Taxpayer-funded nonsense
As part of its Pre-Budget Submission, the overseas development agency Trócaire has called on the government to continue to grow Ireland’s aid budget from €868 million to €2.5 billion by 2030. Such a striking increase would mean that the proportion of Ireland’s national income that was being set aside for foreign aid would rise […]
Are things ever going to change?
The figure includes nearly €1.5 million in consultancy fees.
We have to move beyond the insulting caricatures that exist on ‘both sides’ of the debate
Whats the delay?
In 2019, Sinn Fein tabled a Motion of No Confidence in the then Minister for Health, Simon Harris. Ahead of the Dáil debate and with cringe inducing bravado, Harris took to Twitter to challenge his political opponents. “Bring it on” he tweeted. Well, bring it on they did, and it wasn’t all empty guff and political opportunism […]
The concession of full liability for the catastrophic misdiagnosis of an unborn baby at Holles Street has thrust the issue of pre-natal genetic testing and genetic testing in general into the public spotlight. It is not possible to say ‘back into the public spotlight’ because there has never been anything resembling a sustained and […]
We are now a week into sustained media coverage of the fake polling practices conducted by all of the major political parties in the State. Some, like my colleague John McGuirk, have argued that the story is being blown out of all proportion, that it is otherwise inconsequential and is only continuing because of a […]
The political correspondent for the Sunday Independent, Hugh O’Connell, had an article in Sunday’s edition titled ‘Religious orders stall on joining redress scheme.’ The sub-heading of the article is ‘Mother and baby home survivors wait as negotiations continue with Government.’ Let us take a critical look at those claims in more detail, because the best […]
Paul lives in Tipperary. He has a full Medical Card. He visits his GP and is told that he needs to have bloods taken in order to assist in the diagnosis of a possible condition. He is charged €25 for the blood work. Mary lives in the same town as Paul. She too has a […]
A Government Senator has told the Seanad that parts of Cork city are being terrorised by high levels of anti-social behaviour. Senator Jerry Buttimer said today that this has created a situation whereby substantial parts of the city are now no-go areas and that fears are emerging that this will lead to a “summer of […]