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 […]
What’s the point of giving every student in the country €250 in the budget? The pubs are closed, after all. But nonetheless, that’s what the Government is doing, apparently: NEW: In budget third level students to be given €250 each to help meet the cost of this year. Total cost €50m. Details to be worked […]
For many people in Ireland, these are tough times. Businesses are in danger of bankruptcy. School students face uncertainty, and teachers are struggling to teach through restrictions. Many people are entering their sixth or seventh month since being able to see, or hug, elderly loved ones. Christmas itself, we hear, may now be imperilled. So, […]
“The IPCC is partly a scientific organisation, partly a political organisation”. That was what Richard Tol, a convening lead author of the 5th review of climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told Michael Shellenberger when he interviewed him for his recently released book, Apocalypse Never. In 2010, Tol was assigned to the team to draft the […]
Democracy, as some of you will know, is a Greek word which means “rule by the people”. “Irish Democracy”, on the other hand, is an English phrase which means “rule by the right sort of people”: Quotas for young people in politics, similar to gender quotas, and lowering the voting age to 16, were among […]
The tragic and unjust death of George Floyd reignited two discussions that had long been had right the way across the Western World. The first was how to deal with the supposed ‘systemic’ racism that existed within our society? And the second – and what some people see as the root of all evil in […]
To lose one agriculture minister might be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two, the IFA might have said to the Taoiseach last night, is just rank carelessness: Cullinan said: “We are very concerned about the disruption caused by the loss of two Ministers for Agriculture since the new government was formed, and reports that […]
It is important, generally, to try and not get personal when it comes to the people who govern us. For the most part, they are doing their best. Being wrong, as they regularly are is a human fault, not one that is specific to one party, or one person. Politicians want to be remembered well, […]
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 […]
A great scoop in the independent by privacy reporter Ken Foxe: Details of the lump sums, pensions and termination pay for individual TDs and senators will no longer be made public following a decision by Oireachtas authorities. The payments have been published by Leinster House for more than a decade without issue. However, the Oireachtas […]
There are probably two things one might say about Mary Lou McDonald’s claim to the Sunday Independent that given the chance, she’d have been in the IRA, armed to the teeth and taking potshots at lads from Bolton who were unlucky enough to get posted to Northern Ireland. If you’re the anti-SF type, there’s the […]
Something you don’t see every day: A politician who was explicitly defenestrated by the voters from her seat in the Dáil, back in the chamber just a few weeks later, taking questions like nothing had happened: Here’s something you don’t see every day – a non-TD taking questions in the Dáil. Katherine Zappone presenting this […]