Taoiseach Simon Harris: multinational law firm Fieldfisher earlier this year wrote to the Department of An Taoiseach generously volunteering its services in Ireland. Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins
“You will recall from our previous engagement and correspondence that the public and regulatory law team at Kingfisher has significant experience in the management of statutory inquiries,” it told John Shaw, an assistant secretary in the department. Moran and Duggan, who are restoring a house nearby on Pery Square, weren’t enthused, claiming the existing St Vincent de Paul facility was already attracting prostitution, rodent issues, antisocial behaviour, public urination and “panhandling”. They claimed the local council’s decision to grant permission for the facility last year was “capricious, biased, arbitrary and on the whole unreasonable”.
Sounds like Moran may need to start swatting up on the local development plan, one of the key responsibilities in his new role. Strangest row of the week goes to Neil Jordan who claims in his forthcoming memoir, Amnesiac, that Garret FitzGerald sought payment from Warner Bros for an article in The Irish Times praising Jordan’s 1996 biopic of Michael Collins. Jordan recounts meeting FitzGerald and thanking him for the warm endorsement. “That reminds me, I must send in an invoice, I still haven’t been paid,” FitzGerald apparently said. “By The Irish Times?” Jordan asked.