Republic – Page 40 – Slugger O'Toole

Nell McCafferty talks back…

Mick Fealty on September 8, 2009, 12:10 am

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Nice moment on Politics.ie when Nell McCafferty bursts in on a virtual conversation about her real world dealings with a surgeon at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital and his secretary which bursts a few (virtual) bubbles… Real world meets virtual… H/T our own Dan Sullivan… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. …

Commission on Taxation recommendations

Pete Baker on September 7, 2009, 7:50 pm

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An RTÉ report outlines the recommendations from Ireland’s Commission on Taxation report. [pdf file] Opposition parties, and other interested groups, are reportedly wary. Adds According to Taoiseach Brian Cowen, the report “is setting a framework for reforms over the next decade.”From the RTÉ report Outline of proposals An annual property tax on all residential property excluding social and local authority housing – Child benefit should be a taxable income with a tax credit to offset the increase in tax for …

Lisbon Essay (4): A ‘No’ would force powerful corporate lobbies to give way to real democracy…

Mick Fealty on September 7, 2009, 2:00 pm

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This week we kick off with an argument from the Irish left, and from the only one of Ireland’s twelve MEPs that could be in the least described as ‘Eurosceptic’. In particular, Joe Higgins notes the proposal to work together to a far greater degree on a raft of what might classed as a common foreign policy (see also LE3 for David Steven’s arguments in favour), linking it to the encouragement of larger countries to form joint military forces. A …

Future of the SDLP: “Fortune favours the brave, not the bewildered…”

Mick Fealty on September 7, 2009, 12:23 pm

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There are few better descriptions of just how low Gordon Brown has taken the Labour Party in Britain than this from Bagehot in the Economist this week: In Vladimir Nabokov’s memoir, “Speak, Memory”, he describes coming upon a cat torturing a chipmunk. “Most of his tail was gone,” Nabokov writes of the chipmunk, “the stump was bleeding.” Finally the creature “lay down on his side in order to merge with a bit of light and shade on the ground”. Labour …

Fianna Fail’s northern expeditionary force hits Downpatrick…

Mick Fealty on September 7, 2009, 12:04 pm

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It seems that on Saturday Fianna Fail was in the Denvir Hotel in Downpatrick to launch its new Down Forum with Irish government ministers Dermot Ahern and Eamonn O Cuiv attending. Recently returned emigre Joe O’Neill was there to cover the event… YOu have to admire their commitment, but with the party’s latest opinion rating in the Republic sitting at an historic low (that would be 17%!!), it may not be the moment to expect great things from any southern …

“There are economic advantages to buying Irish.”

Pete Baker on September 6, 2009, 6:47 pm

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The Sunday Times looks at the economic patriotism behind the Love Irish Food campaign. From the ST article Jim Power, the economist fronting the campaign, admits it is a commercial tactic by a food industry under pressure. “We are seeing moves from certain retailers about sourcing less product in Ireland. Exchange-rate movements, particularly against sterling, have been adverse for the last two years,” he says. “Disposable income is under pressure and consumer spending is down. “There are economic advantages to …

Oireachtas: Spending up 125%; proposed cuts 3%

Mick Fealty on September 5, 2009, 10:34 am

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For those of you who still doubt the value of blogging, try this for a genuine national scoop… Last night, when the world and his Irish wife was warming up and waiting for Ryan Tubridy to sock it Brian Cowen last night, Gavin Sheridan was keeping an ever watchful eye on the Dept of Finance’s the Special Group Background Documents website… and discovered a massive dumping of data from the internal reporting of the McCarthy committee report… Gavin began with …

Unanswered, and unasked, questions

Pete Baker on September 5, 2009, 3:03 am

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According to Cherie Blair, speaking on RTÉ’s The Late Late Show, the four children of the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, have Irish passports – due to their paternal grandmother’s nationality. Cherie Blair wasn’t asked, and didn’t offer an answer to, the question of whether they also hold UK passports.. There were also no enquiries into the supernatural situation.. Despite the Faith Foundation. Nor were there any enquiries into any of those helpful international interventions.. nor of the examples …

Lisbon Essay (3): Not perfect, but ‘good enough’ to face multiplying and complex global risks…

Mick Fealty on September 4, 2009, 3:00 pm

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Today, David Steven of Global Dashboard takes the frame of debate wider to look at the international implications of the Lisbon Treaty. The problem lies not just in the rejection itself, but the huge navel gazing it is likely to plunge Europe into in leiu of any substantial means of tackling the complex risks facing it. Ireland is currently suffered the foul taste of one global economic crisis, which may still have some considerable way to go… He concludes that …

“We’re about giving out information and debating it…”

Mick Fealty on September 2, 2009, 8:00 pm

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This is mostly notes for posterity… but former Ivan Yates on yesterday’s Breakfast Show on Newstalk works Coir Spokesman to the bone… But Hickey makes it clear where that €1.84 figure comes from… He should tell his colleague Peter Murphy, who made the false claims we reported here on Slugger yesterday… Sound file here. Poster from The Emergency… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider …

Lisbon Essay (1): The treaty would isolate Ireland – a ‘No’ vote would free her

Mick Fealty on September 2, 2009, 3:00 pm

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My post yesterday on the poor quality of the debate around Lisbon brought positive feedback from some unexpected quarters… It also brought in a short blog essay contribution from the young editor of the Eurosceptic European Journal, Jim McConalogue. It marks the first a series of guest essays on the broad subject of Lisbon that will run each morning here on Slugger from the No, Yes, and no fixed opinion camps right up until polling day on Friday 2nd October. …

Lisbon: not all facts are subject to individual belief (or €1.84, and all that)…

Mick Fealty on September 1, 2009, 3:12 pm

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I was on the road yesterday, but spent some of the journey listening to the Pat Kenny Show (you hear it here for the next week). The first substantial item was a discussion between Pat, Peter Murphy from Cóir and Fianna Fail’s spokesman, Dick Roche… A large chunk of the debate centred on that organisation’s new poster campaign… Given it came within 24 hours of the campaign launch, a tiny campaign group effectively set the agenda for the first big …

Love Irish Food?

Pete Baker on August 31, 2009, 11:22 pm

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As reported here, the new “Love Irish Food” campaign could not have been launched at a better time. At least those Irish British chickens will no longer be, erm, confused. As for Máirtín’s turkey.. It’s the economy, stupid! To clarify, from the Notes to Editors in the press release [pdf file]. Love Irish Food is a privately funded independent organisation established to promote Irish food and drink brand to consumers. Membership of the organisation is based on strict criteria stating …

“Irish workers are alone in Europe..”

Pete Baker on August 31, 2009, 4:27 pm

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An odd argument from Jimmy Kelly, Unite’s regional secretary, in favour of a No vote on the Lisbon Treaty. “Irish workers are alone in Europe as having no legal right to representation by a union,” said Mr Kelly. “Irish workers are alone in Europe as having no provision for pension protection. “Irish workers are alone in Europe as the only ones whose right to fair pay and employment security are considered by their government as obstacles to economic recovery.” Doesn’t …

Whilst academics and bloggers fiddle, the Tiger is going up in smoke…

Mick Fealty on August 31, 2009, 3:37 pm

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A close relative was working for an Irish civil engineering company in Thailand when the Pacific Tiger economies went belly up. I remember him commenting at the time the levels of remorse at the misdirection of the fast profits of those growth years, and the lost opportunities for developing infrastructure. Ireland, I suspect will have benefited from the direction given it by the EU’s structural funds. But, as John Murray Brown notes, there is nothing left in the tank. The …

What’s The Story: publicly collating TDs expenses…

Mick Fealty on August 31, 2009, 11:08 am

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Gavin Sheridan is joined by Mark Coughlan on a new blog resource called TheStory.ie, which aims not simply to open up data for public use, but they want volunteers to help them sort the data out so that it can be usefully interrogated. Mark explains what they want on a document that contains all the expenses for TDs and Senators from 1997 – 2008: While the document as it stands contains all data relating to political donations published by SIPO …

BCI: ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’ can have sponsors if Vincent will only ‘lighten up’…

Mick Fealty on August 30, 2009, 6:41 pm

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Love him or loathe, Vincent Browne is a heavyweight. When RTE dropped his radio programme Tonight with Vincent Browne, TV3 snapped him up and said thank you. He may not always be the most gracious of hosts, but the convening power of his address book is evident in some of the hottest debates on Irish television. Now, that alternative view on Irish politics could be lost not to mention RTE’s flagship, the Late Late Show, also put at risk by …

“All of the options have been assessed and that is the optimal solution”

Pete Baker on August 29, 2009, 8:21 pm

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In the weekend section of the Irish Times, Frank McDonald’s article – “No quick fix to bridge the gap” – on the options for the collapsed Broadmeadow viaduct includes this quote from an anonymous “leading structural engineer” A leading structural engineer, who does not wish to be named, describes the Broadmeadow viaduct as “not dissimilar to most of the national infrastructure we’ve inherited, like all those masonry arch bridges designed for the horse-and-cart era that are still standing today – …

Lisbon: Humility is the key to a Yes victory…

Mick Fealty on August 29, 2009, 4:54 pm

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It’s hard to read how the Lisbon campaign is going. We’ve noted a general lack of confidence amongst the political class and a sense that the politicians are leaving it what’s roughly tagged as ‘civil society’, which more often reads as ‘celebrities’. And in the case of some civil society organisations, like the IFA, it’s clear that a significant number of their members may not be heeding their leadership. Below the fold, Michael McLoughlin makes an eloquent plea for a …

Caithfear amach as an Eoraip… Cén áit a bhfuil sin?

Mick Fealty on August 27, 2009, 8:52 pm

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Níl an fhianaise, na hargóintí agus na feachtais ar son Tá do reifreann Lisbon curtha ina luí ar Alan Titley insan Irish Times inniu, ar chor ar bith: Tá dualgas, dá réir sin, ar gach tráchtaire dá bhfuil, an chéad uair a nochtann duine an tuairim, go leataobhach féin, go fiú le camadh a bhéil, le nod a chinn, le hardú mala, le tuin áirithe cainte, an chéad uair a thugtar le fios go ‘gcaithfear amach as an Eoraip’ sinn, …