in the 1960’s, the danger of cigarettes was generally unacknowledged never mind drugs. The shops spread to the east coast and found many customers in trendy New York, particularly the East Village. While marijuana and cannabis consumption apparatus have been on sale in Ireland for over ten years, the influx of ‘legal highs’ in Head Shops on these shores over the last two years is new. One of the most interesting questions is what is the difference between the illegal drugs and their apparently socially acceptable legal equivalent? What makes them legal? The answer lies in their exact ingredients, although it is difficult to understand these chemical differences if you’re not a chemist. Mike Southern is the Course Director and lecturer of the B.A. degree in Medicinal and Organic “These artificial cannabinoids Chemistry in Trinare legal because they are not ity College Dublin. I covered by current legislation; contacted him to help me discover if the you could ban that compound ingredients in legal but it is possible for another to highs were in any way replace it in the future” the same as their illegal siblings. I wanted to investigate what exactly the similarities between them were. “The compounds in the legal highs are different to those in illegal drugs but have similar effects. For example, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is one of the main psychoactive ingredients of cannabis and it acts at the recently discovered cannabinoid receptors in the brain. In-

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

teraction of THC with These cannabinoid receptors (you can think of them as chemical switches which cause a biological effect) are relatively recent discoveries and are what cause the effects of cannabis when ingested. However, it is possible to design, or discover accidentally, other compounds that are also active at these same receptors that will have a similar biological effect to THC. ‘THC mimics’ are probably added to, or are present in the cannabis-like products on sale in head shops. These artificial cannabinoids are legal because they are not covered by current legislation; you could ban that compound but it is possible for another to replace it in the future,” said Mr. Southern Products sold in Head Shops are compounds that work on our bodies in the similar ways to the illegal substances work. They do have an almost identical effect on humans as the illegal substances but their ingredients are chemical mimics of the latter. Kind of like sugar versus artificial sweetener; they have the same effect but are structurally and chemically different. “The legal highs cannot contain controlled substances [illegal drugs],” says Southern, “and be legal so the compounds in the legal highs are different to those in illegal drugs but exert similar effects.” Mr. Southern also pointed out that these similar compounds can be generated and updated quite easily. In other words, if one particular compound is made illegal due to its effects, it is possible that a new one with again the same psychoactive effect would be created and put into the market. “If you ban a particular compound then clandestine chemists can create another structure that is similar in activity, working at the same receptors, but is not covered by the initial ban. Some subtle and not so subtle structural differences can give a compound properties that retains its activity,” said Mr Southern. Many politicians, doctors and members of the public both in Britain and Ireland have pushed to see Head Shop products banned; believing that drugs should be illegal drugs if they have damaging psychoactive

Headshops: Are We Using Our Heads?, Fitzpatrick

and physically damaging properties, and that there should not be any exceptions. As this fight continues, it’s important to recognise that it’s not that simple. If these products like ‘Wild Cat’ and ‘Orange Orbits’ (sold as ‘bath salts’) are outlawed, then it is only a matter of time before a new substance is created with the same effects but without the same ingredients as those that have been banned. This possibility of seemingly endless substitutes makes it difficult for any Targeting different receptor straightforward legisclasses [in the brain] with lation or ban against the legal highs. In legislation could make many other words, if specific currently legitimate and Head Shop products medically accepted, useful were illegalised tomorrow, it would only drugs, illegal be a matter of time (it is difficult to know how long) until the producers beat the ban and developed a new chemical formation that exerted the same effects as that of the banned, but it would be legal because it wouldn’t contain any of the exact ingredients that are banned. So what ban might work? It might be a case of banning chemicals that have a particular effect, not banning exactly what’s in them. This is a suggestion that has crossed Mr. Southern’s mind too: “If outlawing particular compounds or even classes of compounds is problematic, how about banning activity at the particular receptors [in the brain]? But clearly you cannot make a receptor system itself illegal, that would make us all criminals.” Acknowledging the difficulty in this approach, Southern says: “As an example, the opiate receptors mediate many processes in the body and

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

interact with endogenous molecules such as enkephalins or endorphins and also offer a very effective mechanism to reduce pain. Both codeine, morphine and diamorphine [heroin] are used in many countries as pain treatments, but can be abused”. While opiates may seem like obvious targets to ban, targeting different receptor classes (there are many) with legislation could make many currently legitimate and medically accepted, useful drugs illegal and also stifle the development of new legitimate drugs and thus increase the suffering of people with a particular disease. So it’s not that simple. The call for an immediate ban on legal highs is quite far from possible as it is really very complicated. Governments will have to find a way to legislate against chemicals that interact with certain parts of the body and mind, but allow them for use against illnesses and pain relief. This would be very difficult from what can be observed from the (bio) chemistry side of things. For example, in Britain, it has just been announced that Mephedrone (an analogue of the active ingredient of Qat – the leaves of which are chewed like tobacco or coca leaves), a currently legal drug that may have killed an 18-year-old woman in Stockholm, and that’s being held responsible for 18 deaths in the UK and Scotland, is being banned. For many, this seems like good and progressive news. It has now been noted that already another even more dangerous substance, Naphyrone, known as NRJ-1, has been lined up to be imported from Belgium to replace Mephedrone’s popular social status. According to dealers, it matches and doubles the effects of Mephedrone. It is known to cause brain-damage from just one hit, although this is often seen as only likely if it has been consumed in conjunction with other substances. And so the process of legislating against the new substances goes on. It could be impossible to have a final ban on these drugs. Bad things often seem like their gone, only to come back stronger and more determined.

Government Fails To Regulate Fake ‘Charity’ Clothes Collectors The scam of door-to-door clothes collection is costing genuine charities ¤1.2m a year. Sarah Canning investigates where our good will is going and how we are so easily lead.

harity shops, genuine clothes collectors, and big name charities such as Oxfam are loosing millions each year because of gangs who are illegally collecting clothes door-to-door for non-charitable profit. Leaflets are pushed through letterboxes on a daily basis all over Ireland. The leaflets state that the clothes collected will be brought to “third world” countries and will be given to less fortunate people. The leaflets sometimes have images of starving children and captions that read “Please help us”, “African Children In Need”, “Do Not Delay”, etc. This of course causes confusion amongst householders, particularly the elderly, and consequently misleads them into leaving out unwanted items for these scammers. The phone numbers displayed on these leaflets have been proven to simply ring out or don’t exist. Also, the charity registration number, which is sometimes displayed on the leaflet is false. This can be easily found out by ringing up the local authority, who have lists of genuine clothes collectors that are collecting in the local area. Items such as shoes, bed linen, all types of personal clothing, towels, underwear, curtains, etc are among items which these gangs will benefit from. All brands are worth something whether it has a Penney’s label or a Next label on it. Mixed textiles are estimated to be worth €96 per tonne. In some cases, the bags which are left out also attract other thieves, who

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

get there before these scammers do, in order to snatch the bags. Most bags are shipped overseas to Africa and Eastern Europe and are put up for sale on stalls at street markets. They are sold at a cheaper price than local stalls, therefore putting local people out of business who are trying to provide for their family, etc. There is huge profit in what these fake charities are doing. Not only are they stealing from people who believe they are giving to a genuine cause, but they are destroying livelihoods, and local clothes businesses in poorer countries. According to the Association of Charity Shops, they are loosing €1.2 million a year due to the scam clothes collectors. There is no decrease in the number of gangs setting up business here in Ireland. In relation to the law around this issue, it seems that prosecutions have failed due to the law being unenforceable. These thugs exploit the laws in relation to the Theft Act, and jump through as many loopholes as possible. Many register their organisation as a genuine company; which isn’t hard to do in this country. They then use their name, and leaflets, etc, as a front to the Gardaí when approached. In most cases they are never caught in the act. Mixed textiles Many of these scammers will put leafare estimated lets through letterboxes at a late hour such as to be worth 3.00am, and then come back for the clothes a few days later at a time such as 6.00am; mean¤96 per tonne ing you would leave your bag out before you go to bed and it would be gone before you’re up. Therefore, nobody sees them in person. In most cases, the public do not complain or notice anything fraudulent about these collections, and let them go unnoticed, believing they are giving to a genuine charity collection. A worker in one St Vincent De Paul’s charity shop, who wishes to remain anonymous, says: “ I have been aware of these scams over the past number of years. But, I don’t think there is enough public aware-

Government Fails to Regualte Fake ‘Charity’ Clothes Collectors, Canning

ness about it. Many of my neighbours in my estate have fallen for these scams and leave out clothes all of the time. They just don’t realise and are completely mislead.” My source went on to say, “When people see these leaflets, they think ‘oh! great, now I can get rid of those old clothes and help someone in the process’, but this isn’t the case. And I don’t see anyone doing anyNot only are they stealing from thing about it. There is no single Governpeople who believe they are ment department that giving to a genuine cause, but will take responsibilthey are destroying livelihoods, ity to tackle the issue, it’s ridiculous.” and local clothes businesses in “We’ve noticed a poorer countries huge decrease in the shop here with the number of donations and even the number of people who come in and out of the shop. I believe this is genuinely down to these scams. People are leaving everything out to these people, and have stopped bringing them to their local [charity] shops. It is less hassle for people,” says the St Vincent De Paul charity shop worker. There is a major lack of public awareness on this issue. To try and get some awareness out, the Irish Charity Shops Organisation (ICSA) are trying to get this message across: “If in doubt, make sure your donations will count by bringing them to one of the genuine and registered charity shops in Ireland such as Enable Ireland, Oxfam, Irish Cancer Society, and St. Vincent De Paul.” They also have information on their website (www.icsa.ie) on how to spot fake charity flyers, and what to look out for in relation to scams.

Pandemic In A Time Of Crisis Allegations are growing that undue influence on the World Health Organisation to hastily declare the H1N1 global pandemic came from pharmaceutical corporations for profit-motivated reasons. Lidia Okorokova investigates.

little less than a year has passed since influenza H1N1 “swine flu” outbreak was announced in Mexico. The virus then spread around the globe affecting 214 countries according to the World Health Organisation’s reports. The fear of swine flu was as strong as the Spanish flu of 1918, when almost 50 million people died around the world, making that the deadliest natural disaster in modern history. The World Health Organisation expressed fears that two billion people would get infected with H1N1 by the end of 2009 and hundreds of thousands of people would die. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has played a big role in the shaping world’s attitude towards the swine flu pandemic in 2009. This UN’s organisation announced “pandemic level six” in June 2009, but it also recommended that drugs like Tamiflu and anti-viral vaccines like Celvapan and Pandemrix were the only cure for influenza H1N1. According to the guidelines for the industry from the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, in case of a pandemic situation, steps “between the authorisation of the core pandemic dossier and initiation of the fast track of pandemic influenza variation will be limited to two to three days”. When in reality such assessment takes much longer. The assessment takes place with the active participation of the World Health Organisation. This indeed stimulated such pharmaceutical giants as Roche or Bax-

Pandemic In A T ime Of Crisis, Okorokova

ter and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to produce millions of dozes of Celvapan and Tamiflu and other similar medicines. Roche’s Tamiflu sales rose by 213 % in Europe and amounted to total €678 million in 2009. The company is prepared to supply 400 million more packs of Tamiflu to the world if such an occasion arises in 2010. Baxter and GSK also signed contracts and delivered their vaccines to almost all European countries. Roche is very open about its connection with the World Health Organisation and national governments. A press release on their website, dated July 23rd 2009 says, “in May 2009, after the first cases of the new type of influenza were reported, Roche responded immediately to the WHO’s request to supply Mexico and 71 other countries with the stocks of Tamiflu that had previously been donated and stored in anticipation of a pandemic situation.” While Roche, Baxter and GSK have found a way to profit, key personal in government bodies in European countries have either lost their jobs for overreacting or have been praised for looking at the situation adequately and more coolly at the time of swine flu pandemic. Tamiflu is an anti-viral medication that is designed to treat or prevent serious seasonal influenzas and rare ones like Avian flu, or “bird flu”. The WHO has named Tamiflu as the best known medicine to cure pandemic swine flu just days after it raised the pandemic level to six in June 2009. The medication has mild side effects such as nausea and vomiting and serious ones, such as delirium, behavioural disturbances and self-injury. Some countries like Japan used Tamiflu as a treatment for influenza and had linked fatalities among teenagers back in 2005. Nevertheless, the sales of Tamiflu in Japan rose by 1,510% in 2009. According to Doctor Mary O’Meara at the National Immunisation Office (NIO), part of the HSE, two medicines Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir) were used in the management of the influenza pandemic in Ireland.

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

“These medicines when taken early in the illness (within 48 Pharmaceutical companies hours) can both short“have influenced scientists and en the duration of infection and reduce the official agencies, responsible serious complications for public health standards, to of influenza,” she said alarm governments worldwide in an interview. “I think I have also and needlessly exposed milbeen given Tamiflu, lions of healthy people to the when doctors thought risk of unknown side-effects of I had swine flu on my holidays in Bolivia last insufficiently tested vaccines” summer,” says Alva Mc Carthy, a Griffith College student, “I was locked up in a room in the hospital. One scratch was so bad that it left a scar on my hand, I can’t remember scratching myself ”. Therefore, Ireland and Bolivia were among those countries, which have followed the WHO’s instructions to the letter. The Department of Health and Children has taken seriously and acted in accordance with the recommendations by this United Nations’ body. One of the biggest steps Ireland has taken was to vaccinate its citizens. The vaccination programme commenced on November 2nd, 2009 and lasted until March 29th 2010. Almost 16% of the Irish population have received a vaccine. Pregnant women are still advised to be vaccinated, even if the pandemic is over. Many health authorities now refer to the swine flu pandemic as “mild”, because only 17,483 people died from influenza H1N1 around the world. Still, Roche and other pharmaceutical businesses have announced

Pandemic In A T ime Of Crisis, Okorokova

their preparedness to sell additional doses of their medicines if needed in 2010. If there is a second wave of swine flu, it will just boost sales for them again. The HSE’s Mary O’Meara believes that it is “unlikely that there will be another Spring/Summer pandemic wave in Europe unless there are significant unrecognised uninfected populations or the virus changes and becomes more transmissible”. She also added that, “the HSE will work in collaboration with international colleagues including the World Health Organisation to assess the possibility of a second wave”. The World Health Organisation has indeed had a profound effect on the Irish Health Service Executive, just like in many other countries around the world. Several states have struggled to execute the instructions from the WHO, among them is Ukraine. The government in this eastern European country had managed to buy 300,000 doses of Tamiflu by the end of November last year. At first, the then president, Viktor Yushenko, and former prime-minister, Yulia Timoshenko, had serious arguments over how much Tamiflu they would buy that just added fuel to the fire of the power disputes in Ukraine before the elections. The way in which governments around the world have handled the pandemic and followed the instructions of the WHO raises a question of credibility for this UN body as the provider of recommendations to the world about ongoing health disasters and problems. And a question arises as to whether one health organisation such as the WHO, with such very close links to huge pharmaceutical corporations, is enough to provide the world with plausible information about health issues or not. In November 2009 many European newspapers and TV channels reported about the alleged links between the WHO and the pharmaceutical industry. Great Britain’s The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph were among the first ones who began investigating the matter. Many media reports cited British MP, Paul Flynn (Labour party),

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

and Wolgang Wodarg, speaker of German Social Democrats, who are both assigned to and work at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. They wrote an Council of Europe ‘motion for recommendation’ on December 18th, 2009 entitled “Faked Pandemics - a threat for health”, where they said that the pharmaceutical companies “have influenced scientists and official agencies, responsible for public health standards, to alarm governments worldwide and needlessly exposed millions of healthy people to the risk of unknown side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines”. In January 2010, a public hearing was held in Strasbourg, “Baxter was found to have France, by the Councontaminated 72 kgs of vaccine cil of Europe and representatives from both with the bird flu virus, supplied the WHO and several by World Health Organisation, European pharmain its bio-safety level three ceutical companies attended. It has yet to laboratory, so nearly triggering be concluded by the a bird flu pandemic. A few days committee whether after I filed criminal charges, the allegations against the United Nations’ surprise, surprise, the swine health organisation flu appeared in Mexico city” are correct or not. The Council of Europe has yet to publish a report and make recommendations to the European governments, after the second meeting, which has already taken place in Paris on March 29th. Meanwhile, the WHO launched an open “expert assessment” of its

Pandemic In A T ime Of Crisis, Okorokova

work before and during the swine flu pandemic. The Director General of the WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, said in her opening remarks at the first meeting of the Review Committee of the International Health Regulations in Geneva, Switzerland on 12th April that they “want a frank, critical, transparent, credible and independent review of our performance, as well as that of the International Health Regulations. The Secretariat will do everything it can to facilitate such a process”. This eagerness towards “open and frank assessment” was most likely a result of the Council of Europe public hearings and a lawsuit filed by Austrian journalist Jane Burgermeister, a half-Irish journalist from Austria, who has been following the pandemic issue and stories about pharmaceutical companies and the WHO since the beginning of 2009. “I have been following this since February last year [2009] when Baxter was found to have contaminated 72 kgs of vaccine with the bird flu virus, supplied by World Health Organisation, in its bio safety level three laboratory, so nearly triggering a bird flu pandemic. A few days after I filed criminal charges, surprise, surprise, the swine flu appeared in Mexico city,” Jane said when asked when she started following the situation. She filed a criminal case against Baxter and Avir to the Austrian court in April 2009. Since then she has been writing a book, “False pandemic”, and trying to reach out to people around the world on the issue. Jane set up a website and a blog in order to explain “the truth” about the WHO and the swine flu pandemic what she is doing about it and how people might get involved and help her. In the meantime, Jane has worked as a reporter for such big publications as The Guardian the British Journal of Medicine, and Science magazine. She has quit her day job to fight against the WHO and the decisions it makes. On April 16th, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland which caused such airline disruption in Europe, made the World

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

Health Organisation issue a warning. It said, “people with chronic respiratory conditions like asthma, emphysema or bronchitis may be more susceptible to irritation if ash is in the lower atmosphere in high concentrations”. Despite the sense of dread this warning may have produced, there were no reported increases in “irritation” in Ireland. How were people with these ailments to react to this in light of the WHO’s overreaction to H1N1? In future, for the health of the world, governments and the mass media need to sceptically question the WHO and its advisors. The latter’s financial interests and career history needs to be transparent at all times so that people can again trust this important UN agency. Sources and More Info: European Medicines Agency: http://www.ema.europa.eu Irish Department of Health and Children: http://www.dohc.ie/issues/ swine_influenza/ Jane Burgermeister’s blog: http://birdflu666.wordpress.com/ Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: http://assembly. coe.int/main.asp?Link=/documents/workingdocs/doc09/edoc12110. htm#P33_1169 Spiegel Online - International: ‘Swine Flu Panic Grips Ukraine’ http:// www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,658810,00.html

RSA Launches Driver Fatigue Awareness Campaign Government failure to regulate industry leaves public at serious risk from fatigued taxi drivers. Laura Delaney investigates.

The Road Safety Authority of Ireland has launched an extensive campaign appealing to road-users to be aware of the dangers of driver fatigue. RSA research indicates that one in every five crashes on the roads could be caused by driver fatigue. Taxi drivers are proven to be the most vulnerable and prone to fall asleep behind the wheel. The National Taxi Drivers Union urges the government to regulate the taxi industry and close the free market floodgates. So far the government has paid little attention to the increase of driver fatigue on the road. Brian Farrell, communications manager of the RSA, said that, “there has been a dramatic increase in the number of fatigue related accidents since 2008. Men, company drivers and night workers are responsible for ninety per cent of accidents”. A study conducted by the Adelaide Centre for Sleep Research has shown that drivers who have been awake for 24 hours have an equivalent driving performance to a person who has blood alcohol content (BAC), 0.1g/100ml, and is seven times more likely to have an accident. In the current economic climate why is the government not taking action and implementing safety procedures? Vinny Keirns former vice-president of the National Taxi Drivers Union (NTDU) and head of Xpert Digi Taxis says, “driver fatigue is a worrying issue among taxi drivers, the government refuse to acknowledge this problem”. There are more taxis on the road per head in Dublin than any other city in Europe. Between the government’s decision to open

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

the industry in 2000 to limitless taxi numbers, and the impact of the recession, drivers have no choice but to work excessive hours, he says. “The minister for transport, Noel Dempsey, is quick to support drink driving campaigns, One in every support the awareness of seatbelt safety among five crashes children and highlight the danger of drink driving among youths. Yet, when it comes to driver on the roads fatigue which clearly exists in the taxi industry, could be he turns a blind eye. Unlike truck drivers, we are caused by carrying people not goods,” says Keirns. “The government is too afraid to turn driver fatigue around and say ‘We got it wrong’. They would rather put the public at risk instead of enforcing one simple precaution, he says. ‘Regulating the taxi industry which currently stands at 47,156 would drastically decrease driver fatigue on the roads’.” A new in-depth on-scene study last year in the Vehicle Safety Division, at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden reveals that driver fatigue, slippery roads and inexperience could be just as important as, and should be factored into the design of, new vehicle safety features. Mr. Farrell of the RSA states “Taxi drivers are in the high risk category of suffering from a sleeping disorder which affects breathing called ‘sleep apnea’. They tend to live a sedentary lifestyle, they do not get enough exercise, they spend an awful lot of time sitting behind the wheel and may have a poor diet, and it is extremely worrying”. “If you do not get enough sleep you build up a sleep debt, it has to be paid off, you have to sleep and the only cure for lack of sleep is sleep,” says Farrell. He states that doubling up on hours worked, especially in relation to late night drivers and taxi workers, is placing the public at risk. Most GP’s these days will encourage night time drivers to sleep

RSA Launches Driver Fatigue Awareness Campaign, Delaney

with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device to help them sleep. It is often hard to sustain a regular sleeping pattern or settle after being over-worked, he says. A study by the National Central University in Jhongli Taiwan, recently reported that driving for just 80 minutes without a break can make motorists a danger on the road. People run a higher risk of succumbing to driver fatigue between 2am and 6am. This is the prime working hours of the majority of taxi-men. Except now when it reaches 2am, they may be on to their sixth or seventh working hour. Mr. Keirns former president of the Taxi Union says, “the government has shown no attempt to respond to the RSA fatigue campaigns. They knocked the implementation of a tachograph as they be“It is simple, regulate the lieve that parking at a industry and save lives” taxi rank is a sufficient resting period. I am aware that the majority of my drivers may be a danger to society. Most work between 65-70 hours a week. It has to be done, we have to make a living. Unfortunately, we have no choice in the matter”. On a daily basis the government is issuing new taxi licenses without even setting high entry criteria. Skeptics within the industry believe this is purely a revenue collecting scenario for the government. But they will also say it is reckless in the extreme, as it is increasing the risk to both public and taxi drivers. Says Keirns: “It is simple, regulate the industry and save lives”.

Student Travel Discount? Not Uniquely in Europe, Irish second and third level students need to buy a card to prove that they are students in order to get discounts on public transport. Gina Karoline Dalen investigates.

his is how it works everywhere else in Europe: you go to third level college or secondary school: you are given a card to prove that you are a student at their institution and with this card you get student discounts on public transport. In Ireland however, the number of student cards from different colleges and universities makes the train conductors’ heads spin and these different cards make their work so much more stressful and complicated. To solve this horrific problem, part of the public transport system has decided to make the students invest in a student travel card. Each card has a personal identification number, which is needed to buy a student ticket. The card costs the student €15; however, if you bring you own photo the price will be €12. The Student Travel Card promises discounts up to 40% of the regular adult price on public transport. In contrast, in Norway for example, students get a 25% discount on public transport without having to buy a separate card. I did some research where I compared Ireland with Norway. As an international student with a valid student card you can take the train from Oslo to Bergen, an eight hour ride, for 581 NOK (€72). The regular adult price is 775 NOK (€97), this gives the student a 25% discount. In Ireland however, a trip from Dublin to Tralee, which is only four and half hour trip, will cost €72 for an adult ticket, but with a student travel card the price would be €47. This gives the student a 34% discount. It is not possible to use a regular student card to get discounts. The Irish

Student Travel Discount? Not, Dalen

rail system has a very high standard. While Irish trains are much more expensive, compared to Norway, the trains are newer and faster, and students get better discount. Student Travel Card is a separate company owned by Luas, Irish Rail and Dublin Bus and they have four staff members. The company is working with 13 partners to give students speUnlike Dublin cial deals and discounts, not only on travel, but Bus, Luas and also at outlets such as Top Shop, Boots and Champion Sports. Irish Rail, for The government funds Bus Éireann, Dublin some reason Bus, Luas and Irish Rail, in that sense the GovBus Éireann is ernment will also fund the money gap between ticket sales and expenses every year. Ciarán able to accept Cuffe, the Minister of State at Department of all kinds of Transport from the Green Party said the CIÉ student cards program was a part of the Irish Government’s plan to maximize the use of public transport. on their CIÉ and its companies have been involved in journeys a major investment program funded through the National Development Plan with EU cofunding and they use the money to shape up busses and railways. Ciarán Cuffe also said if the students did not buy the Student Travel Card they would not travel as much as they do now. They simply couldn’t afford it, he reckons. Unlike Dublin Bus, Luas and Irish Rail, for some reason Bus Éireann is able to accept all kinds of student cards on their journeys. If you want buy a Limerick-Dublin return ticket, the normal price would be €19.80, and you would save €2.25 on the trip if you show your student card. That is not much, only 11% and you have to buy a return ticket to get a discount. The Student Travel Card Group have made €864 000 so far this year,

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

but every time a student uses their student travel card, Irish rail lose 34% of the fare. Ciarán Cuffe does not agree, he thinks students would travel less if the student travel card did not exist. “The goal is to make as many people as possible use public transport”, he says over the telephone. Ireland is the only country in Europe where you need to pay for a card to prove that It is a disgrace that students liv- you are a student. You ing in Ireland have to pay to get can use your regular third level student the student benefits that are card on your public free everywhere else in Europe transport travels in for example Norway, Sweden and Denmark. So why can’t Irish students use their student cards on journeys here in Ireland? Michelle from the company, Student Travel Card, explains over the phone that it is because it’s too confusing for Irish Rail, Dublin Bus, Dart and the Luas to handle the different student cards, and to check their legitimacy. “The student travel card saw daylight for the first time in 2004, this was to register students”, says Michelle. She and three other staff members at Student Travel Card work the whole year around “for the students”. While the card is similar reminds us of the International Student Travel Card (ITSC) used throughout Europe, the ITSC will not be recognized by Irish Rail, Luas or on Irish trains. In Sweden they have a different system. Reduced prices go to all students, as well as to everyone under the age of 26. Since most of these are students or in a life situation where they don’t have a lot of money, it is fair. Students who come to visit Ireland, inter-railing for example, cannot

Student Travel Discount? Not, Dalen

use their ITSC card as they do in the rest of Europe, and cannot buy rail tickets at student discount prices, since the (Irish) student travel card is restricted to only people who study at second and third level here in Ireland. It is a disgrace that students living in Ireland have to pay to get the student benefits that are free everywhere else in Europe!

Home Sweet Dam Mark O’Flynn investigates the November 2009 Cork city floods and finds the ESB, Cork City Council and property developers partly to blame.

ave you ever felt unsafe in your own home? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night knowing that everything that you worked so hard for is suddenly at risk of being destroyed? In the early hours of November 20th 2009, thousands of people all over Cork city and county woke up to this living nightmare. The damage that was done to homes and businesses in Cork city and county was both catastrophic and unforeseeable for the general public. In University College Cork (UCC) alone, the damage was estimated at around €25 million. According to a report done on flood damage in UCC, 29 of its buildings suffered from significant flooding. As well as that, some 30 of UCC’s 80 acres were submerged in flood water. It is well known that Cork itself is on a floodplain and is therefore susceptible to floods. Because of the fact that floods as extreme as the one that happened in November never happened before, different people are pointing the finger of blame everywhere. In short, the majority of people are blaming the ESB for the floods because they are in charge of the Inniscarra Dam which discharged the water into Cork city and county. But does all the attention have to be put on the ESB at this time? Was there not some sort of negligence on behalf of some property developers or Cork County Council? John O’ Flynn, owner and director of O’ Flynn Construction, applied for planning permission to build houses in Ballincollig, Co. Cork in 2004. At the time, O’ Flynn Construction were redeveloping the old army barracks and converted a section of it by the River Lee into a housing estate called Old Quarter, Ballincollig. “Our building ground was in

Home Sweet Dam, O’Flynn

a possible flood zone area and the water was passing us close by,” says Mr. O’ Flynn. “The obvious conclusion was that the water was passing our site at a low line. So it was definitely a flood risk area.” In order to preAfter receiving information vent damage to the site in later years, O’ from the dam they raised the Flynn Construction ground level up “a good approached the Innmeter”… At the time of the iscarra Dam and enquired what was the floods, no damage occurred to highest level of water the estate. recorded in the area where the houses were going to be developed. After receiving this information from the dam, O’ Flynn says that they raised the ground level up “a good meter”. At the time of the floods, no damage occurred to the Old Quarter housing estate. In the same area, however, a site that was not at a high enough level above the ground was damaged from the flooding. “We do know of an adjacent site where the developers there did not raise the levels high enough and the sewers were flooded. Our own place would have been flooded as well if we did not check the levels, there is no doubt about that”. The Kingsley hotel at Victoria’s Cross in Cork City did not have such a happy ending in comparison. The hotel was built by Victoria’s Cross in 1997. Prior to the hotel being built there, the old Cork Municipal Baths were situated on the same site. The baths were opened to the public in 1934 and closed in 1986. This same site is located right across the road from Cork County Council where all planning applications are received. Despite the fact that there were occasional floods down through the

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

years on the Lee Fields, including a flood in 1986 due to a large discharge of water from the Inniscarra dam that was witnessed by locals of Cork city, planning permission was granted to build the Kingsley Hotel on this very site. Colm Feeney, a Cork engineer for John O’ Donovan & Associates ( JODA) said that there is a prescribed floor level for buildings in Cork since the 1960s, which is 3.1 metres. It is recommended for builders not to go below this floor level and if so, then waterproof basements for car parks must be used for construction. In 2005, planning permission was once again given to the Kingsley Hotel to build an underground car park right “The reservoir was full in next to the hotel. On September, October and the night of the floods November. That should not in November 2009, residents of the hotel have happened. And since who had their vehicles the floods the reservoir is at a parked in the underrecord low.” ground car park had their cars damaged as a result of the flood. As well as that, residents of the Kingsley were evacuated from the hotel at 4:30am. If the planning permission had insisted that waterproof materials were used for the construction of the underground car park in the Kingsley, then it would be expected that a limited amount of damage would happen to the car park. It would also be expected that good quality waterproof material would be used seeing that the underground car park is approximately three metres below the riverbed. However, this was not the case. “Because of poor construction, the car park of the Kingsley was completely flooded,” says Mr. Feeney. “The construction itself

Home Sweet Dam, O’Flynn

was not waterproof and flooding was coming through the walls of the basement. This was an extreme situation but the hotel would have been prone to flooding anyway,” says Feeney. So not only did Cork County Council give planning permission to build a hotel on a floodplain as well as further planning permission to construct a car park under a river bed, but permission for less than adequate construction was also a contributing factor to the damage done. To this day, the Kingsley Hotel remains closed. Looking at another development, Brookfield Village was built on College Road in Cork City in 1990. The site includes a leisure centre, a three star hotel and student accommodation as well as holiday homes during the summertime. Denis O’ Flynn, one of the owners of the complex says that that the total amount of damage done to Brookfield at the time of the floods was no more than €200,000. When asked about approaching the Inniscarra Dam about finding out about flood levels for Brookfield, as it is situated on the Curraheen River, he replied “No. There would have been a level given to us at that time and we kept above that. What happened at Inniscarra that night was a man made problem, nothing else.” By saying this, Mr. O’ Flynn is saying what a lot of other people in Cork are; it was the ESB that was at fault. On the week of the flooding, Met Éireann gave a detailed five day forecast in the Munster region. It must be noted, however, that 50mm of rainfall was predicted for Inniscarra but on the day itself, 80mm of rainfall was recorded. “It is difficult for Met Éireann to give a detailed rain forecast. Even in the Lee attachment from Inniscarra to Ballingeary, rainfall could vary,” says an anonymous interviewee. Having said that, in the book “Generations: Memories of the Lee Hydroelectric Scheme, County Cork” it says the following about collecting rainfall data at the Inniscarra dam: “Rainfall instruments were located at both dams (Inniscarra and Carrigadrohid) so electronic equipments was put there. The instruments collect data on rainfall, which is transmitted to Inniscarra hour by hour. We [workers at the Inniscarra dam] know how much rain

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

falls and that gives us a six hour gap to make decisions on the reservoir levels and river flow.” When asked about the location of the Kingsley Hotel, the anonymous interviewee stated that the Kingsley did not check the flood levels with the dam at the time of development, something which the interviewee found “very strange at the time”. The fact that so much damage was done to the KingFour hours and 20 minutes sley proves that not only were the floor later, the discharge rate [from levels too low, but the the dam] was increased by 196 water level on the site cubic metres per second but no was not checked. People who live in one was informed; lack of the local area of Inniscommunication between the carra are of the strong ESB and Cork County Council opinion that the ESB are at fault because of was evident the fact that the reservoir was very full with water at the time of the floods. “The reservoir was full in September, October and November. That should not have happened,” says a local resident who lives less than four miles form the Inniscarra dam. “During the whole autumn, the reservoir was full. Why was that the case? And since the floods, the reservoir is at a record low.” Through extensive research, this journalist has uncovered some points of information about the Inniscarra dam on the night of the floods. At 5:30pm on November 19th, the ESB were releasing 350 cubic metres of water per second; that was the last communication that was issued by the ESB to Cork County Council. At 9:50pm that evening, the ESB in-

Home Sweet Dam, O’Flynn

creased the discharge rate up to 546 cubic metres per second. From 1986, it is known that when 300 cubic metres of water per second is released from the dam, then Cork city would flood. On the night of the floods, water was still stored in the reservoir preventing greater damage on Cork city. The exact figures of the water stored were not released by the ESB. The ESB had been releasing water from the dam the Sunday before the floods, starting off at 70 tonnes per second and then increasing to 120 tonnes per second later on in the week, up to 5:30 pm on Thursday 19th. Based on the information given above, the last contact made by the ESB was at 5:30pm. Four hours and 20 minutes later, the discharge rate was increased by 196 cubic metres per second but no one was informed; lack of communication between the ESB and Cork County Council was evident here. Glen Pope, Hydro Manager for the ESB in Dublin was not able to give facts and figures about the Inniscarra dam and the level of water discharged: “Unfortunately we’re not in a position to do anything in that space of time at all while we’re obviously co-operating with both an Oireachtas Committee and a ministerial review”. When asked if floods of this kind were likely to happen again, Cork engineer Colm Feeney says that, “With global warming it may not have been a once off flood but I think that it was badly managed by the ESB as well”. The likelihood of a flood of this nature occurring again was stated by the anonymous interviewee, “It is likely that floods of this kind will happen again, even greater floods,” he said.

Dioxin Levels Set To Rise When incinerators were being constructed all over Europe, Ireland remained critical. Now that their construction has ceased in the USA and slowed in Europe, a waste combustion plant is being built on Dublin‘s Poolbeg peninsula. Jennifer Kober investigates.

rench scientists believe incineration could be more detrimental to people’s health than previously anticipated. According to a study carried out in 2003, the emissions of incinerators exceed the amount Environmental Impact Studies can estimate before an incinerator is operating. After observing the homes of 222 people who had recently developed lymphoma, the study found that the risk of developing the disease was much higher in areas with medium to high dioxin levels in the air. Lymphoma, a solid tumour in the lymphatic cells, can be terminal. For residents in the surrounding environment of a municipal waste incinerator, the risk of getting lymphoma was two to three times higher than for others, says the study. The amount of dioxins emitted by the plant studied was much greater than the Environmental Impact Study suggested. In the case of Poolbeg, the study carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states the nature and the amount of emissions produced in the waste combustion process. It mentions them as potential dangers which, if controlled and filtered would not be harmful to local residents. It confirms the proposed Dublin incinerator as safe. This is a view shared by local T.D. Ruairi Quinn. He believes that, if correctly monitored and filtered, these emissions would not be dan-

Dioxin Levels Set To Rise, Kober

gerous for citizens . Nonetheless, he does not support the construction of the facility in Ringsend. “I think it has to be a much smaller incinerator and the location is wrong. For the greater Dublin area, it should be somewhere in the Midlands, where there is very little population,” Quinn suggests. “Personally, I am not against incineration in principle. I For residents in the surrounding environment of a municipal think, there are incinerators working well waste incinerator, the risk of in other countries. If getting lymphoma [cancer] was you have the proper health and safety two to three times higher than standards installed for others and properly monitored, because this is the most important thing. There are seatbelts in every car, but if you don’t put it on every time you use it, you do not have the protection. It is one thing to have the standards for safety as the Poolbeg facility claims, but it is another to have them properly administered,” he says. Quinn states, that the transport of waste would be an additional factor that would need to be revised. “The experience that residents in this area have had with the public-private partnership for the local sewage treatment plant was that it was not operated properly. The management did not know how to do it.” The Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant started operating in 2003, in order to recycle wastewater and clean the city’s rivers. It was the first example of a large public-private partnership in Dublin. The failure to frequently monitor the plant resulted in over 300 complaints about odours in 2007. Dublin City Council said the neglect was due to the

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

repeated breakdown of the monitoring and filtering equipment. Quinn says this has created a distrust of Dublin City Council and private companies among the local residents of Ringsend. “If we are depending on the same group of people to run the incineration plant, I am not confident at all that it will be very good. As this is the case at the present time, they won’t tell us the truth about the facility. They won’t tell us what the nature of the contract is and where the safeguards are. There is a mystery in relation to all this and yet, if it goes wrong the taxpayer will have to bear the cost. That is unacceptable in a democracy,” said Quinn Ruairi Quinn’s opinion is shared by Maurice Bryan, a local engineer from Ringsend. Bryan is a member of the citizen group Combined Residents Against Incineration (CRAI). The group has initiated an extensive, ongoing research campaign against the facility. “I have been involved in this for nearly ten years now, says Bryan. “I was initially brought in about the effect it [incineration] has on wildlife. Because I am a qualified engineer, I was able to understand all the technical matter. So I became deeply embedded in it and I attended all the oral hearings in court.” Bryan says that he does not trust the private public partnership and that the amount of preliminary research it carried out was insufficient. “The environmental impact study was good. There was a lot in it, but it was not at all adequate. A lot of research is being carried out about the effects of incineration, but a lot of the particles that come out of an incinerator are very difficult to measure. In the last six years, there have been a lot of problems surfacing about the carcinogenic effect of these particles and how the pathogens can piggy-back onto the small dust particles in the air”. The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), who issued a report on incineration and its possible health impact in 2009, does not confirm Bryan’s worries. It advocates the use of such thermal waste treatment as an important source of energy. SEPA claims that waste incineration reduces the overall use of fossil fuels for energy generation

Dioxin Levels Set To Rise, Kober

and therefore helps to mitigate climate change. The study says that stringent operational conditions, technical requirements and emission limits would ensure the protection of the environment and human health. Although it would be impossible to rule out harmful health effects for local residents, SEPA remains confident that emitted particles, if detectable, are too small to be of health risk. According to this, incinerators are safe and no need for concern. Residents would not be affected. Bryan believes the In a report on dioxin levels in Irish Environmental food, water and air from 1999 Protection Agency (EPA) should not the FSAI has found that in have granted the liIreland exposure to the chemicence to Poolbeg. By cal is the lowest in Europe. The doing so, it had imposed very strict conreport attributes this to the fact ditions on the operathat there were no waste tion and the emissions incineration facilities in the of the incineration plant. In effect, he country at the time further explains, the correct operation and discharges could not be measured until it is built. Therefore, these measurements could not be evaluated until the facility is built and already operating. He says that he fears the construction costs could have been spent in vain. “This just was not listened to. In fact, the whole thing has been ignored and was reverse-engineered. Dublin City Council picked the site and they picked the size before anything else. And they have been trying to justify it ever since. The council has spent €25 million on consultancy fees, we have spent about €12,000 at the same time. Nobody will give us

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

any funding,” Bryan explains. The EPA’s study states that the incinerator will produce 0.4 grams of Dioxin emissions per year. This figure seems small, but could significantly increase the Dioxin exposure of residents in Dublin, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) suggests. In a report on dioxin levels in food, water and air from 1999, the FSAI has found that, in Ireland, exposure to the The [Ecomed] report acknowlchemical is the lowedges that very little is known est in Europe. The by scientists about the nature of report attributes this the pollutants, but that there is to the fact that there were no waste incinevidence to believe that the ash eration facilities in the created by incinerators contains country at the time. It a high concentration of the toxic states that the average amount of Dioxin substances dioxin and heavy emitted by municipal metals such as mercury, lead waste incinerators in the European Union and copper reaches 0.5 micrograms per tonne of waste. The Poolbeg facility could burn up to 60,000 tonnes of waste per year according to Dublin City Council (DCC). If this figure is met, the incinerator could produce up to 0.67 micrograms of Dioxin per tonne of waste. DCC states that the plant is to be operated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This could mean that Ringsend could have dioxin levels of 4.6 micrograms in the air every hour. As these calculations are based on estimations, Maurice Bryan says the numbers need to be investigated by an independent researcher in

Dioxin Levels Set To Rise, Kober

order to give accurate pollution forecasts. “It is a community which already has health problems. We have many independent health experts, but nobody was allowed to do a full health survey because the Council said they haven‘t got enough money, which is nonsense. They have been able to give €25 million to consultants they picked. They know that if somebody else did the survey, he was going to turn up health problems.” The British Society for Ecological Medicine (Ecomed) published a report in 2009 claiming that the health risk of municipal waste incineration is bigger than previously anticipated by impact studies. It confirms Bryan’s suggestion that even small concentrations of toxins, which remain in the filtered emissions, can be very dangerous for the health of residents. Ecomed believes that most of these toxins are bio-accumulative. This means they could build up inside the human body, which cannot break them down properly. When this happens, very low exposure levels would suffice for the development of chronic illnesses, such as asthma, heart disease, birth defect in children and different forms of cancer. The report acknowledges that very little is known by scientists about the nature of the pollutants, but that there is evidence to believe that the ash created by incinerators contains a high concentration of the toxic substances dioxin and heavy metals such as mercury, lead and copper. According to Medscape, an online medical database, these minerals could be very detrimental to human health. Despite the fact that it is used in many industries such as agriculture and battery and thermometer manufacturing, it is still a concern because mercury is one of the most dangerous metals on the planet. Lead is used in building construction, bullets and lead-acid batteries. Copper, even though being a natural compound of the human body, is toxic if it is unbound in our environment. Medscape warns that mercury, lead or copper poisoning could happen if they are inhaled, ingested, injected or absorbed through the skin. The website says this could lead to anaemia, brain damage, or even death. Due to the high toxicity of

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

these minerals, small amounts can cause damage to the body, but regular exposure causes the biggest risk of toxification. This is supported by Maurice Bryan. He says, while he is highly concerned with the bottom ash, the same substances are already contained in the household waste which is meant to be burned. “The fallout of the incinerator is very hazardous. But there are also waste problems. The Council is proposing to take the waste through the Port Tunnel. As we saw recently in the accident, this can be very dangerous. That was burning household waste. It took them 36 hours and 30 fire brigades to put it out. If that happens down here, nobody might burn to death, but the smoke that comes out of a waste fire hasn’t been filtered, hasn’t been cleaned and is very hazardous. It has dioxins and other toxic emissions in it.” Bryan is referring to an event on February 26th, 2010, when two waste lorries crashed inside the Dublin’s Port Tunnel, which lead to the breakout of a waste fire. Bryan says he blames Dublin City Council for the constantly changing plans for the incinerator. “The council will not listen to any objections. The Minister ( John Gormley) himself is against it. He told Dublin City Council to stop, but they won’t, as they have already gone through most of the planning process.” Bryan stresses that there is a need for transparency and communication with the local residents. “We found out an awful lot of things which subsequently turned out not to be true. We were told it would only take waste from the greater Dublin area, that was said several times in the enquiry. That was the rationale for Poolbeg. The original reason for putting it to Poolbeg was the Eastern Bypass, which was completed in 2004 when it was meant to work,” Bryan reflects. “As we know, the Eastern Bypass is gone now, it’s not going to happen, or if it does, it will be so far in the future that the incinerator would be worn out. That makes transport a problem immediately, because the waste is coming from the suburbs mostly.” The engineer does not believe that the proposed 60,000 tonnes of

Dioxin Levels Set To Rise, Kober

waste can be burned. “We were told, over and over again, there was enough waste in Dublin to feed the incinerator. It now turns out there isn’t and that actually, at the time the hearing was being held, the Council knew they were going to have to take on a partner. And they were actually in process of negotiating a contract, which we have only seen the provisions of in the last couple of days. It says half of the waste need to be collected by the operating company and they proposed to collect it from all over Ireland.” Ruairi Quinn agrees with Maurice Bryan’s suggestion that a national plant is not an appropriate solution and he does not believe that the location for the incinerator can be justified. He recommends opening an incinerator in the countryside: “In the middle of the bogs we did have turf and peat electricity generating stations before and the facilities are still there.” Other than Bryan, Quinn promotes the use of the Port Tunnel: “The waste that is collected locally should be taken together and bailed in around the facility of the M50 and transported by railway in the night time, when there is no rail travel to ensure a safer transportation,” he explains. “You reduce the amount of the material that has to be incinerated and conduct the incineration in an area where there is no risk to population, as it would be in Poolbeg. That would be the best possibility.” Maurice Bryan stresses that the concept of waste incineration has expired. “It could not produce that much energy, although there is a lot of talk about this. But there are other processes available, such as mechanical, biological treatment. It would be so much more efficient to turn our waste into bio fuel, as we would not be forced, in order to generate it, to give up land that could be usefully growing crops instead. There is a definite benefit to using those, they are much cheaper and they don’t have any emissions. But somehow, nobody will look at it”, Bryan says. “This incinerator gives you huge transport issues, it gives you an increased carbon footprint and it gives you problems of hazardous waste. It is a problem. Something that was to be a local facility is now a national

T he Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2010

one.” he explains. “So why should it be in Poolbeg? I have always said it is the wrong place.” So whether the Green Party being in government will have any impact on DCC remains to be seen. Based on the evidence available, if looks as if the residents of Dublin 4 can look forward to increased lymphoma cancer and dramatic increases in waste truck traffic.