Here’s How 23 – Floods, Insurance and Corruption

Dec 17, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Sinead Carroll is a solicitor with Ernest J. Cantillon Solicitors. Jason O’Sullivan is the founder of JOS Solicitors.

Cllr Hugh McElvaney

Hugh McElvaney has been a Fine Gael councillor in Monaghan since 1999. He has been central to massive inappropriate rezoning throughout his career as a councillor.

The Standards in Public Office (SIPO) Commission has been constantly undermined by Phil Hogan and this government in general. Hogan also scrapped the investigations into planning irregularities in Monaghan, Waterford, Carlow, Dublin, and Donegal.

Michael Noonan scrapped the 80 per cent windfall tax on the proceeds of rezoning, creating a huge incentive for planning corruption.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 22 – Dr Garrett McGovern on Injecting Rooms and Drug Decriminalisation

Dec 08, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

I referred to the damage done to children’s education, particularly to disadvantaged children by long school holidays. This is backed up by many studies, including this one from the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Dr Garrett McGovern

Dr Garrett McGovern is a GP specialising in the treatment of addiction and Medical Director of the Priority Medical Clinic in Dublin.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 21 – Sarah Benson CEO of Ruhama

Nov 12, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Sarah Benson is the CEO of Ruhama.

Sarah Benson, Ruhama CEO

The Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity were credited with founding Ruhama on Ruhama’s website up to February 2015, but all references to both those orders have been deleted from the pages of their website since, although some old annual report PDFs still mention them. Both those orders have refused all compensation to their victims. Both orders have flatly refused to even meet victims’ groups.

The four orders who ran the Magdalene Laundries (of which Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity were two) made hundreds of millions of euro from selling the laundry properties. Despite their wealth and their influence over Ruhama, the bulk of Ruhama’s funding comes from the taxpayer.

These orders have been condemned by, among others the UN; the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said “Girls placed in the institutions were forced to work in slavery-like conditions and were often subject to inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment as well as to physical and sexual abuse”.

Headlines like “Over 300 women affected by trafficking and prostitution needed help last year” put high numbers alongside the concept of trafficked women in Ireland, however a closer reading of Ruhama’s most recent annual report reveal that in that year they first encountered “17 women [who] were suspected victims of sex trafficking” in 2013, my emphasis.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 20 – Refugees, Immigration and Migration

Nov 05, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Mike’s original audio file is here.

Syrian Refugees

This is the Baroness Jay report into the sex abuse scandal in Rochdale, England.

These are the UNHCR reports that report 1.7m Syrian refugees in Turkey and 1.8m in Lebanon, a country not much bigger than County Cork.

Update: The contributor, Mike, got back to me and queried me for a source on the tendency of immigrant birth rates to trend towards that of the host country. This study shows:

The findings support mainly the socialization hypothesis: the transition rates of first-generation immigrants vary by country of origin, and the fertility patterns of migrant descendants resemble more closely those of West Germans than those of the first immigrant generation. In addition, the analyses show that fertility differentials between immigrants and women of the indigenous population can largely, though not in full, be explained by compositional differences.

In short, that means is that the birth rates are higher partly because people tend to migrate at the start of their childbearing years, and the remaining differentials fade in second and third generation immigrants. Mike, however, correctly points out that even if immigrant communities quickly adopt a birth rate similar to the indigenous population, a constant arrival of new immigrants will increase their proportion of the population.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 19 – Martin Collins of Pavee Point

Oct 29, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Martin Collins is the co-director of Pavee Point.

Martin Collins of Pavee Point

Fr Micheál Mac Gréil published the study that measures the ‘social distance’ that people feel to various minority groups, and Travellers consistently are measured to be the most marginalised.

The health, infant mortality, maternal mortality and life expectancy of Travellers are all much worse than the general population.

The Irish Prison Service reports that male Travellers are 11 times more likely to be in prison than the general population, and female Travellers are 23 times more likely, the latter figure is based on a very small sample. This figure understates the true contrast, because a much higher proportion of Travellers are under 18 and thereby not liable to be imprisoned. In addition, there are over 450 Irish Travellers in British prisons, so Irish Travellers are more likely to be imprisoned in British Prisons than the general population is likely to be imprisoned at all.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 18 – NAMA and Cork Council Merger

Oct 18, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Mick Barry is an AAA / Socialist Party councillor on Cork City Council.

Cllr Mick Barry

This is the article, written by Frank Daly of NAMA, (behind paywall, hint open in incognito window) where he claims “Some claim we should have got a better price, but they know there was no bidder willing to pay more,” however the public records shows that NAMA debtors were willing to pay more to buy out their debts.

Below is the full text of my emails to David Clerkin of Gordon MRM that I refer to. ~ read more ~

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 17 – Crime Reporting and Conor Faughnan

Oct 05, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

This is a long, detailed article on the violent attack on the Corcoran family. Like almost every other report, in every newspaper, the report omitted that the men convicted of the crime were Travellers.

Conor Faughnan

Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland spoke about automating the checking of Tax, NCT and Insurance rather than displaying disks.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 16 – VW, and Exclusive Interview with Jamie Bryson

Sep 29, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

This Episode has a major interview with Jamie Bryson, the loyalist blogger and activist about his revelations on the Nama/Project Eagle affair.

Jamie Bryson

These are the reports that first uncovered the software designed to cheat on EPA emissions tests when VW cars were tested. This is the report that shows that air quality doesn’t match the manufacturers’ claims about their vehicles, and here the annual deaths from diesel emissions are quoted.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 15 – John Lyons and Nama’s Project Eagle

Sep 26, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

NAMA’s Northern Ireland portfolio is named Project Eagle. The entire portfolio was sold to Cerberus. The maximum sentence for lobbying NAMA is six months in prison or a €1,000 fine.

Judge Martin Nolan said that it would be incredibly unjust to send the Anglo criminals Pat Whelan and William McAteer to prison for their part in a half-a-billion-euro illegal loan scam.

Under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, major companies have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars. The US Department of Justice served a subpoena on Cerberus on 7 September 2015.

Cllr John Lyons

John Lyons is the People Before Profit councillor for Beaumont-Donaghmede, and also their Dáil candidate in Dublin Bay North.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 14 – Bashir Otukoya and Alan Shatter

Sep 22, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Alan Shatter became minister of justice in 2011. Brian Purcell, his secretary general, was judged to be running a grossly incompetent department. Shatter extravagantly complained that the Guerin Report was a breach of his human rights and called on the Human Rights and Equality Commission to investigate the process, and he humiliatingly lost a case challenging the findings of the Guerin Report.

Martin Callinan, Brian Purcell and Alan Shatter

Bashir Otukoya is a PhD candidate at Sutherland School of Law at UCD.

Bashir Otukoya

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 13 – Fixing Garda Corruption, Milk Prices & Two Announcements

Sep 08, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

The episode of the Claire Byrne Live show is available here, but RTÉ don’t tend to leave them online for very long. This is the James Reynolds who was presented as a ‘man in the street’ speaking from the audience. Cllr Seamus Treanor, the anti-immigration councillor from Monaghan was identified, he falsely claimed that there are 900,000 Eastern Europeans in Ireland, the true figure is about one quarter of that. Norah Casey claimed that 400 children disappeared into child trafficking after arriving in Ireland. I can’t find anything to verify this, and I have attempted to get in touch with her to ask for her source, so far without response.

Clare Daly TD

Clare Daly is the independent TD for Dublin North, originally elected for the Socialist Party.

Pat McCormack is the deputy president of the ICMSA.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How Shortlisted for the Blog Awards Ireland

Sep 07, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Update: Voting has closed now.

The Here’s How podcast has been shortlisted for the Blog Awards Ireland 2015! It would be great if you could click here to vote for your favourite podcast… Thanks!

Vote for Here’s How at the Blog Awards Ireland 2015

Posted in Articles

Rosanna Davison Nutrition – Update

Sep 02, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Before I recorded Episode 12 of the podcast, I sent a draft script of the section concerning Rosanna Davison to her PR representative, as a courtesy, and to allow her to comment. Her representative didn’t reply before my deadline, but later sent me an email, saying:

Rosanna Davison, as pictured on her website

You need to take a look at this line:

“The meaning of the words you used were clear, you said that gluten was responsible for arthritis, autism and schizophrenia”

Please take a closer look at the Irish Independent and you will see that Rosanna did not say this. The line in the article that caused the controversy was not a direct quote from Rosanna.

This is something which has gone to great lengths to explain at this stage if you read her statement more closely

She also makes clear that she would never advise anyone to use diet alone to treat any ailments.

~ read more ~

Posted in Articles

Here’s How 12 – Renting, Building, Corruption and Beauty Queens

Aug 28, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

This is the original article where Rosanna Davison claimed that gluten was responsible for autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and arthritis, and here she backtracked, claiming that she merely suggested that ‘gluten-free diets can play a role in helping to manage … auto-immune and neurological disorders’; my emphasis. This is the website where she visually and verbally promotes her qualifications, from from the College of Naturopathic Medicine in Dublin and the US-based Institute of Functional Medicine. Neither offer any recognised qualifications.

Rosanna Davison, natural therapist

Here Arthritis Ireland rebutted her claims, and here is a scientific study discounting gluten in the treatment of autism.

Deirdre Ni Fhloinn is a solicitor and PhD candidate in the School of Law at Trinity College Dublin.

Dr Lorcan Sirr is a lecturer in housing studies, urban economics, and research methods in the School of Real Estate and Construction Economics at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Dr Theresa Reidy is is a lecturer at University College Cork.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 11 – Religious education, Dublin transport planning, Rape Crisis Centre funding

Aug 15, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

David Quinn, Director of the Iona Institute

David Quinn is the director of the Iona Institute and a columnist with the Irish Independent. The Religious Practice and Values in Ireland study by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference found that half of Catholics don’t believe in hell, a quarter don’t believe in sin or in heaven, almost a third don’t believe in the afterlife and more than 10 per cent of Catholics don’t believe in god.

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop is the CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.

Nial Ring is a former member of Fianna Fáil who left the party and won a seat on Dublin City Council having failed to secure the Fianna Fáil nomination as a candidate.

I misspoke and attributed the study of traders’ perceptions of their customers mode of transport to the Irish Cycling Campaign. In fact, the Shopping Travel Behaviour in Dublin City Centre Survey was done by DIT and shows that traders overestimate the proportion of their customers who travel by car and underestimate the proportion who travel by foot or by cycle.

David O’Connor is a lecturer and MSc Spatial Planning Programme Chair at Dublin Institute of Technology.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How 10 – Government IT, Philanthropy & Democracy and Germans on Greek Debt

Jul 30, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Long Term Economic Value (things look more meaningful when they get capital letters) was not an established economic concept when it entered public discourse in 2010. The acronym LTEV did not exist in relation to it before it was applied to NAMA. This is the statement by Ian Coulter saying that he deposited GBP £7m from his employer’s client in his personal offshore bank account for unspecified ‘complex’ legal reasons.

Klaus-Peter Willsch is a member of the German parliament, the Bundestag, who opposes Greece remaining in the euro.

Klaus-Peter Willsch

John Handelaar is a freelance developer behind KildareStreet.com, FixMyStreet.ie and the forthcoming www.FoI.ie

Michael Moriarty is an accountant who has studied the role of philanthropists in Irish society, and has worked on a number of projects funded by Atlantic Philanthropies.

Nicolas Sölter is a PhD candidate at Hamburg University, the economics spokesperson of Junge Union Deutschlands, the youth wing of Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU party.

Posted in Podcasts

It’s not Greece, it’s China

Jul 08, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

There is a sunny country to the east, where economic disaster looms, investors are likely to lose out, the stability of the government is under threat, and the financial shockwaves are likely to be felt throughout Europe, including in Ireland.

And we also have problems with Greece. ~ read more ~

Posted in Articles

Here’s How, Episode Nine – Greek Default, TTIP again,

Jun 30, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

PARC, the road safety lobby group did a survey of court cases and found that 80 per cent of drivers sentenced to penalty points in court and 96 per cent of drivers disqualified from driving in court did not have their driver licence number recorded by the court clerk.

The Moriarty Report was published in 2011, following an interim report in 2006. TheJournal.ie reported that ministers have been giving copy-and-paste answers as to why there has been no garda investigation into its findings.

Dr Julien Mercille of the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy at UCD

Dr Julien Mercille is lecturer in the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy at UCD. Reports say Greek DJs and hairdressers retire aged 50 because their jobs are deemed ‘hazardous‘. A BBC More or Less programme calculated that they subsidies to the Greek rail system cost more than it would cost to send all the passengers in taxis.

Matthew Wallis is Senior Lecturer at the College of Business Law & Social Sciences at Nottingham Business School.

John Hamill is a member of the National Executive of Atheist Ireland.

Posted in Podcasts

Here’s How, Episode Eight – TTIP, Transgender Children & More

Jun 20, 2015 ~ Written by William Campbell

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

In the Marriage Equality referendum, the No side got 37.93 per cent; the Conservative Party got 36.9 per cent in the 2015 general election, and won more than half the seats in the House of Commons.

Brian Hayes promotes TTIP

The EU dropping regulations on powerful endocrine-disrupting chemicals linked to cancer and male infertility, under pressure from US TTIP negotiators, is reported here.

The use of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) by tobacco giant Philip Morris to resist plain cigarette packaging in Australia is documented here and here.

Jillian van Turnhout, one of the Taoiseach’s 11 nominees to Seanad Éireann tweets here.

‘Grandad’ publishes his curmudgeonly blogs on Head Rambles. Evidence that advertising is successfully used to fool customers about the health benefit of many foods is here.