The following is a speech I delivered at a public meeting in Dublin hosted by the Communist Party. The fundamental division in the economic debate is between those who support…

I was never a fan of social partnership. It was based on a flawed economic premise – limiting wage increases in return for income tax cuts; it was hardly a…

With more interest being expressed (finally, finally) in growth rates, what are the forecasters saying. Well, Ernst & Young forecasts have just been published and their numbers are bad. They…

So the 2011 budget is reasonably progressive. Indeed, budgets over the last two years have been reasonably progressive (makes one wonder how reactionary a budget has to be before it…

Yes, the Government has taken a sledge-hammer to the living standards of low and average income earners. But sometimes it’s the little things that expose the venality of policy –…

The Government repeats the mantra – we didn’t touch pensions, we didn’t touch pensions. They’ve been saying that since the beginning of the crisis even though they have cut the…

The ‘creepy’ is in the detail which the Government didn’t reveal. Social welfare rates will fall by 4 percent (except for pensioners). Regarding low-average earners this is what the budget…

The budget will be nasty, brutal but, unfortunately, not short. Its effects will last – unless people through their popular organisations put enough pressure on the opposition parties to commit…

UNITE has published their ‘People’s Budget’ – an alternative to the deflationary orthodoxy that retains its grip on the debate and strategy. The principles behind the strategy are a €15…