Ireland's political and cultural magazine
A few years ago, as print media watched their subscription and circulation plummet, digital advocates were fond of reciting the adage of internet guru, Clay Shirky, that “no medium can survive the indifference of 25-year-olds”. The advocates had a simple solution. Readers didn’t care about paper and ink, they wanted content, so move the content […]
We’re in the middle of a housing crisis. But we didn’t get there overnight. This government engineered the very crisis it found itself in and came up with its own grand plan to solve it. Or thinks it has. But it is all part of a drastic disaster economics. It involves what we have seen […]
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62 people now own the same wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people. 1% owns more than 99%. The gaps are widening. Talk of overseas aid may seem like trying to use a sticking plaster to plug a haemorrhage. In a world of trickle up economies with ever growing needs driven by conflict and climate, aid […]
The outgoing government is showing the same lack of vision on the North as it has shown generally. In 2011, the Programme for Government had a total of 120 words on the North in its 64 pages. Significantly, 45 of these were on security: “The threat from dissident paramilitary groups cannot be underestimated. We will […]
In a nearly picture-perfect setting for a politician in the last days of a pre-official campaigning season, framed by snow, sun and high alps, surrounded by an unctuous cabal of journalists and global elites largely impervious to Ireland’s economic realities, Enda Kenny delivered his new vision for Government. His new Three Point Plan is composed […]
In recent months there have been many references by politicians and economic commentators to Ireland having one of the most progressive tax systems in the OECD. These statements reference data from the OECD Taxing Wages database which provides “…an insight into the levels of progressivity in the income tax systems of OECD countries”. However, progressivity […]
The Dutch Presidency of the European Union released on Thursday, January 21 at the European Commission in Brussels a new ranking of public integrity for the 28 EU Member States. The ranking represents the first objective measurement of public integrity in the EU. It is part of a report on trust and integrity commissioned […]