The Economic and Social Research Institute has this morning published a paper by one of its economists Kieran McQuinn on the likely short term future of the housing market in Ireland. The paper is largely technical regarding budgetary projections, but its main focus is on how state intervention in the housing market could be increased […]
This week, the Government announced that it would be increasing the property tax, which, as you all know, goes to fund local government and county councils. Later today, Niamh and I will have duelling articles on whether increasing the property tax is a good idea. And, sods law being what it is, no sooner was […]
In the wake of last week Friday’s devastating Supreme Court ruling on Trinity Western University’s proposed law school, in which all seven judges ruling against TWU admitted that they were about to violate TWU’s religious freedom but that this violation was of “minor significance” in the eyes of Canada’s highest court, many have been wondering: What do […]
Credit where it is due: this is an interesting, and what Sir Humphrey Appleby of Yes Minister fame would have called “courageous” proposal, first reported by Hugh O’Connell of the Independent: “speaking at Government Buildings on Tuesday, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said she had asked her officials to examine “pay-related benefit” where a person’s […]
Finally, a solution to the impending pensions crisis: Israeli scientists have boosted the life expectancy of mice by 23 percent, in an advance they hope could eventually be replicated in humans. They increased the supply of a protein, SIRT6, which normally wanes with aging, in 250 mice. In peer-reviewed research just published in the journal […]
Why is a widely used, clinically trialled and out of patent drug now suddenly considered “controversial” by the media? Youtube now explicitly forbids mention of the same drug – ivermectin – in its “community guidelines”, which have become a sort of continually-shifting technocratic blacklist that you have to abide with to stay out of the […]
18 out of 19 Government Departments will see increases in salaries, wages and allowances for their staff in 2021. The increases are in addition to the hundreds of thousands of euros allocated to each Department’s staff in the Travel and Subsistence category. This follows confirmation that the Government’s National Economic Recovery Plan announced today includes […]
Táinaiste Leo Varadkar has dubbed his own lockdown “absolutely bonkers” and “draconian,” and called for “a new normal” to help society “build back better.” Speaking during a committee meeting on “Online Content Moderation,” Varadkar explained all the ways in which lockdown infringed on civil liberties in an “unprecedented” way – but then proceeded to defend […]
It feels like a very long time ago now, but it is worth remembering, and reminding ourselves, that the original point of lockdowns was to reduce social contacts between people, and limit opportunities for Coronavirus to spread amongst the population. The success of lockdowns was supposed to be measured in scientific terms – the flatness […]
A stupendous success, says Stephen Donnelly: Mandatory hotel quarantining has worked effectively Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says. He tells the Seanad that 4,616 people have entered hotel quarantine here, 178 tested positive for Covid-19 and 59 cases associated with variants of concern were detected. — Mícheál Lehane (@MichealLehane) May 31, 2021 178 cases of Covid, […]
After working away diligently to establish a smothering regulatory framework that would stifle innovation, the Irish government have finally arrived with a fully fledged but elegantly simple solution, the Climate Action Bill. Reading through the government’s press release, its evident the Bill is intended as an all-pervading regulatory burden on all aspects of life. The […]
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