Dragged up with the forgotten shopping trolleys and rusty bicycles

The whole Freedom of Information process is a bit like scallop dredging.

You drag the bucket along the bottom of the sea, then bring it up to the surface to see if there’s a scallop or two in there, among the tyres and wellies and other detritus. Every now and again, you may get lucky and bring up a whale (like John O’Donoghue). On the other hand, if you over-fish a particular area, you just end up with forgotten shopping trolleys and bicycles.

Today, I can exclusively reveal that I am the rusty bicycle dragged up by the latest FOI. Fianna Fáil’s inestimable Deputy Éamon O’Cuív has evidently decided to tow a bucket behind his trawler through RTÉ. I know this because I received a letter from RTÉ’s Head of Compliance, telling me that Mr O’Cuív had sent them an FOI request.