In fairness, every other left wing hobby horse lobby group in Ireland already gets taxpayer funding, so why should the prostitutes, of all people, be left out? Well, they’re left out no longer. The full, ahem, ins and outs of how the money was channelled from your pockets into the pockets of the campaign to […]
According to the taxpayer funded lobby group which came up with the idea, “Minimum Unit Pricing” for alcohol is a simple enough idea. Here is what they say: “Minimum unit pricing (MUP) is a “floor price” beneath which alcohol cannot legally be sold and is based on the amount of alcohol in a product, measured […]
If you listened to the radio, yesterday, or read a newspaper, yesterday, then there’s a good chance you’ll have come across the horrifying news that Ireland has had a “record number” of racist incidents over the last year. There is a good chance, too, that you’ll have heard that this is entirely the fault of […]
The job of An Garda Siochána, just like any other police force, is to maintain public order, and to investigate crime. The definition of a crime varies from country to country. In Ireland, for example, soliciting the services of a prostitute is illegal. In Ireland that’s a crime – in the Netherlands, by contrast, it’s […]
A little microcosm of the way the state spends your money, here. At this link, you’ll find a tender document issued by Mayo County Council, seeking a person, persons, or company to author an “LGBTI+ inclusion strategy” for County Mayo. There are a few notable things about the document. First, and most oddly, for a […]
Who are the activists and the NGOs who have contributed to stirring up tensions in the past week, especially around the suggestion that bias might have motivated Garda actions leading to the death of George Nkencho? And why are so many of them funded by the hard-pressed Irish tax-payer? These people range from elected TDs […]
Some recent dissembling on the part of Amnesty Ireland has reminded me of a previous instance when that organisation engaged in disingenuous sophistry. As someone who agrees with the majority of positions taken by Amnesty Ireland, I find such behaviour disappointing. While there are many contemporary issues where reasonable people may differ, it seems worthwhile […]
Taxpayer-funded organisations are meant to be transparent and accountable. Proper order, given that so many millions in our taxes are granted each year to entities which often seem to be a favourite of the politically powerful rather than the public. One of the ways in which transparency is achieved is in inviting various parties to […]
A new group made up of various far-left organisations is formally launching today in order to campaign against Ireland’s “far right”. “LeCheile” is made up, as you might guess, of all the usual suspects: The National Women’s Council, The Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Sinn Fein, The Union of Students in Ireland, Gaza action Ireland, The […]
A recent report conducted by the Social Policy Department at UCD for the Dublin Regional Housing Executive contains some interesting insights into the response to homelessness in the city. Among the groups who took part were Merchants Quay, Crosscare, Focus, and the Capuchin Day Centre. Seemingly, no homeless persons nor any of the smaller voluntary […]
The abbreviation “NGO” stands, as most people know, for “non governmental organisation”. In other words, it covers a whole range of charities, political lobby groups, and representative bodies who take part in the political process, but who are not political parties, or part of the Government. Amnesty Ireland is an NGO, as is the Irish […]
The author, John Hamill, is Co-Host of The Free Thought Prophet Podcast Last week, the Seanad debated the Electoral (Civil Society Freedom) (Amendment) Bill 2019, which proposed to remove several restrictions on the influence of money within our political process. Currently, the Electoral Act places limits on the value of individual donations made for political purposes. This new […]