Taoiseach’s Mayo village cycling club hits jackpot with Lottery grant

ted1

spyderski wrote: »

Yeah, seems like an error. I was actually looking to see how much Western Care received from the Dept. fund.

Coincidentally it was also €20,000, same as for the spin bikes....

"The current service for children under the age of six, for instance, has the same level of staffing now for up to 80 children as it did four years ago for 35-40 children.”
"With 400 adult service users, it is hard to believe that Western Care only has a physiotherapist funded for one day a week."

Now, if you can justify this, or think it's OK, good luck to you.

@ ted1 - have a little think about it before defending the indefensible yet again.

It's wholly irrelevant as the option wasn't to give to A or B.
Did the autism group apply for a grant? The money was from lottery funds, maybe the autism group don't meet the criteria. Maybe the management there need to look at how they ask for money.

He who dares , wins.

Beasty

spyderski & ted1 - can we leave this particular head to head there

Any questions, please PM me - do not respond to this warning in-thread

Thanks

spyderski

ted1 wrote: »

It's wholly irrelevant as the option wasn't to give to A or B.
Did the autism group apply for a grant? The money was from lottery funds, maybe the autism group don't meet the criteria. Maybe the management there need to look at how they ask for money.

He who dares , wins.

They did apply. And got it. The Minister decided they deserved the same as the cycling club.

spyderski

Thanks Weepsie, a succinct overview of this situation, and exactly why it is wrong in the extreme.

mugsymugsy

Do they have to provide receipts / show what the funding was spent on? Under FOI do they have to show how the 20k was spent? Be interesting to see the breakdown of it.

ted1

mugsymugsy wrote: »

Do they have to provide receipts / show what the funding was spent on? Under FOI do they have to show how the 20k was spent? Be interesting to see the breakdown of it.

I would persume that they need to keep them. They would not fall under FOI. Spending money on something other than submitted in the grant would be fraud.

spyderski

I suppose it depends how specific they were in the application. If they said "fitness classes" there is nothing to stop them paying whatever instructor they want, or buying the equipment necessary for those classes. We really need to see the application to see the intention.

As far as I know, there are random audits carried out to check the funds are being spent correctly.

I have no interest in falling out with people over this, I have a genuine concern regarding the funding, and am making it my business to investigate further. Hopefully my suspicions will be unfounded, and there is a perfectly legitimate explanation why they got funding so obviously earmarked for specific groups.

smacl

Bit more in the IT today here and a bit more here, which links an interesting study 'Spokes or strokes? Clientelism and cycling funding in Ireland'. Unfortunately, I've only access to the abstract, but looks like it could be a good read.

spyderski

The report seems to relate more to the provision of cycle-commuting infrastructure than leisure cycling, but interesting to see there are more sceptical people out there....

Jawgap

mugsymugsy wrote: »

Do they have to provide receipts / show what the funding was spent on? Under FOI do they have to show how the 20k was spent? Be interesting to see the breakdown of it.

ted1 wrote: »

I would persume that they need to keep them. They would not fall under FOI. Spending money on something other than submitted in the grant would be fraud.

Actually, they wouldn't have to provide receipts but they would have to keep them (for 5 years iirc) in case of audit.

They will, if not selected for audit in the next 12 months, have to submit a cert signed by their auditors that the money was spent on what it was supposed to spent on - easy do that when they get the club accounts done in the run up to their AGM.

Anything submitted to the Dept would be amenable to FOI.

Lusk_Doyle

Enda, Islandeady CC and Spyderski - A true underdog story. Coming to big screens near you soon.

Lusk_Doyle

I got another one:

Islandeady Obsession. The new fragrance by Spyderski!

Beasty

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Enda, Islandeady CC and Spyderski - A true underdog story. Coming to big screens near you soon.

Enda had better watch out if he does have something to own up to

If we can bring down Pat....

You don't mess with 410!

:pac:

Jawgap

......no Leinster clubs need apply

......at least not until Leo is Taoiseach.........

......of course if Coveney gets the gig a lot of clubs in Dublin are going to have to wait to establish their Turbo Outreach Programmes to improve inclusiveness of the disadvantaged*




*triathletes and MTB'ers

smacl

Weepsie wrote: »

Yup, PDF available on academia.edu if you have a google+ account

Thanks for that, signed up and got the PDF, some other interesting stuff on there too.

spyderski

Kenny twice rode to rescue of local bike club

Enda Kenny, the taoiseach, made two representations to Simon Harris, the health minister, on behalf of a cycling club in the Mayo village where he grew up that was seeking lottery funding from the Department of Health last year. Islandeady cycling club was subsequently awarded €20,000 in funding, despite the department’s lottery fund being ring-fenced for the “provision of health-related services”.

Pádraic Horkan, the club’s public relations officer, has previously said the taoiseach had “no hand, act or part” in the funding application and had not been consulted about it. This weekend Ger Deere, the taoiseach’s assistant and a member of the club, said he had brought the application to Kenny’s attention.

The club, which has more than 100 members, sought funding for 30 indoor…

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/kenny-twice-rode-to-rescue-of-local-bike-club-58c9c62pp

spyderski

Jawgap wrote: »

From my own experience you can guarantee there is no 'smoking gun' - the Minister's Office calls, it never emails

This is what I thought too at the time. Seems the arrogance is such that these guys don't even bother hiding the trail anymore...

ednwireland

Our club rents a room and puts on a turbo class. Free to club members bring your own turbo and bike. Several spare turbos knocking about as well (needs prearrangement). No way is it worth a 20k grant.

spyderski

This is getting worse. Absolutely outrageous - any ideas on how to take this further. has been reported to the C&AG already. Is that the only route to take?

terrydel

spyderski wrote: »

Kenny twice rode to rescue of local bike club

Enda Kenny, the taoiseach, made two representations to Simon Harris, the health minister, on behalf of a cycling club in the Mayo village where he grew up that was seeking lottery funding from the Department of Health last year. Islandeady cycling club was subsequently awarded €20,000 in funding, despite the department’s lottery fund being ring-fenced for the “provision of health-related services”.

Pádraic Horkan, the club’s public relations officer, has previously said the taoiseach had “no hand, act or part” in the funding application and had not been consulted about it. This weekend Ger Deere, the taoiseach’s assistant and a member of the club, said he had brought the application to Kenny’s attention.

The club, which has more than 100 members, sought funding for 30 indoor…

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/kenny-twice-rode-to-rescue-of-local-bike-club-58c9c62pp

Ah,so amazingly all the cynics have been proven correct. Wow, Im stunned, truly stunned.

terrydel

spyderski wrote: »

This is what I thought too at the time. Seems the arrogance is such that these guys don't even bother hiding the trail anymore...

Your work on this puts you ahead of 99% of 'journalists' in this country in terms of investigation, on any subject.

Junior

Full text of that article is now on Broadsheet.ie

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2017/01/03/the-cycle-of-irish-life/

Doc07

ednwireland wrote: »

Our club rents a room and puts on a turbo class. Free to club members bring your own turbo and bike. Several spare turbos knocking about as well (needs prearrangement). No way is it worth a 20k grant.

I'm not disputing that this grant stinks of the usual Irish corruption. However is the high cost due to purchase of high end spin/watt bikes rather than turbo trainers. Not that it makes it right but just to explain how you could actually spend the 20k eg 15-20 spin bikes

OleRodrigo

Weepsie wrote: »

They charge €30 for 6 spin classes over 6 weeks, or €60 for 12. Again this seemingly goes to the President's son Ray Moylette.

If they use these turbos for what I consider a commercial enterprise, then again the grant should be pulled

Those fees aren't high and could be covering operational costs. A commercial enterprise is where a profit is made and that would a different thing altogether.

I'm not seeing where the issue is here, just more noise over nothing. Actually, the real issue is why more rural towns don't get 20000 euro for exercise and health initiatives.

RobFowl

Doc07 wrote: »

I'm not disputing that this grant stinks of the usual Irish corruption. However is the high cost due to purchase of high end spin/watt bikes rather than turbo trainers. Not that it makes it right but just to explain how you could actually spend the 20k eg 15-20 spin bikes

The fact that a cycling club could have bought 30 turbo trainers for 3000 quid instead of static trainers for 20k doesn't make it any better !!!

Doc07

RobFowl wrote: »

The fact that a cycling club could have bought 30 turbo trainers for 3000 quid instead of static trainers for 20k doesn't make it any better !!!

I'm not defending the club or Kenny or Harris. You'll see I have 'thanked' spyderski since this began.
I was just pointing out that they may actually have spent the money on equipment that actually cost close to 20k rather than couple grand on turbo and do God knows what with the rest.

AndrewJRenko

spyderski wrote: »

This is getting worse. Absolutely outrageous - any ideas on how to take this further. has been reported to the C&AG already. Is that the only route to take?

I'm not sure the C&AG would give this too much attention, given the scale. They usually focus on multi-million budget projects or programmes. But no harm in making a report.

You could try making a complaint to the Internal Audit head in the relevant Dept - at least they have to respond to you in some way. Or see which Oireachtas committee covers this Dept, and see if you can find an opposition TD who will raise the matter there.

Jimmy Garlic

People should fund their own fuqen hobbies.

Doc07

Maybe I should just leave it as there are more important things in life and more 'wrongs' done on a larger scale everyday in Ireland. Maybe I'm becoming a sad, bitter interweb warrior.

But then I was sad enough to read the names of every association awarded lottery funds via Dept of Health in 2016.
Islandeady are the only Sports club, never mind Cycling club, on the list.

Maybe no other sports clubs knew they might be eligible for such a grant?
And perhaps an Taoiseach is so on top of all the important things that he can write twice to the Minister for Health on behalf of this cycling club for this grant.

Chuchote

Every cycling club in Ireland should apply for the grant next year (using the Islandeady application as a template, as they obviously knew how to make their case). It would be bloody great if health funds actually went to cycling clubs - assuming that those clubs would 'outreach' to others, bringing schoolkids on country cycles, teaching courses in bike mechanics, perhaps hiring or buying rickshaws to take disabled and very old people on cycles like the guy who did this TED talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Ti4qUa-OU