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COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER PAT Rabbitte has said there’s been too much “hyperbole” and “exaggeration” in the debate surrounding the Freedom of Information Act.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin yesterday withdrew a proposed Government amendment to the Bill, as a result of what he said was “confusion and misinterpretation” of its intention.
The planned changes would have seen charges for FOI requests soar. They included proposals to split one request for information from different divisions of the same body into separate requests, and charge €15 for each.
The National Union of Journalists had described the proposals as “contrary to the spirit” of the legislation and said there was a danger they could make the system unaffordable.
Howlin now intends to bring forward a new amendment aimed at clarifying the issue of multiple fees.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Rabbitte said: “It’s very sad to have to listen to academics on this and every other programme talk about killing off the Freedom of Information Act.”
He added:
“This country has gone wild with exaggeration.”
“The purpose of Brendan Howlin’s amendment was to acknowledge that detailed hours of work are put in respect of some requests, and that he was imposing a modest charge for that, given the circumstances we were in.
“For any citizen that wants personal information it’s entirely free. For journalists who want relevant information in the public interest, you know the position.
The Minister was critical of what he called “omnibus requests that haven’t any connection with each other,” saying many media outlets were merely “trawling for ‘something that might turn up and it will keep us in business’”.
“It costs an enormous amount of money to pursue that kind of thing.”
Rabbitte said that some of the criticism of the Government’s stance was “just not worthy of respectable public discourse”.
Delighted Irish media is showing an interest in this One of the biggest developments in the ladt few years to say the least. Cant wait for any Irish launches. Hopefully itll be sooner than later
@Séan Ó Nuanáin: if we could get a rocket to fit all dail members on it and give them a one way trip to Mars it would be a god send.
@Séan Ó Nuanáin: agree wholeheartedly. Space and science developments should be covered by the media and spark interest for the young an old alike.
@Tom Fitzgibbons: why would anyone do that to another planet??
@Tom Fitzgibbons: What did the Martians ever do on you?
@Séan Ó Nuanáin: Irish launches ?
@ChadChaderson: the only rockets we’ll be launching are the ones on Halloween nite and that’s it,absolute wishful thinking otherwise!
@Séan Ó Nuanáin:
Be far more impressed if human scientific endeavour were put towards human medicine and welfare for the less advantages on Earth instead of a vanity project for that megalomaniac Musk.
We can’t take care of all our own let alone conquer space.
Won’t even look up to give Elon the soot of it.
@Lotus: CAT scans, land mine removal, water purification systems, ear thermometers…
20 inventions we wouldn’t have without space travel:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/infographic.view.php?id=11358
@Tom Fitzgibbons: what did Mars ever do to you
@Lotus: wow! Chill out there!
@Lotus: They are. Didn’t you hear Jim Bridenstine’s speech? There’re so many medical advances happening in microgravity, from artificial retinas for macular degeneration to creating organs for replacement through stem cell technology. They’re even developing better vaccines in space. Immense advances are possible now. At least follow biological research if you genuinely want to see progress.
@Lotus: what an ignorant comment. Listen to his most recent podcast with Joe Rogan and you’ll be educated on everything in development from Neurolink tech to AI to SpaceX and microgravity experiments. He has better things to be doing than worrying if you, sitting behind an alias on thejournal.ie, dont look into the sky tonight.
@Negan:
I’ve seen enough of Musk to form my opinion that he is a nasty piece of work.
@Lotus: the media hate him, that’s what you’ve seen. I can bet you haven’t done any research into the actual man himself, but only that regurgitated by today’s mostly completely biased news sites. Podcasts like Joe Rogan’s and the likes give a non-biased, deep insight into the mega-rich and mega-famous that isn’t possible otherwise.
@Séan Ó Nuanáin: so disappointing launch sequence halted at T – 16 mins for to electricity in the air. I think their next window is Saturday.
@Negan:
Don’t jump to any conclusions about me please. That’s uncalled for .
@Lotus: have a read on what scientific advances have been made because of the ISS and the space race in general before talking nonsense.
@Lotus: Well when Elon Musk is the man who essentially cures paraplegics, MS sufferers and the list goes on, through Neuralink tech you’ll be the one biting your tongue
@Negan:
Quite a few had to bite their tongue after the Cave drama in Indonesia and his antics there .
@Séan Ó Nuanáin: Great idea! I suggest Leo as the pilot and the entire Healey-Ray family can be the crew. We can convert an old Guinness truck and fire the lot of them into outer space.
@Séan Ó Nuanáin: It’s awesome, cant wait to watch it but If you think the Irish are capable of launching a rocket into space you need to do some serious soul searching. I would say we’re genetically incapable of something like this, we are a backward facing people.
Anyone who sights the rocket. Please send your eyes to David Moore so he can put them in the national library. Please note there is 50 euro fee per sighting.
As someone involved in Aviation Space flight has always particularly interested me. It bring so many variables in Maths, Physics, Engineering, Flight all together. It’s a great way combination to get young children interested in being more technologically minded.
I went to an audience with Commander Chris Hatfield a few years ago and his detailed explanation of life in Space and how his career from being a Canadian Air Force pilot to NASA Astronaut was very interesting. His explanation of a launch was mind boggling. The thoughts that must go through your head when he said you are strapped into a capsule with the equivalent of a bomb strapped under you!! The sheer noise, vibration and g force exerted on the body!
It’s a shame it’s postponed but onwards to the weekend.
@Paul Potts: I climbed up the mountain yesterday with the telescope to get the perfect view. Well the view was amazing. .. darn it
Called off. The one day Florida couldn’t have good weather.
@Ed: Not meant to be so
Historic because it’s the first privately owned company to do this? What, showing private industry is at best decades behind a well funded state project? The Soviet Union wasn’t even particularly rich and they managed this ages ago.
@SC: It’s historic because it will mark a moment where putting a person into space is no longer just something that will be done by governments.
@Ajax Penumbra: yep. Which is a pretty big deal. It also marks the end of the US having to depend on other governments to get to space. Its a pretty significant launch.
@SC: it also shows it can be done at a fraction of the cost that government agencies do it for.
@SC: the most significance lies with proving spaceX can put people in space safely.
Seeing that spaceX/Elon Musk’s primary goal is to send people to Mars – this is behold historic for the human race. Lots of shelterd people dont (and never will) understand this.
@Ooby Dooby: right but they haven’t done that and are at the moment still about 60 years behind the Soviets, who have still never managed that.
Oh dear it’s been cancelled, they should have checked the weather on RTE with Nuala Carey!
@John Caplis: ‘no un-necessary journeys’ T. Manion
Looks like the Russian will have to start taking tourists into space again
I would love to know what is 30km below my feet before i need to know whats 30 km above my head. Think about it.
@Eugene Conroy: the mantle?
@Eugene Conroy: above then is the stratosphere and a few weather balloons
@Eugene Conroy: we already know that. You’re slightly behind the times.
Postponed.
@Breda Kelly: yeah just saw the tweet. Shame.
Would you need to wear a face mask
what a wast of money n half the planet starving two magoos looking out a bit of a window doing sfa nuts
@Tommy the postman: money wasn’t government funded. Its privately done..
@Ross: but see this from the article:
Two years later, NASA ordered the next step: to transport its astronauts there, starting in 2017, by adapting the Dragon capsule.
“SpaceX would not be here without NASA,” said Musk last year, after a successful dress rehearsal without humans for the trip to the ISS.
The space agency paid more than $3 billion for SpaceX to design, build, test and operate its reusable capsule for six future space round trips.
@Martello Mulligan: it’s a drop in the ocean when you look at government expenditure. There will always be something to moan about.
@Damien Hawe: but the point is, judging by Musk’s comment, it wasn’t just a drop in the ocean to SpaceX
@Tommy the postman: Lots of scientific information to be gained. Blaming hunger on our species’ ventures into space is ridiculous, we could feed the entire population and still have these launches if governments wanted that and cooperated. For example look at the amount of people dying in Yemen at the moment because of the lack of food, it has nothing to do with famine. You’re barking up the wrong tree trying to lay blame at space travel’s door.
@Tommy the postman: Tommy we all know people starving has nothing to do with a shortage of money
Typical Florida… Was looking forward to it, but off all places why Florida.. The weather is nearly as physcotic as the people that live thier
@Ross: because its near the ocean and as close to the equator as you can get in the states. Ocean to the east means they can launch to the east without worrying about rockets landing on peoples heads if it goes wrong, east gets you the speed boost from the rotation of the earth, and for launches to equatorial orbits (this wasnt) you have much less maneuvering to do
@Ronan Fahy: thanks mate :) I love my nerdy stuff but love when I learn more
Turn your lights off you be grand!
Other then showing off and ego boosting on a massive scale, what does space exploitation actually achieve? Couldn’t all that money be put to better use sorting out the many serious issues we have on this planet first?
@Callanan: exploration, not exploitation, although perhaps that applies too
@Callanan: Answered already a few posts up – summary: the advances in science required to do this achieves lots.
@Callanan: I’m sure plenty of people said the same about Magellan sailing off into the unknown and Darwin wanting to go ashore in the Galapagos.
Sorry nerds!!
@Paul Quirke: sorry intellectual people who are interested in cool things *
If they can’t get through the never mind atmosphere but stratosphere into the great unknown you a guinness pig
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