While Eurozone Governments continue to debate the details of the banking union; while the Irish government continues to insist that the deal reached last year includes bailing us out for…

Don’t be taken in by the spin.  Social protection payments have not been protected.  Not ‘core’ payments, not ‘non-core’ payments, not any payments.  They have been cut in actual terms,…

Cuts in Child Benefit, Youth Programmes, school capitation grants, higher education, student grants, youth unemployment payments – the economic war on youth has run into hundreds of millions and cost…

I am a great fan of universality.  It binds people from all social constituencies through shared public provision.  It pools risk on the insurance principle.  It removes public goods and…

Don’t be under any illusions:  there is an economic war being waged against young people.  It is being fought on a number of fronts:  education, social protection, labour market and…

It was a listless budget, a thin budget, a budget without narrative or direction, without reform or innovation.  And, of course, it was another austerity budget which took from the…

So, Fine Gael has caved in to Labour.  There will now be only €2.5 billion in fiscal adjustments (read: austerity), not €3.1 billion.  A victory for the junior partner or…

As the Government does its post-mortem on the Seanad referendum, Switzerland is gearing up for a vote in November on a referendum that is truly reforming.  It’s called the 1:12…

In the run-up to the budget all the talk is of how many jobs will be destroyed as a result of Government measures.  Well, not really.  But it should be. …