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Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

Olhausen and Kearns sausages back in shops after Irish company buys brand

Mallon’s has taken over production and sale of the Olhausen, Kearns and Byrnes brands while machinery from the three closed factories was sold to businessman Larry Goodman’s company.

THE FAMOUS OLHAUSEN and Kearns sausages produced by the now defunct meat producer Olhausen have returned to shops after the brands were bought by a Monaghan-based meat company.

Around 160 people lost their jobs last year when the sausage and rasher maker Olhausen ceased trading in October and closed its three plants in Ireland.

Workers in Blanchardstown, Coolock and Monaghan received statutory redundancy pay from the Department of Social Protection as a result of the company going out of business after a deal to save some jobs could not be reached despite efforts from the trade union Siptu.

After BDO’s Jim Hamilton was appointed as the receiver to the company the Olhausen brand of sausages as well as the Kearns and Byrnes brands were sold to Mallon’s, an Irish-owned meat producer based in Monaghan.

The exact same products as before are now back in shops, the company says.

Mallon’s sales and marketing director Ciaran Young told TheJournal.ie that exactly the same products are being produced with the same raw ingredients and seasoning. He said that sales are going well.

“Actually, sales are better than expected even. People have so much loyalty to the products and people are thinking it’s brilliant that it’s back on the market. I didn’t realise how much loyalty there was to the brands,” he said.

He said that jobs had been consolidated in the industry as a whole as a result of taking over the brand and said that Mallon’s had to take on extra staff to deal with the production of new products.

However, former workers at Olhausen’s closed plant in Monaghan have not been recruited by Mallon’s and attempts to keep around 45 jobs at Olhausen’s Coolock site were not successful prior to the sale to Mallon’s.

Colin Casserly, the Siptu organiser working with the redundant workers, said it was disappointing that a solution could not be reached to save jobs.

It is believed that the machinery from the closed plants was sold to Irish Food Processors, owned by the once controversial businessman Larry Goodman, which has since rebranded as the ABP Food Group.

Olhausen went into receivership last October with debts of more than €10 million to Ulster Bank.

Previously: Olhausen closes pork plants with loss of 160 jobs

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45 Comments
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    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
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    Feb 10th 2014, 8:36 AM

    Is the suspicion that the Gardai are monitoring the GSOC or that it’s a newspaper?

    154
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    Mute Irish Revolution
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:11 AM

    It was not a newspaper, the equipment required to do something like this is only available to government organisations.

    119
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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:57 AM

    Em, excuse me, News of the World seems to have been a newspaper quite capable of such sophistication.

    106
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    Mute Harry Price
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:00 AM

    did my letters to the GSOC get there or were they opened and shredded Mr Shatter and I can now tell you that the letter i did receive told of not having the money to investigate computer wrong doings

    30
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    Mute Harry Price
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:04 AM

    The red thumb gang better get proper id and stop the undercover attacks by now the viewers are aware of what this pr action is based on

    29
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    Mute Tony Moran
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:10 AM

    @Irish Revolution: Nonsense. Anybody can buy this kind of gear on the internet or even down in Maplin.

    65
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    Mute Dermot Lane
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:22 AM

    What news of the world did was totally different.
    The equipment used here is apparently only available from specialist companies who only license it to government agencies.

    45
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    Mute The Throwaway
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:28 AM

    Irish Revolution,

    Private espionage has overtaken govt espionage since the 1960′s. That’s not to say it could have been a govt body/group that carried out this espionage. But seriously, update yourself. Private security/espionage companies have long been at the forefront of technology. And nowhere is that more evident than in Ireland.

    43
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    Mute Ian Bah Humbug Foley
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:55 AM

    NOTW werent that high tech: all they did was put a 5 after the 087 and then put in four zeros as most people hadnt changed their PW

    39
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    Mute Royal Jester
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:46 AM

    Quite the opposite in fact
    . The NOTW simply dialed into the voicemails of various individuals who did not bother to change their factory default security code i.e. 0000.

    18
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    Mute Willie
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    Feb 10th 2014, 12:09 PM

    Hey Harry was that you in that article in the Sunday World yesterday.

    11
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    Mute Harry Price
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    Feb 10th 2014, 12:31 PM

    willie.. im a guard like your self but the difference is i am a guard of the irish constitution for good over evil

    8
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    Mute RichieBerlin
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    Feb 10th 2014, 4:33 PM

    I’m not sure what the big deal is. Anytime I’m at an extern meeting I bug theirs phones…

    1
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    Mute Tom Doyle
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    Feb 10th 2014, 8:36 AM

    Did shatter expect the gsoc to hire the gardai to look into this?

    142
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    Mute Lamb
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:52 AM

    Shatter: “why didn’t you tell me you were worried about my mate Martin”

    32
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    Mute Francis Foley
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    Feb 10th 2014, 8:50 AM

    Who would be the most likely suspect to bug the GSOC? I can only come up with one answer and I don’t like it one bit. If its the organisation that I have in mind then Shatter and the government could be looking at the biggest GUBU case since the foundation of the state!

    131
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    Mute Tony Moran
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:12 AM

    More nonsense. I’m willing to wager that this matter will receive media attention and some sort of investigation but the public will never know what really happened. It’s like Ireland is at war with itself these days with all the crap that’s going on.

    115
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    Mute Irish Revolution
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:09 AM

    According to the Sunday Times, there is more to come on this story next week. Just so people are clear about whats going on here, a phone was not just bugged, a line was bugged. This means that all communications on that line were monitored, i.e. voice and email etc.

    The equipment needed to do this is very sophisticated and in reality only available to government organisations. So, either a foreign government was spying on the Garda watchdog, or more believable, an arm of the Irish government was spying on the Garda watchdog. If it was an arm of the Irish state, it needed a court order.

    102
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    Mute Sean O'Sullivan
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:31 AM

    Please dont tell me a revolutionary like yourself reads the Sunday Times! Tut tut!

    29
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    Mute Irish Revolution
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:39 AM

    Better than reading corrupt Irish media.

    65
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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:39 AM

    The equipment needed to do this is very sophisticated and in reality only available to government organisations.
    ———————————————–
    A pair of alligator clips in the phone cabinet. The monitoring device of your choice available from:
    http://www.eyetek.co.uk/telephone-transmitters

    Just one example of thousands of possible “solutions”.

    30
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    Mute Irish Revolution
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:42 AM

    Great for a single phone line, but not a PABX which is most likely in use in the GSOC.

    32
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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:50 AM

    Oh, you mean that pc under the stairs? :-)

    13
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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:54 AM

    Ya Seamus, a pc under the stairs……….

    22
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    Mute Gearoid O Machain
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    Feb 10th 2014, 12:09 PM

    GCHQ spying part of the whole NSA international spy on everything??

    3
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    Mute Paul Roche
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    Feb 10th 2014, 3:59 PM

    Try looking closer to home….

    3
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    Mute Riot Tapes
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:34 AM

    A few things to remember.

    “Why did shatter denounce the PAC for investigating the Garda whistleblowers , especially as Callinan had described whistleblowers as ‘disgusting’ and threatened legal action against the PAC if they didn’t back off.

    Why did shatter not step in when Callinan refused the GSOC permission to access the pulse system to investigate the penalty points fiasco?”

    “Why did it take a British newspaper to break this story? Why not an Irish paper or journalist?”

    “Remember the Garda commissioner himself leaked information to shatter about independent TD Mick Wallace, which shatter then used to discredit Wallace in the dail.”

    Quoted from various threads about this on Irish forums, but easy enough to google and verify.

    Funny as well when you add the sacking of Gemma O’Doherty in to the mix. Another story being pursued more doggedly by the Brits than by her fellow Irish Journos.

    101
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    Mute Bernard
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:46 PM

    Are we surprised?
    Why was GSOC bugged? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?
    When alleged corruption in GS was aired the first instinct wasn’t to investigate and root it out – but to cover it up and threaten those who aired it. Likewise when someone at RTÉ upset someone by saying something naughty but possibly true – censor it.
    Corruption and cover up is endemic in this country. Too many vested interests. Too deeply ingrained in the culture of the State and it’s apparatus.
    Let justice be done though the heavens fall.

    2
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    Mute Filthpig
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:21 AM

    Hmmm, now who in the world would have an interest in knowing what an organisation whose purpose is to investigate possible Garda misconduct was saying and doing.
    I must admit, I’m stumped.
    Hmmm. . . . .

    93
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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:42 AM

    Certainly has me scratching my head.

    As figure skater Nancy Kerrigan once said:
    http://youtu.be/NjUQMs0kVEI

    20
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    Mute Alan Scott
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    Feb 10th 2014, 8:56 AM

    It is plain to see Shatter’s crowd were not trusted to do the job so where does this leave him ? With lots of egg splattered all over

    77
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    Mute Bob MacBob
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:30 AM

    Who is watching the watchers of the watchers?

    60
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    Mute Go on go on
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    Feb 10th 2014, 1:32 PM

    Looks like the spirit of the CJH years is alive and well.

    11
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    Mute Patrick
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:22 AM

    The gardai ombudsman is as useless as a third nipple so I for one do not care.

    57
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    Mute Fred O'Connor
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:38 AM

    Well someone with access to sophisticated gear does care enough to bug them, which means we should all care.

    24
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    Mute Fong Wannapho
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:22 AM

    This sounds like an inside job, Shatter is certainly in the dark and truly clueless to what’s really going on.

    51
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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:43 AM

    He either ordered it, or didn’t know about it. In either case, he needs to get a job elsewhere.

    58
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    Mute Donal O Neil
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    Feb 10th 2014, 7:38 PM

    Clueless me thinks , he hasn’t the grey manner where it’s needed . Inside job done with knowledge of commissioner to find out what the watchdog was going to do so they could stay ahead to it ALLEdGELY

    2
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    Mute RR85
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:20 AM

    No doubt willie frazer will blame Sinn Fein

    48
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    Mute The Polar Bear
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:12 AM

    Because Sinn Fein never planted bugging equipment

    22
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    Mute Ciaran MacAoidh
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:27 AM

    Not as much as Fianna Fáil. At least this was found rather than a drunk TD blurting it out on telly. I suppose we’ve grown as a nation since Doherty’s day.

    14
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    Mute Gerard
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:15 AM

    The times knew about this before shatter did! A lot going on than meets the eye.

    38
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    Mute William Mcgee
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:32 AM

    No trust ,No Truth its all about control . The question is where does the Buck Stop ? .

    38
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    Mute Mark O'Hagan
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:33 AM

    The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Who benefits from this bugging?

    34
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    Mute Billy Flood
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:13 AM

    have we a fan in the country large enough to deal with all the **it that’s about to hit it?

    32
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    Mute johngahan
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:30 AM

    As a Murdoch publication it is hardly surprising that the Sunday Times heard about the story first.

    I wonder what their source is.

    29
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    Mute rightisright
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:56 AM

    SF disturbed by surveillance … The mind boggles

    28
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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:44 AM

    I suppose one could argue that someone “unknown” is on a “quest for more transparency in government”. LOL.

    28
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    Mute Dermot O Dwyer
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:28 AM

    This sounds and looks like a plot straight out of a Johnny Engish film…
    This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds

    27
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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:56 AM

    Is it possible that Shatter is involved and could he have asked Mossad to assist in the bugging? It keeps the guards out of it.

    27
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    Mute The Polar Bear
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:13 AM

    In exchange for some passports

    32
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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:53 AM

    No, no need to exchange, the Israeli Ambassader to Ireland sorts that out for nothing – like the last time.

    21
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    Mute The Polar Bear
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:14 AM

    This book idea is writing itself

    12
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    Mute Royal Jester
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:56 AM

    Well done Jason . The penny has finally dropped . Mossad would certainly have obliged for favours rendered .However i am sure in this instance it was a box operation in order to keep it at arms length from C and S branch.

    4
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    Mute Ros Aodha
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:43 AM

    To the idiots here who are convinced the gardai have done this purely because a comment stated it is government issue equipment – with the right money, contacts, you can buy anything on the black market.

    heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, military grade explosives and RPGs are also only available to government agencies, yet in the past terrorists managed to easily get their hands on them in Ireland.

    24
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    Mute smudge
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:23 AM

    I find it amazing how this story was only leaked this weekend when it happened last year certainly knocks off Sean Quinn testifying today off top spot, only saying

    23
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    Mute Johnny Merren
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    Feb 10th 2014, 11:25 AM

    Shock horror, nobody tells me anything ####
    Don’t they know who I am, Alan Shatter
    I get up at 5am every morning and I am in charge.
    Do I have to micro manage everything ?

    22
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    Mute Jer Lonergen
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:05 AM

    I suspect the commissioner is playing chess and Shatter’s the Pawn.

    18
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    Mute Paul Roche
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    Feb 10th 2014, 4:01 PM

    Shatter put himself in that situation.

    4
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    Mute John Gleeson
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    Feb 10th 2014, 8:37 AM

    What?Surveillance operation by who?

    18
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    Mute Paddy O'Reilly
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    Feb 10th 2014, 8:44 AM

    Dr.Who is spying on the Ombudsman?! So that’s why he always has a screwdriver at hand.

    3
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    Mute Snorre Sturleson
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    Feb 10th 2014, 12:36 PM

    ahhh the Gadai spying on the gadai regulator and the “nobody told me” minister Shatter will lead the investigation….Keystone Cops alive and well.

    16
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    Mute David Irwin
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    Feb 10th 2014, 2:01 PM

    Quick question, whats “the Gadai”? I presume you mean “the Gardaí”

    8
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    Mute johngahan
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:04 AM

    Was the speaker phone manufactured by Lee Tsun Tyu Telecoms of Guangzhou?

    Simplest scam in the world would be that Chinese manufacturers of computer and telecoms hardware embed remote spying mechanisms into their products to keep the motherland informed of what their users are up to. And it has been suspected before that is exactly what happens. Apple, NSA and Google would do it too if they had a chance.

    How many speakerphones across the globe are manufactured in China?

    14
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    Mute Irish Revolution
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:09 AM

    The speakerphone itself was not bugged, it was the line it was attached to.

    33
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    Mute Ros Aodha
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    Feb 10th 2014, 1:02 PM

    Here,

    wear this and go sit in the corner…

    *hands johngahan a tin foil hat*

    6
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    Mute Left_Wing_Steve©
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    Feb 10th 2014, 8:44 AM

    It was either google or the NSA

    11
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    Mute susanna smyth
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:56 AM

    Can’t stand the sight of this pompous idiot and his spare home died hair. I always think of his ‘erotic’ writings. Ugh!

    42
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    Mute Marko Burns
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    Feb 10th 2014, 10:41 AM

    Nah, notw just hacked message services with bad/zero passwords

    4
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    Mute Liam Sheahan
    Favourite Liam Sheahan
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    Feb 10th 2014, 9:11 PM

    Ombudsman must resign.

    4
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    Mute Colin Price
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    Feb 10th 2014, 7:01 PM

    With a government full of buggers, it could be anyone. !

    1
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    Mute Michael Farrelly
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    Feb 10th 2014, 6:34 PM

    The fact that the ombudsman office knew about this last year and did not tell anyone says a lot about this organisation. What the hell is going on on this country?
    How can this organisation be now trusted to investigate the penalty points scandal ?
    We badly need an outside independent organisation to investigate what the hell is going on ?

    1
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