Charity of the Month! Ireland’s prostitution charity Ruhama publishes its annual report, and separately annual audited accounts. It’s eye-opening. Before we begin, and in answer to what Garda Commissioner Drew Harris did next, he’s now on the Ruhama board. Last year, Ruhama’s income increased 25% to €2.5m with nearly all coming from the taxpayer. Around 60% goes on staff, though it’s coy on its project expenditure, with its CEO Barbara Condon presumably on €80-90,000 excluding pension costs. It has increased its staff by 33% in the year to 43. In terms of its core function of helping prostitutes, particularly those trafficked and coerced, transition to other employment, it’s hard to know how genuine its "clients" are, and whether dubious “prostitutes”, nearly all non-Irish are using Ruhama to access employment and housing. It makes much of its “welfare checks” conducted with our friend, Superintendent Derek Maguire’s Garda Organised Prostitition Investigation Unit. As noted by others, like Senator Michael McDowell, Gardai with Ruhama recently conducted 266 welfare checks during Operation Global Chain and didn’t identify a single trafficking victim which is just not credible. Welfare checks have become a substitute for law enforcement (which should be like shooting fish in a barrel) and Ruhama welfare checks are dubious. We no longer have any faith in Ruhama which in 2026, appears to be a self-sustaining (and expanding) NGO and its annual report is a word salad of Li(ngo) Bi(ngo). We don’t actually know what the final infographic below means, what is a “non-cisgender” which apparently excludes what they call “transwomen”? Ruhama 2025 annual report is here ruhama.ie/wp-content/uploads… Separate 2025 audited accounts here ruhama.ie/wp-content/uploads…

RTE continues to abuse its position to foist voices upon us which are pro-Nato, pro-weapons spending, anti-neutrality or anti-Triple Lock or a combination thereof. Its weekend flagship current affairs programme today features Dan O'Brien. Somehow, I doubt there'll be criticism of all the weapons spending .... €1bn on armoured cars and cannon, €500m on radar to replace the radar we gave to Ukraine, €600m with Airbus for helicopters and surveillance planes, €250m for a new ship, €40m for Javelin missiles, €20m for drone missiles, €60m for array sonar which will destroy marine life etc, etc. Brazen, but then again Brendan O'Connor is paid €240,000 a year for 4-hrs week on-air for 40 weeks a year at an utterly bust basketcase 100% dependant on a government decision to back the outfit.

In case you missed it this week**, the British are clamping down on illegal migration across the Irish border. gov.uk/government/news/nearl… Whilst their focus is on illegal entry into UK, it's having a secondary impact on disrupting illegal entry from Britain to N Ireland to Ireland. Meanwhile, our Gardai are twiddling their thumbs... ** wasn't reported by Irish Times, RTE, Journal, Examiner, Independent