The recent Saville Report, A Rent Forecasting Model for the Private Rented Sector in Ireland, should be a wake-up call to all policy makers.  Based on the relationship between private…

The only potentially bright spot in an otherwise dismal budget was the proposals on childcare.   The National Women’s Council of Ireland also welcomed the proposals: ‘NWCI has welcomed the announcement…

Shane Coleman asks: ‘So who's representing those who earn €35,000-€75,000 – the squeezed middle?’ To be fair to Shane, he’s not the only person asking this question nor is he…

I mentioned previously that the run-up to the budget is my favourite time.  We get all manner of sloganeering and mantras.  Take this one:  a pro-business budget.  This usually refers…

The run-up to the budget is my favourite time of the year.   Commentary on Irish taxation tends towards the deliciously deceiving, hilariously spurious or just plain weird.  And the Irish…

Whenever one compares Irish government finances with that of other small open economies or Nordic countries, showing that we spend far less on public services, social protection and investment someone…

Education, the skill-base of the labour force, human capital:  this is the key to growth in the future.  This is the key to increasing people’s life-chances.   Michael Noonan referred to…

There has been so much written about the Apple tax ruling.  Here I look at some of the longer-term implications.  But let’s first nail down some confusions and misunderstandings. First,…

Workers at Dublin Bus are on strike.  They certainly have had a difficult time of it since the recession started:  no wage increase since 2008, have not been paid a…

From this article – In Norway, Start-ups say Ja to Socialism – we can safely say there are at least a few Norwegian ‘entrepreneurs’ who are quite content to work…

To ask ‘who owns the corporation’ is to invite a simple reply:  the shareholders.  After all, don’t shareholders vote at AGMs, doesn’t the law state that shareholders own the company. …

The Minister for Social Protection, Leo Varadkar, has been floating some ideas.  The latest one concerns increased unemployment benefits – along the lines of basic European practice (sort of).  His…

One of the impacts of the CSO’s recent National Accounts data – the one that shows the economy growing by 26 percent – is that all our main economic measurements…

The following appeared in the Irish Independent on Saturday, July 16th Unite believes that the implications of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) are so far-reaching that it must…

There is a narrative among the Left that claims that capital has not wasted the recessionary opportunity, that capital has exploited the crisis to depress wages in order to boost…

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?             The barbarians are due here today.  Why isn’t anything happening in the senate? Why do the senators sit there without…

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) will soon be making its recommendation for the National Minimum Wage. Last year, they recommended a 50 cents increase in the hourly wage – nine…

Does the Brexit vote, with all its contradictions and incongruities, represent an anti-establishment vote?  The Brexit campaign was a struggle between two wings of the Tory party (including its breakaway,…

The bin charges debacle is spiralling into chaos.  We have areas where two or three or four bin companies operate and other areas where companies are threatening to leave; escalating…

The Committee on Housing and Homelessness have produced their report.  It is a credible piece of work, especially given the short-time frame and the challenge of agreeing recommendations on an…