The Keelings controversy about has brought public attention to how EU and related member state legislation allows agencies – and those who contract migrant workers from them – to avoid domestic minimum wage and other requirements. As everyone knows, the current furore began when a photo published was which showed some of the 189 migrant […]
New figures from an Oireachtas Budget Office shows that Ireland is actually exporting vast quantities of material which could, with modifications, be used for testing in the Coronavirus pandemic. Along with a lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), one of the most infuriating and difficult aspects of this crisis has been the government’s the failure […]
While the New Federalist has decried the lack of member states “sharing” infected patients, most people realise that would make the situation worse. Had member states like Germany not restricted the movement of Italians, deaths would have reached far higher levels by now.
Nobody’s talking about it, but the biggest problem with “getting back to normal” once the Coronavirus crisis has passed its peak here in Ireland will be the simple fact that it’s a global illness, and it’s progressing around the world at a varying pace. Imagine for a moment that we arrive in early June (being […]
If you’ve only been reading the Irish media, there’s a very good chance you won’t be aware of the mounting row in Brussels over whether or not the EU should issue so-called “Eurobonds” to help countries like Italy (and Ireland, indeed) get through the Covid-19 crisis. There has been some coverage, but not a vast […]
This will drive the conspiracy theorists mad: “Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The former Labour prime minister, who was at the centre of the international efforts to tackle the impact of the near-meltdown […]
The European Parliament called for the legalisation of abortion in Ireland. The opinion, passed in Strasbourg by 321 votes to 122; it carried no legislative weight but provoked a storm of political controversy. It was not the first and wouldn’t be the last time institutions within the European Union would admonish Ireland for it’s pro-life […]
The scale of the migrant crisis on the Greek border with Turkey is hard to put into context for an Irish audience. Already there are mumblings and grumblings of discontent in Ireland about the number of Asylum seekers, and controversy about their housing. 10,000 homeless people, when the country hit that milestone figure, was regarded […]
“They don’t see themselves as criminals. They’re just doing what they’ve done all their lives and their parents and grandparents did before them.”
In some ways, you have to feel very sorry for Fianna Fáil’s MEP Billy Kelleher. When he voted, as a TD, to abolish the offence of blasphemy, he probably thought he was increasing his own freedom of speech. What he didn’t realise was that the offence of blasphemy in Ireland was only abolished for mocking […]
The reaction to the Brexit vote in Ireland is born of pure ignorance in all things
EU, ignorance existing within the highest echelons of politics and the media
right down to the ordinary Joe-citizen.
Brexit could spell the breakup of the United Kingdom if a new YouGov poll conducted in Scotland proves accurate.