There’s been a lot of commentary so far on the 10th anniversary of the Great Recession:  jobs, income, consumer spending, growth.  One aspect that has been over-looked, however, is public…

Is the Government going to introduce an affordable housing scheme?  There are reports they will do so.  One of the problems is how do we define affordability?  Deputy Eoin O’Broin’s…

Today, just seven working days into the New Year, the average remuneration for CEO’s in the top 21 Irish companies (which represent 95 percent of the market value of the…

Want to reduce inequality?  Raise living standards for low and average income earners?  Increase productivity and give the 1 percent a bit of a kick (that is, reduce their share…

The Taoiseach is worried these days: ‘The Government is concerned that wages will grow too fast next year, damaging Ireland’s competitiveness and undermining future economic growth, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has…

Will be taking a break but will back early in the New Year.  I want to thank all those who gave me such a warm welcome after my absence.  Wishing…

Short answer – to the top.  But that is only part of the story.  The CSO tracks average weekly incomes by type of employee: Managers, professionals and associated professionals:  in…

It is amusing to hear talk about learning the lessons from the crash.  Take housing:  we entered the crash due to a housing crisis, with public subsidies in the form…

There is a spectre haunting Europe – the spectre of de-privatisation, re-municipalisation, and re-nationalisation.   Local, regional and national Governments throughout Europe and in other countries – fed up with high…

Andrew Phelan wrote of his experience on Facebook: ‘So government decide to throw €50 a month our way to help towards Crèche fees. Ok. It’s tiny but I guess every…

During the recession I was amused by the attacks on the Left:  ‘you’re fiscally irresponsible’, ‘if we followed your programme we’d go bankrupt’, etc.  In the ten years prior to…

Conventional commentary would have us believe that people don’t want to pay higher tax in order to receive more benefits.  But then there’s this interesting survey undertaken by the Department…

There are three golden rules of governance: You do not delegate the resolution of a problem to the party that caused the problem You do not delegate the resolution of…

Apologies for being absent from the debate for so long.  I got stuck in traffic.  Now, I am looking forward, again, to the analysis, the proposals and, most of all,…

These days any question of increased resources – whether for investment, public services or social protection – is met with ‘how can we afford it?’, ‘the fiscal rules won’t allow…

Fresh from making a mess of home-ownership policy – in particular, the mortgage subsidy scheme which will increase house prices and end up in the pockets of developers – the…

In the last few weeks people have understandably been following the US presidential elections.  However, since the last general election there has been a slow trend emerging in the Irish…

I suppose it would be expected of a progressive discussing the US Presidential election to describe Donald Trump negatively:  a bigot, a liar, a tax avoider, a sexual predator, a…

Of all the statements and comments from Budget 2017 my favourite comes from the Minister for Finance in his budget day speech: ‘We are a small and very open economy…

The 1 percent serves as an excellent symbol of actually existing capitalism.  Examining the inequalities between households gives an insight into the level of solidarity within a country.  Wealth and…