Brexit is the definition of a national issue, but we must listen to what Unionists are telling us

Stephen Donnelly in an interview on RTE yesterday at lunchtime, who said that whilst he is happy with the draft deal on the table over the border – Brexit, he says, is the very definition of a national issue – but we must listen to what Unionists are saying about Dublin’s tone. He points out that gaps were opening up because of a lack of back-channel contacts between the government in Dublin and the DUP’s own backroom teams: no one on …

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“School’s out for Summer Schools”: The Week In Irish Politics

So that’s it. The political term over and done with. Politicians off on their holidays and the lights all off in Leinster House. They’re all in Marbella, Magaluf or Corfu. At least that’s the impression you get any time you read the papers upon the rising of the houses of the Oireachtas for any recess. In reality, the political world keeps turning and politicians are still at work, be it in the constituency, developing policy, meetings with various groups, or …

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Stephen Donnelly (late of the Social Democrats) joins Fianna Fail…

Interesting breaking news in the south concerning Wicklow/East Carlow Independent TD Stephen Donnelly. As The Journal notes “sources say the Wicklow TD had been “actively interested” in joining a political party.” He had been a founding member of the Social Democrats till last summer. He’s shown an impressive grasp of policy ever since coming into the Dail in the wake FF’s defenestration in 2011, but I suspect his search for a party home is born out of frustration at having …

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RBS bonus: Obscene or a nice piece of business?

One thing, I think, that is better, or at least more widely, understood in the Republic than in the UK is that the credit crunch is still screwing up almost every other well intentioned effort to get our economies moving again. This is because the banks still haven’t owned up to the extent of their bad debt, and they are barely lending anything to anyone. So far, the pattern seems to be that they keep the good (ie, unimpaired) investment …

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