Jan
17
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 …
Jun
27
“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 …
Apr
29
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 …
Apr
06
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‘ …
Feb
20
Fine Gael claim that their plan for Reinventing Government will lead to “the abolition of 145 state bodies and companies”. On their Flickr account, they put it more bluntly: Fine Gael will “abolish 145 quangos”. So I decided to have a closer look…
Aug
29
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 …
Mar
15
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 …
Feb
09
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 …
Sep
02
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 …
Jun
20
I spent most of the week in London. From what I saw in newspapers and on television while there, Gordon Brown seemed preoccupied by the ongoing row over MPs expenses. He lost another minister on Wednesday, though Kitty Ussher was …