Today is the start of the traditional builders’ August holidays. Today is ‘Black Friday’. It has been designated thus by commentators and industry spokespersons (mostly off the record) who have…

The very fabric of social insurance is under attack – from Fianna Fail, the Programme for Government, some media commentators and a general public indifference or lack of knowledge as…

The recent study by the Dublin Transport Office surveying the effects of LUAS on traffic flows should make for sober, if unsurprising reading. It shows that in areas serving the…

School has just been let out for children and, on the electoral campus, for the Left. For children, it is a time for play, for the Left it is a…

High inflation. Sanguine Government. Desperate Trade Unions. Indifferent Employers. Oh, and let’s not forget the citizens – they have an interest in all this. Does anyone know what to do…

Welcome to the new government, same as. . well, the old government. At least when it comes to the economy. Much commentary has focused on what the Greens got, didn’t…

One can sympathise with John Gormley’s despair at the prospect of five more years of opposition, especially coming from someone of his political calibre. But coalition-forming and political alignments are…

Apologies for my long absence.  I had hoped to return before the election was called but workload has prevented me.  And now with the election imminent it is clear I…

Keep these two numbers in mind: 37% and 67%. The Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union published a comprehensive analysis of the electricity market and, in particular, the reasons behind…

First, the military mucked up the English language. What used to be called ‘retreat’ is now called ‘retrograde motion’. And what used to be called destroying is now called saving…

One of the first equations one learns in logic class is that A is not B is not C.  For instance, right-wing economists are fairly united on a number of…

Ireland into the 21st century – with such a bewildering speed and transformation that future historians will rely on the refrain of ‘all is changed, changed utterly.’ Even the prospective…

Obviously Kitty has read one too many missives from ISME and IBEC about how small Irish enterprises would be world champions were it not for high taxes, high wages, over-regulation,…

Don’t you just love it when the Right get all worked up over the injustices that the moneyed-classes must endure in our democracy? Marc Coleman was particularly agitated by those…

When children begin one of those connect-the-dot puzzles, the idea that the exercise will lead to any coherence seems foolish. By the time they finish tracing, they have completed the…

‘I started on it but I always thought I had it under control. Now it controls me.’ ‘Hey, I was young; a little bit wouldn’t do any harm. It’s not…

It came at the end of the speech. Covering all the bases, including his Commitments for Change, with passionate words on the health service (‘health is a community service, not…

Thanks to Progressive Gardener for bringing this to my attention. What would you say to a proposal that would (a) reduce carbon emissions, (b) reduce public expenditure, (c) increase business…

There are some who believe the reason why wealthy people are wealthy is because they’re smarter and work harder. The corollary is that the poor are not so smart and…

J ust once I’d like to see the following news report: Tuck McGrath, CEO, explained the reasons for the company closure. ‘It’s all management’s fault. Our Human Resources Manager is…