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ENDA KENNY HAS revealed that there is no exhaustive record of who attended the Department of the Taoiseach in the period leading up to and on the night of the bank guarantee.
Answering parliamentary questions last week, the Taoiseach said that his department does not keep a record of attendance for general service staff in the Department of the Taoiseach.
A visitors book is maintained at the welcoming pavilion of the department on Merrion Street but he said: “This is not an exhaustive record of all visitors who attended at the Department during that period.”
Kenny explained that visitors who sign the book are mainly those who are attending press events or meetings while visitors attending the Department by prior appointment may contact an office in advance and arrange parking.
Normally, these visitors are met at reception and are not usually asked to sign the visitors book. He also pointed out that his department can be accessed via Leinster House.
The questions were put to him by the Labour TD Kevin Humphreys who asked for a copy of the attendance record book for his department for all of September and specifically the 29 and 30 September.
The government issued the state guarantee of all deposits and liabilities of the banks on 30 September 2008 following a late night Cabinet meeting. The Taoiseach has repeatedly asserted that there is a paucity of documents in his Department related to that period.
However, Fianna Fáil, the party in government at the time, has pointed to a document outlining over a hundred records from that period which it says contradicts Kenny’s claims.
In another answer to a parliamentary question, the Taoiseach revealed how his Department handles documents in light of his statements about the lack of records related to the guarantee.
Kenny told independent TD Stephen Donnelly that his Departmnet complies with the Data Protection, Freedom of Information and National Archives legislation.
“The Department operates a central registry record-keeping system comprising a Registry File Tracking System and a central repository for the storage of all Departmental records,” he explained.
“Files created in the Department are recorded centrally and their location is known, to the time when they are transferred to the National Archives for permanent preservation.”
In answers to all of these PQs related to the bank guarantee, the Taoiseach added: “My Department will co-operate fully with any inquiry established into these matters”.
In another parliamentary question, Kenny revealed the positions of the seven staff still working at his Department who were there when during the bank guarantee.
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Michelle O’Neill is absolutely correct in her call for this, but the North being the North; it is pretty obvious that the push from Michelle and the pushback from Arlene stems from something other than Coronavirus/public health.
@LangerDan: What about that funeral she attended not so long ago. Didn’t see much social distancing, did you? Plus did everybody there do self isolation after? Only thing she did with that statement was prove she is every bit hypocrite that she shamelessly branded to others.
@Richard Cronin: There has been more than enough hypocrisy to share around during this pandemic from many quarters. However it is important that we do not allow past hypocrisy create tunnel vision. I’d rather a hypocrite make a U-Turn than stick dogmatically to their original position. The issue here is, it makes perfect epidemiological sense to have an island wide solution to this; but the Northern parties are so entrenched in Green-Orange politics that such sound calls get proposed and opposed under a different light.
@LangerDan: so why are all the airports & harbors open? It’s not like the virus is going away anytime soon. Plus how is all this to be payed for? Most hypocrites are around for the sound bites but not for actual problem solving
@LangerDan: cash for ash foster would rather flood the place with unchecked tourists than listen to sf warning
She’s 100% right but unfortunately has undermined her own authority on Covid by attending Sinn Féin funeral that broke all common sense rules of social distancing.
@Brendan Walsh: hypocrisy in action
@Brendan Walsh: she had no choice, she was only following orders.
@John Mulligan: yaaaaawwwwwnnnn
@Richard Cronin: it is 14 days today since that funeral and as the numbers show, it was so well organised around social distancing regulations that not a single case of covid has been traced to it.
@M Bowe: actually 21 days.
@M Bowe: the west Brits are out in style
Poor Arlene. Would sooner see her people dessimated by a lethal virus than give an inch on her beloved Union.
@Toon Army: Maybe Michelle and colleagues should have thought of that before organising a mass attendance at a recent funeral.
@TL55: I don’t think they planned on a funeral??
Sinn Fein demanding internment for people entering Ireland. Detained without trial. Hilarious.
Does anyone really take this woman seriously?
@Brian Renaghan: Of course not Arlene Foster is a relic of the old era but luckily people are listening to Michelle O’Neill and taking what she says seriously.
When it came to closing and opening schools, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales took a different approach than England, so why are they insistant that they MUST now maintain the common travel area controls (or rather a lack of controls) with the rest of UK.
It really is hard to take anything from SF seriously. This type of proposal requires consensus from the executive and that is the forum for such an initiative. This solo run is just sectarian politics at its worst.
@camio55: do you even know what sectarianism is. Maybe check it out before using it!!!!!
@M Bowe: Sectarianism is a form of prejudice, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching relations of inferiority and superiority to differences between subdivisions within a group.
Never thought I’d end up on Arlene’s side. Strange times.
Yet she went to a funeral where how many people attended? Calling for holding areas for people without due process? Congratulations you are every bit the hypocrite you shamelessly brand other politicians
@Richard Cronin: you are giving her too much credit. She doesn’t have any say in policy, she was appointed by the army council and is just a mouthpiece for them, the same as her clone in the south.
This is just an attempt by her handlers to leverage the covid crisis to suit their own agenda.
Sinner wants to stop traffic from Britain and align with Republic. Shocker
And the Republic of Ireland needs to protect itself from the spread of Covid-19 from Northern Ireland and vice-versa by limiting mass gatherings including attending IRA funerals, Michelle, Mary Lou and Pearse.
The porous border that the Unionists love could kill a lot of people !
have your say