Media silence over Niall Collins story

The Ditch has more on him

Cosgrave is problematic for many reasons but you'd still like to think that all public servants return correct expenses claims.

I've come to learn that Niall Collins lives in Patrickswell from the last swing and miss by Paddy Cosgrove. A return trip from there to Leinster House is about 410km.

Even when the Dail is not sitting I doubt it would be far fetched for any TD to make a daytrip to Leinster House once a week, it's more than just the Dail chamber. Add in a few meetings around the constituency clocking up perhaps 100km a day on 3 other days, it's up to 710km a week times 4 weeks and it's 2,840km or almost 3000km.

Did Niall Collins really clock up almost 3,000km on Dail and constituency business that month? Fucked if I know but it's not in any way implausible.

The figure above is 3k, if that's the story, it doesn't amount to much. 6k seems high, but it doesn't automatically make it wrong.

No and No.

But reputable media outlets do things like fact-checking because they have reputations and assets to protect. Unlike the Ditch which is the disposable plaything of a paranoid millionaire.

The media have been all over expenses stories like this in the past and will be on this one and others, just as soon as they're sure what they're publishing is actually factually correct

The man is just another FF crook. Plain and simple.

Even if he did that, his travel claims would (or should) have details on journeys - including dates of those journeys. Assuming of course that the claims relate to actual journeys rather than some monthly travel allowance (TAA)

I worked in the public service and it would be a trivial matter to pick any month, even from years ago, that I was employed, and determine what I claimed for that month, regardless of when I submitted the claim.

As I said already we need more clarity on how exactly the system for politicians works and more details on the claims. If it is as you say and The Ditch are using the date of submission rather than the dates of the claim, The Ditch is wrong. Another possibility is that the system is a joke with no details on journeys required. Another possibility is that Collins has made "errors" or "forgot" that he didn't travel somewhere - like how politicians often forget what assets they own when making declarations or forget where they live when applying for planning permission.

If there is a innocent explanation as to why Collins and others have seemingly high expenses for the month of August, all they have to do is come out with a clear, concise explanation/breakdown to show that everything is correct. That then makes The Ditch look like biased idiots and damages its credibility.

As this hasn't been done, I'm going to assume that there is something more to this.

Politicians' and public servants' pay and travel expsnses are everybody's business

it may be that there no actual proof of any wrong doing but perhaps the travel expenses system for politicians is such a mess that it's not possible to determine either way. That in itself would be damaging.

Why would Collins respond? Are politicians required to respond to every rumour?

That month of August we were also in lockdown so I would love to see the breakdown you mentioned.

OMG, that's the best excuse you can come up with? Dear oh dear oh dear, I am pretty sure you will regret posting that feeble attempt. I don't believe your finance dept would allow you submit a year of expenses in mid December by the way.

Hey....maybe it's expense fraud. Dara Murphy (FG TD) showed them how easy it is. There were 2 RTE Investigates programs showing how rampant it is and FG have blocked the 2015 reform bill on it.

I have submitted a year or expenses in mid December many times, in fact I once submitted expenses from the previous year in a September. Anyone who worked in any public service situation would be aware of many who have done the same.

Yes, maybe it's expense fraud, who knows, but the point I am making is that the quality of Ditch journalism is so poor, like unbelievably bad, that they print such rubbish.

I don't disagree with you, just don't like the type of shoddy gutter journalism that the Ditch engage in, makes The Sun and Hillsborough look like cutting edge investigative journalism.

Not really, as has been pointed out by many they usually only investigate half a story until they are happy they can produce a splashy headline that their boss can point and cry about, much like tabloid rags regularly do.