Update on Noteworthy, the community-led investigative journalism platform from TheJournal.ie

It’s been nearly four months now since TheJournal.ie launched Noteworthy, our new investigative journalism platform.

In that short space of time, we’ve been able to do more than twenty projects with the kind support of our readers. 

Ten of these were directly funded by our readers, who generously contributed to the projects they wanted to see us work on.

The rest were supported by Journal Media and from our general fund, which allows us to research stories that might not be suitable for a public proposal for a variety of reasons. 

You can find out more about that here.

We have had dozens of suggestions from the public as well of things they would like to see investigated and are looking forward to publishing new proposals every week.

Our most recent work

Nine of our most recent articles were funded directly by our readers and supporters.

This included Peter Bodkin’s series on the ‘wild west’ of the Irish gambling industry – slot machines.

In Part 1, we discovered how few checks were in place to stop underage gambling and how customers were being lured with prizes worth tens of thousands more than legally allowed.

In Part 2, we spoke to several people about their addictions to slot machines and the profound impact it had on their lives.

We also published an in-depth article on webcasting of council meetings and how only 4 of 31 local authorities nationwide actually offer the service.

In July, Laoise Neylon delved deep into Dublin City Council plans to free up 33 depot sites around the capital, and how they could be used to build 1,000 homes.

Last month, Peter McGuire brought readers a special report on ‘grade inflation’ in the Irish third-level sector.

One of our latest projects involved an exploration of the 98 vacant buildings and 31 empty sites managed by the Office of Public Works that currently lie idle.

We also just published a major examination of insurance premiums in Ireland and some of the myths surrounding our so-called ‘compensation culture’. You can catch up on both Part 1 and Part 2 of that series.

Through our general fund and the support of Journal Media, we’ve published a wide range of stories, including one on government sports funding and how the system was being brought into “disrepute” by the number of grants going to Dublin: 

We are also taking a case to have details of pensions paid to former taoisigh, ministers, and presidents put back in the public domain. You can find all of the articles we have done here.

Proposals Open for Funding

We have a range of proposals that are currently open for funding.

These include projects on the lobbying industry, sexual crime, the Leaving Cert, creche safety, the direct provision system, missing people, political expenses, and even local authorities chopping down trees around the country.

We want to look into what happens when adults or children come forward to report rape or sexual abuse. Were they believed, especially where their abuser is a family member? You can help support that project here.

For our creche proposal, we have an ambitious plan to look at nationwide trends in creche care failings, and wait times for problems to be resolved.

We will be using a combination of technological solutions, document requests and interviews to bring this all together. Help us investigate here.

We also want to uncover the decision-making process behind the introduction of the direct provision system in 2000. What, if any, alternatives were considered, why did we end up taking the path that we did – and is it fit for purpose?

You can support this project here.

You could also help support any of our other proposals at this link.

For more information, you can follow us on Twitter or like our page on Facebook. If you have anything you would like to see us investigate, you can also let us know here.

If you like the work that Noteworthy has done so far, please try to share it with your family, friends, and co-workers.