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Gerard HowlinIrish Examiner |
The general election distilled significant power into the hands of a few Independent TDs. There are about seven at the time of writing likely to take...
Backloading liability on to people under 40 is the theme of this election. Unhoused, under-pensioned, and liable for more dependents as demographics...
With impeccable timing, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil timed out the Green Party last Monday night. The party leaders would not agree to allow Minister...
Foregone conclusions about the general election are premature. Sinn Féin may be in the doghouse politically, but the election will end up being about...
Simon Harris is not running for tánaiste. That should not be news, but it hasn’t sunk in with Fianna Fáil. Success would be Fianna Fáil and Fine...
The next election offers little choice between the three larger parties and several smaller ones. Sinn Féin’s alternative budget is distinctive,...
The hubris of the noughties is back with a bang. We have lost the run of ourselves and forgotten what a paltry sum the €13 billion coming from Apple...
The question now is whether we should establish a new Department of Infrastructure. The Taoiseach says it will be a Fine Gael manifesto pledge. It is...
Simon Harris is the first populist leader of Fine Gael, and the Taoiseach who has ended analogue politics. As a politician he has an astonishing...
If the Government is planning a general election in autumn, it is now in its last 100 days. We’ve been here before. Enda Kenny was ready to go to...
If the Government is planning a general election in autumn, it is now in its last 100 days. We’ve been here before. Enda Kenny was ready to go to...
Sewing pockets into shrouds is one part of the campaign to cut inheritance tax. Another is to establish squatter’s rights over the promise of tax...
Who is Jack Chambers? The answer is nobody knows. That’s a political analysis, not a personal comment. His CV is known but not much of what he...
Brexit, Covid and the Green Party are the forces that shaped this Government. Two were reactive responses to outside events, but were well done. In a...
Today’s elections are the starting line for change. The results, whatever they are, will reset politics here, and a new European Parliament triggers...
Amid unspeakable tragedy, first in Israel on October 7th and subsequently in Gaza, a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding. At home, on university...
Ireland is now a state of disbelief, assaulted by algorithms sent from dark places. Thirty four per cent of us believe “a small, secret group of...
If only I knew then what I know now. On St Brigid’s Day 2023, I spent 24 hours in the Emergency Department of Wexford General Hospital with an...
Fine Gael reshuffled this week under a new leader, and the Fianna Fáil ardfheis begins on Friday night. The political centre is still above water but...
There was a national tizzy nine days ago when Leo Varadkar resigned as leader of Fine Gael. Four days later Simon Harris succeeded him. On April 9th...
The lasting effects of the lost referendums are limited. There may be squalls at parliamentary party meetings next week, but the people have moved on....
It beats Banagher, but the passing of the Nature Restoration Law by the European Parliament on Tuesday was overshadowed by the RTÉ soap opera. In a...
The paradox at the heart of the delayed and increasingly expensive national children’s hospital is that it was a rushed job with a sloppy start. It...
The certainty of misery is over. The feel-bad factor that dominated since the advent of Covid is receding and has been for some time. Covid built on...
We are in a different world in 2024. The political context has changed, but the bigger issue is that so has our culture. The riot in Dublin on...
We are embarking on the most radical change in the provision of pensions and welfare since David Lloyd George introduced old age pensions at age 70 in...
There is a lazy pessimism taking over the public conversation. It believes that a political fracture over migration is inevitable. Something has...
Two opinion polls in a row had Sinn Féin down three points. It is too soon to say if that is a deeper trend and too soon to encompass fallout from...