A week back, I wondered about the contradiction between two items I came across online. On the one hand, Kerry TD Brendan Griffin was reported as saying he had handed back half his salary, and would continue to do so. It took just five minutes to do so, he told the Irish Times. On the …
Tag Archive: Fine Gael
Jan 17
Poll positions
Fine Gael senator Catherine Noone writes about a phone poll of local councillors attitudes: “Two-thirds of Councillors from the two Government parties would support changes to the Croke Park Agreement, according to this survey carried out by my office. A total of 529 City and County Councillors responded to the phone poll, with 56% of …
Jun 27
The Wild Irish
“Politics with Hidden Bases” looked at Irish TDs, and found Fianna Fáil TDs are more likely than average to have Gaelic surnames, while Fine Gael have an above-average number of Old English surnames. The explanation offered is that in patriarchal households, so you vote like your Da, not your Ma, and the Gaels are rebels. …
Apr 29
Copy that
Tucked into the Fine Gael manifesto were a couple of promises which affect journalists: a plan to pioneer US-style “fair use” in EU law, and a review of intellectual property (IP) law. Fair use, Fine Gael says, will “allow internet companies and digital innovators to bring their services to market”. The IP update would give …
Apr 06
Dole 2.0
When Jason Walsh first spotted the ‘internet tax‘ proposal in the Green manifesto during the election campaign, I took it as a typical example of Green eccentricity. The following day, when I spotted a similar idea for a ‘content tax‘ in the Fine Gael manifesto, I took it a little more seriously. Greens were never …
Aug 29
Stop the presses
Irish schools should abandon textbooks in favour of online educational content, says Fergus O’Dowd, FG education spokesman. “Texas and California are investigating the use of ‘open source textbooks’, providing approved digital texts online, written by educational experts such as retired teachers but made available for free or at a discounted price for printed versions,” he …
Mar 15
Basic Law
In a attempt to appear radical, Fine Gael are pitching a series of constitutional amendments if elected into government. Some are cosmetic. Reducing the president’s term of office from seven to five years, the right to petition the Oireachtas. Some are welcome. More powers to (some) Oireachtas committees. Some are sheer populism. Cut the number …
Feb 09
An Open Letter To Enda Kenny
By now, the newspapers have been put to bed. Based on the preview I caught on Vincent Browne’s TV3 show, half of them are predicting dire consequences for you as a result of George Lee’s abdication. My guess is your media advisers have spent the day going over your response with you. So here’s what …
Sep 02
Rock Bottom
Anyone seeking for a metaphor for all that is wrong with Ireland at the moment need look no farther than the Dublin docklands. There, you will find the proposed new headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank, a building planned in happier days, before the bank imploded and was nationalised. A government strapped for cash as tax …
