Sinn Fein has produced a substantial and positive contribution to the debate on creating and saving jobs in our recessionary economy. ‘Getting Ireland Back to Work’ contains more than 80 proposals covering a range of employment-related subjects: job retention, investing in our indigenous base, education and training, consumer spending, etc. If there’s a bit of [...]

Dear Sarah
I read with interest your recent Irish Times column - ‘Nemesis for decades of cosy consensus on tax‘. I was particularly struck by the following:
‘When asked who should pay tax so that there’s enough money to fund the most generous social welfare payments in the EU, we are back to - you’ve guessed it [...]

There is a sense that, if we could just overcome these temporary setbacks (recession, credit crunch, low export demand) then we might find our way back to a more benign economic climate. There’s very little sense that this is a ‘game-changer’, as Liam, a reader of this blog, put it. For instance, the Sunday Tribune [...]

Mark Conroy, who kindly posted my essay ‘Towards a New Economic Narrative’ on Indymedia, noted my comment that it was growing quickly out-of-date and asked:
‘In what way is it “out of date”, and what would an updated version of it look like?’
Fair question. With new projections from Ulster Bank suggesting we are entering into a [...]

Indymedia has kindly posted my article ‘Towards A New Economic Narrative’. But I fear it is quickly growing out of date. The speed at which the economy is melting down means we are running hard and still not able to keep up. The article was written in November. Today we are in a much different [...]

Jim O’Leary rightfully points out our tendency to view our problems in isolation from the rest of the world - as if we were somehow unique. He suggests we look abroad, to other examples. He selects my home state California to see what lessons we can draw. His principle is sound, his selection curious.
It’s not [...]

So, the Brians are asking for advice. We should not begrudge them. It is time for all ‘good patriots’ to step forward and give our faltering government a helping hand. For we are now, effectively, looking into the third budget in five months. So where do we start?
No better place than with Sean O’Riain’s piece [...]

There is an almighty locomotive train of a consensus coming down the tracks at us: taxation. Many commentators are demanding that tax increases be substantial and immediate. Can this help resolve the crisis? The answer is: yes and no and, in some cases, it can make it worse. Taxation is, after all, an instrument; like [...]

The RTE Prime Time programme last night contained some of the most misleading (to put it mildly) presentation of facts and subsequent analysis to have been aired in a long time. Make no mistake about it: we are being prepared for the economic abattoir. And if you need any proof that the Left is rapidly [...]

Cathal O’Loghlin has done the readers of my Notes on the Front blog a favour by putting up his Irish Independent article in the comment section yesterday (I’m assuming the poster ‘Honest Cathal‘ is the author). Whichever Cathal it is, he is certainly in feisty form. He manages to call ICTU and CORI liars - [...]