Health estimate is fiction and passing it makes a mockery of the Dáil Budget day saw rare flashes of leadership but these were overshadowed by imprudent overspendingFri Oct 13 2023 - 06:00
Ireland is on the frontline of the battle against misinformationWe have EU-wide responsibilities that are enormous in scale and consequenceFri Sept 29 2023 - 06:00
Micheál Martin may be Sinn Féin’s greatest accidental cheerleaderIf there is a slam dunk election in the making, it is an inside job, and Martin is a chief architectFri Sept 15 2023 - 06:30
The ECB acts to limit inflation. Then the Irish Government undermines it Knee-jerk reactions to rising interest rates invariably favour those on the housing ladder, or who are housed and have moneyTue Aug 22 2023 - 06:15
The biggest upheaval in the electoral system since the 1970s is comingGerard Howlin: Lowering the voting age or increasing seats would be transformative, but unpredictableFri Aug 11 2023 - 06:00
There is a direct line between threat to Irish sovereignty and social disintegrationWe are under-prepared and ill-equipped for the real threats to our sovereigntyFri Aug 04 2023 - 06:00
Rhodes is burning but roads are the burning budget issue in IrelandLeo Varadkar’s support for roads is nostalgia for a world suffocating on its own emissionsFri Jul 28 2023 - 05:00
Gerard Howlin: There is a reason this RTÉ soap opera eclipsed the heatwave in EuropeSelf-referential news cycle prioritising this controversy in the face of climate breakdown is a deadly extension of fake newsTue Jul 18 2023 - 06:15
Online abuse, sexist structures, night shifts: no wonder more women don’t go into politicsIn terms of gender, the Dáil is barely more representative than the ascendancy parliament in the eighteenth century. A culture change is neededTue Jul 04 2023 - 06:15
President Higgins has created an unprecedented state of exception for himselfHe cannot behave now as if he is still on the hustings, because it changes the future as well as the presentMon Jun 19 2023 - 17:59
Sinn Féin and Fine Gael on wrong side of history regarding climate crisisGerard Howlin: Decarbonisation politics is led by competition between Sinn Féin and Fine Gael for the rural voteMon Jun 05 2023 - 18:00
Micheál Martin has remade Fianna Fáil into a vehicle for its leaderGerard Howlin: The Tánaiste’s next move could be European Commissioner, President of the Council, President of Ireland or even rotating Taoiseach. The outlook for the party is grimmerTue May 23 2023 - 05:00
Mortgage interest relief is another blow to those who are young, unhoused and up the creekGerard Howlin: It further imbalances an already out of kilter tax system, again, against the youngWed May 10 2023 - 03:00
Unlike most politicians, Robert Watt wants the reality of power but not the theatreGerard Howlin: As any other civil servant could have told him, if you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it madeTue Apr 25 2023 - 04:21
Biden visit marks end of era as passing time has thinned out Irish-American blood US president identifies as Irish in America but he visits Ireland as an American, a foreigner, albeit one with close ties of affectionTue Apr 11 2023 - 05:00
Gerard Howlin: The younger generation are screwed, and the system is stacked against themExpediency drives decisions on issues such as increased pension age and wealth tax, all of which would benefit the youngTue Mar 28 2023 - 05:00
Gerard Howlin: Lifting the eviction ban was the right thing to doIt was not working and did nothing to address the deep dysfunction in housing policyTue Mar 14 2023 - 05:00
State spending has soared by one third since 2016, with little discernible benefit to Ireland’s citizensEconomically Ireland has no right-of-centre politics, and public spending has jumped by a third since the 2016 electionTue Feb 28 2023 - 05:00
The immigration genie is out of the bottle and cannot be simply wished back inThe domestication of Sinn Féin and a belief by government that it could contain the issue kept it at the fringes. Until nowTue Feb 14 2023 - 05:00
Dáil’s expansion will alter electoral arithmetic hugelyIf Ireland is increasingly a political melting pot, huge structural change in TD numbers turns up the heatTue Jan 31 2023 - 05:00
Paschal Donohoe’s usefulness to Varadkar and Martin will save himMinister is getting a chance Fine Gael denied Alan Shatter, Frances Fitzgerald and Phil HoganTue Jan 24 2023 - 05:00
Bulging post-holiday bins a metaphor for our disposable societyWe maximise our capacity to party, minimise our personal exposure to the consequences and has enough of the balm of action to allow us have a very good time and feel good about ourselvesTue Jan 10 2023 - 05:00
Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin owe Alan Shatter an apologyGerard Howlin: The ex-minister was badly treated by a political system that still won’t say sorryTue Dec 27 2022 - 00:00
Neutrality a hardnosed responsibility, not a romantic notionOnly two ships are available to patrol our 132,000sq-mile economic zone, which is 16% of EU watersTue Dec 13 2022 - 00:00
Days of masterly inactivity on climate action coming to an endClimate Action Plan will apply legal pressure on civil servants and State agencies to ensure carbon reduction is intrinsic to plans and budgetsTue Nov 29 2022 - 05:00
Future of Irish politics is in Micheál Martin’s handsMicheál Martin can stop Sinn Féin’s seemingly inevitable ascension to power or he can facilitate itTue Nov 15 2022 - 05:00
Sinn Féin’s unspoken challenge is reformation of administrative State Eoin Ó Broin’s criticism of Department of Finance chief economist strayed from project of socialising Sinn Féin for powerTue Nov 01 2022 - 05:00
Government is not prepared to take political pain of tackling inflationSee-saw of contradictory policies set to prolong and exaggerate effects of inflationTue Oct 18 2022 - 05:00
Ireland is a country where people can no longer be bought with their own moneyOutside the halls of power, Ireland's social contract is broken - even €11bn is not enough wallpaper to cover over the cracksTue Oct 04 2022 - 05:00
Varadkar can be solo star performer but he makes poor team leaderIf Fine Gael leader really thinks it is a national imperative to keep Pascal Donohoe as minister for finance, he should forgo his own turn as taoiseachTue Sept 20 2022 - 05:00
Two weeks out from budget day there is no plan, only chaosWith a budget surplus of more than €6 billion, any kind of restraint is too much to hope forTue Sept 13 2022 - 05:00
Government has run out of road on spending to keep up with demandHaving survived Russian roulette on corporation tax, a State living hand-to-mouth has acquired an invincibility complex. It is the economics of joyridingTue Aug 30 2022 - 00:00
The Government is playing a dangerous game in inflating public expectationsCoalition is trying to appease voters with money it does not have instead of challenging the narrative on public spendingFri Jul 08 2022 - 00:01
Chasing inflation with a huge pay rise for the public sector is understandable but insaneListening to prescriptions for the old magic formula of tax cuts and spending increase is genuinely funny, but it ends in tearsSat Jun 18 2022 - 04:00
Politics of climate change halfway between comedy and consequenceVaradkar’s kick in the shins to Ryan over turf perfectly platformed Sinn Féin in its wider opposition to delivery mechanisms for climate targetsTue May 31 2022 - 04:00
