Having spent several days ignoring the violence in Balbriggan last weekend that included the burning of a house, Sinn Féin has been forced to respond to other people breaking the conspiracy of silence (that includes the national broadcaster) on the issue. Louise O’Reilly the Sinn Féin TD for Fingal has come under strong pressure from […]
A commitment to establish a Citizens’ Assembly on education was a core feature of the recent general election manifesto of the Green Party. This proposal was based on its belief that there is a fundamental “need to re-evaluate the outcomes of education” and to bring about “structural changes” at all levels of our education […]
Summer 2020 is another kind of new normal. There’s a strange feel to it like all the other resets since March 12th when the country went into indefinite lockdown. This is arguably one of the better parts of new normal The little fishing village of Ballycotton with its signature island and lighthouse has been on […]
As most people have, by now, heard, one of the first legislative priorities for the new Government was to pass legislation enabling all three “super junior” ministers to be paid a bit more: The Dáil has passed laws to increase remuneration for a third ‘super junior’ minister who will now be entitled to an allowance […]
The Programme for Government talks a good show about political reform. It remains to be seen whether they deliver in the one area that matters: removing the subjugation of the Conscience of TDs to the hegemony of the Whips office. We need, once and for all, to exorcise the oppressive culture of fear that corrodes […]
We already knew or should have known that we have the worst form of government ‘except for all the alternatives that have ever been tried’, as Winston Churchill put it. Sometimes it works better than other times. Sometimes, it is not the concept itself that is found wanting but the manner of its application. But […]
There are times when I have to pinch myself, when I read the concerns of journalists as expressed in our mainstream media, about the interaction between religion and politics in Ireland – and contrast it with the actual relationship between religion and politics in this country, as evidenced by social surveys. A recent survey, carried […]
Leo Varadkar, or so the polls tell us, is the darling of the nation. He saved us all from Covid and can do no wrong. Polls show that 88% of Irish people believe the government did a good job of handling the Covid crisis – while an almost unprecedented 72% expressed satisfication with the government. […]
We hear all how Sinn Féin represents change from the Fianna Gael/Fine Fáil monopoly. But nobody ever stops to ask – what kind of change does Sinn Féin actually represent? Ben Scallan comments #gript
The Deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, Éamon Ó Cuiv, has said the party’s vote is “collapsing” and that it will become “irrelevant” if it enters into government under the programme currently being put to the vote by the party members. Responding to an opinion poll published in the Irish Mail on Sunday which showed Fianna […]
A group of 50 Fianna Fáil Councillors have been joined by 1,000 party members to launch a campaigning group to Vote No to the Programme for Government (PfG) negotiated by Fine Gael, the Green Party and the leadership of Fianna Fáil. The dal agreed by the three parties must now be ratified by members. The new organisation, […]
The newly agreed Programme for Government includes a commitment to impose ‘exclusion zones’ which would stop even silent pro-life vigils outside hospitals and GP surgeries where abortions take place or are facilitated. This is an extreme measure and, as a national law, would be unique in Europe. The Programme includes other measures of concern (see below). For example, it promises yet […]