American writer Mark Twain is recorded as having said: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do, you’re misinformed.”
What, then, does paying someone to read the newspapers on your behalf make you? One of an increasing number of publicly funded organisations, seemingly.
During a recent Public Accounts Committee meeting, Sinn Féin TD John Brady noted “frustration” among the public with Uisce Éireann’s responses to their complaints, with some believing that going to the media is how to get an issue fixed.
He asked Uisce Éireann chief executive Niall Gleeson, who had earlier offered a defence of pay structures at the company, where about a fifth of staff earn more than €100,000, if the firm paid for media monitoring.
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Gleeson said it did and the service costs – you guessed it – “about €100,000 per year”, a figure Brady described as “extraordinarily high”.
“When I joined the organisation, I used to get up in the morning and read the papers to figure out what my day was going to be like because the media sentiment was quite negative,” Gleeson said.
“Today I think we are in a better place, but we still need to see what people are saying about us. It is a mechanism to understand.”
Uisce Éireann is not alone. A search of the eTenders website shows dozens of “media monitoring” contracts have been advertised by departments and State agencies since 2023.
The Health and Safety Authority is tendering for a media monitoring and press clippings service at an estimated value of €75,000. Revenue recently sought media monitoring services at an estimated €100,000, as did the Department of Health (€75,000) and IDA Ireland (€150,000).
Ryder Cup Experiences: Newcastle West nights for less than €6,000
Overheard recently reported that the first tickets for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor were available, with “premium experiences” starting from €600 a day.
The experiences keep on coming from Ryder Cup Europe, which this week notified subscribers that “a limited number of Official Ticket-Inclusive Hotel Experiences” are available.
“History will be written, legends will be made. And you can be there, guaranteed to witness every moment,” it said.
The packages, priced per person, include five nights’ accommodation, a four-day standard Ryder Cup ticket and ground transportation, the last one arguably being the most important given the hotel locations.
It’s a long way to Tipperary (from Adare) and an “experience” involving a stay at the Horse and Jockey Hotel (87km away from the golf venue) starts at €4,495 per person.
For the McWilliam Hotel, 162km away in Claremorris, Co Mayo, the experience starts at €4,186, while a package involving a stay at the Connacht Hotel in Galway (123km away) starts at €5,163. For those seeking a shorter hop, experiences at the Longcourt House in Newcastle West, just 25km from Adare, start at €5,952.
For those thinking of doing reconnaissance, a five-night stay in a deluxe double at the Longcourt on the same week in 2026 comes in at €573.75 for two people sharing, but legends are unlikely to be made at that stage.
Transylvanian prosecutor questions Bram Stoker’s ‘accuracy’
Laura Codruța Kövesi, Europe’s first chief prosecutor, sought to set the record straight on a few counts when visiting Dublin this week.
She met Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan on Wednesday to restate her view that Ireland should be an active member of the European Public Prosecutors Office, which has since 2017 worked to combat crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests. The Minister’s spokeswoman later said O’Callaghan would early next year bring forward legislation that would allow the State to opt in. A win for Kövesi.
Later, at Trinity College Dublin, where she received the Praeses Elit award from the university’s Law Society, the Romanian national felt compelled to comment on a well-known alumnus – Bram Stoker.
She said the author made “Romania world famous” through his 1897 work Dracula, but the vampire novel had landed her native Transylvania, a place he had never visited, with a “terrifying reputation”.
“So, it is only fair that you invited a Romanian who can set the record straight: Dracula’s Castle is not in Transylvania!” she told her audience. “We have no clue where his castle is.”
This (seemingly correct) viewpoint hasn’t stopped Transylvania’s Bran Castle from leaning into the idea that it is Castle Dracula, which has made it a tourism hit.
While it resembles Stoker’s description of Count Dracula’s home – on the very edge of a terrific precipice overlooking a great valley, it was more likely the ruined Poenari Castle, home of Vlad the Impaler (also known as Vlad Dracula), that inspired the book’s setting.
Kövesi said she was only teasing and commended Stoker for doing some “serious research”, even if his readers “did not care much about factual accuracy”.
Councillor doesn’t want to believe in a God that makes potholes
In the insurance world, “an act of God” has been a useful catch-all for an event we cannot control, predict or prevent – a lightning strike, for example.
A Galway County Council member is taking issue with his constituents being told that damage inflicted on their cars by potholes on public roads now falls into this category.
Tuam area representative councillor Andrew Reddington said he had been contacted by “hard-pressed” people facing bills after their tyres, springs and axles were damaged on bumpy roads.
“Now I am a firm believer in God and would be a regular Mass goer, but I can’t imagine it is God out there digging holes in our roads,” the Fine Gael politician said. “That’s not a God I want to believe in.”
Up to April, he said, motorists making complaints about car damage due to public roads defects had claims for repairs dealt with by Galway County Council.
They have since been referred to the local authority insurer, IPB. The council’s Tuam area engineer, John Coyle, told Reddington this decision was prompted by some trying to take advantage of the council.
According to IPB, repair or maintenance of a road surface, irrespective of condition, is not a legal requirement and does not automatically give rise to legal liability. “A valid claim must relate to a negligent act in creating the defect. No claim can be made for basic wear and tear or failure of a roadway.”
Figures released to Newstalk after a Freedom of Information request last summer show almost €1 million was paid out by local authorities to drivers who complained about damage to their cars on the roads between 2022 and last year, with Cork motorists accounting for more than a quarter of the total.
