Affairs, 14 May 2020

SPARE A THOUGHT for Ireland’s struggling landlords whose lifestyle was discommoded by amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act last year. The cost of renting for students in Ireland is among the highest anywhere in the EU, and university towns such as Cork and Dublin have seen an explosion of lucrative purpose built housing blocks which… Read more »

Affairs, 13 May 2020

THE GOVERNMENT FORMATION dance took a wrong turn for Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin this week as their latest overtures to the Labour Party were rejected by Alan Kelly. In a letter to the Labour leader on Monday, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail promised that the existing public service pay deal will be honoured by… Read more »

Affairs, 12 May 2020

THE LOT of meat factory workers has dimished considerably in recent weeks where once supposedly valued staff are now among the worst hit by the virus outbreak. At the Department of Health briefing on Friday it was confirmed that 566 cases of Covid-19 among 10 clusters have been identified at processing facilities nationwide. During a… Read more »

Affairs, 11 May 2020

LESS THAN TWO DAYS after castigating Sinn Féin for sharing online photos of their members engaged in charity work, Leo Varadkar was busy on Twitter marking the Darkness into Light event in Dublin. In the Dáil on Thursday an Taoiseach claimed “what we do not do is post on Facebook pictures of our Ministers visiting… Read more »

Affairs, 8 May 2020

IT WAS a sign of just how tetchy Leo Varadkar was during yesterday’s Dáil proceedings that he was reduced to criticising others for vacuous use of social media. Having grown comfortable reading letters from schoolchildren, an Taoiseach is seemingly no longer in the mood to face questions from adults during what are now very occasional… Read more »

Affairs, 8 May 2020

NEWS THAT the Vatican has approved transfer of the site at the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) as a “gift to the Irish People” will be hailed as a victory for campaigners. It will also come as some relief for Simon Harris who was badly blind sided by the whole affair. Initial plans to grant… Read more »

Affairs, 7 May 2020

TONY HOLONHAN got it from all sides at the Department of Health press briefing on Wednesday evening with some awkward moments for all involved. Tensions rose initially when the Chief Medical Officer had a lengthy exchange with reporter Philip Ryan. The Indo political staff have been on the defensive since Tuesday morning when Simon Coveney… Read more »

Affairs, 4 May 2020

SIMON COVENEY took an unusually combative tone when speaking to the Irish Examiner this morning. In an interview with Daniel McConnell the usually reliably mild and measured Cork dauphin shot back at the Green Party and plans for a 7% reduction. “Well, if it decimates rural Ireland, we’re not doing it. Okay, let’s be very… Read more »

Affairs, 30 April 2020

DAVID QUINN gave a highly critical judgement on the work of journalists earlier this month when he suggested that “some media should appoint doctors or mathematicians to go in with them in order to ask really probing questions.” Concerns about a dearth of media competence has, nevertheless, not prevented the columnist attending a number of… Read more »

Affairs, 27 April 2020

COALITION jitters are not the only source of tensions within the Green Party. Success in two consecutive elections has seen their ranks swell and this has given voice to factions outside its traditional power base in the capital. Tipperary branch chairman David Ahern appeared on local radio last Friday and suggested it may be time… Read more »

Affairs, 22 April 2020

IT IS ALMOST THREE weeks since the health service announced that a contact tracing app would be released but questions continue to mount. At a press briefing on March 29th , the HSE Head of Communications Paul Connors said that the app will be available in “the next ten days or so.” However, speaking to… Read more »

Affairs, 21 April 2020

WHILE THE NATION battles to suppress the Covid outbreak, mankind is not the only species under threat. Heritage Minister Josepha Madigan has recruited artist Don Conroy to mark World Curlew Day and commends the National Parks and Wildlife Service, whose work “will return this beautiful bird to our countryside”. Once a prominent feature of rural… Read more »

Affairs, 20 April 2020

THE RECENT campaign of pressure on the Greens may have unnerved some in the party, while for others, a taste of the regard they can expect from the larger parties has only hardened coalition scepticism. Councillor Dan Boyle believes that the “effort to lessen and marginalise the Greens to be guilt shamed into doing an… Read more »

Affairs, 17 April 2020

RTÉ HEALTH CORRESPONDENT Fergal Bowers has been a model of restraint in recent weeks. The veteran journalist, who became editor at Irishhealth.com at the turn of the millennium before joining the national broadcaster in 2004, is better placed than most to navigate the state’s response to the Covid outbreak and with the public increasingly seeking… Read more »

Affairs, 17 April 2020

The sense of occasion in respect of the draft frame work for Government, produced by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, is being felt a little too acutely among many Fianna Fáil loyalists. Public affairs consultant Derek Mooney, who contested a number of elections for the party during the ‘80s and ‘90s before working as an… Read more »

Affairs, 16 April 2020

THE NATION WAS rocked on Tuesday as the pandemic entered one of its darkest hours. With no end on the horizon amid daily tragedy, news of shopkeepers struggling to retain staff has only compounded the sheer scale of adversity now facing the country. Following a meeting of its executive this week, the Convenience Stores and… Read more »

Affairs, 15 April 2020

FOR ALL THE talk of senior hurling, Goldhawk is somewhat amused to see Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin emerge from lengthy negotiations with little more than a list of slogans. With bland aspirations of “universal healthcare”, a “shared Ireland” at the “heart of Europe” and a “green new deal”, the draft document on government formation… Read more »

Affairs, 10 April 2020

THE ELEVATION of Conor McGinn to the British Labour Party front bench is a standout indication of how the door has closed on the Corbyn era. The son of a Sinn Féin councillor and NHS nurse, McGinn left Bessbrook for London in his early twenties and got involved in Labour activism. It was not long… Read more »

Affairs, 10 April 2020

SINN FÉIN’S Eoin Ó Broin was alarmed to encounter a dubious piece of opinion polling this week.  Contained within a questionnaire conducted by Amárach Research, the public were asked how much they agree with the following statement: “Sinn Féin, the Green Party, Labour and Social Democrats seem reluctant to make any effort to join in… Read more »

Affairs, 9 April 2020

2016 REPRESENTED an electoral watermark for Ireland’s far-left socialist parties with eleven representatives from the Trotskyist tradition taking seats between Dublin and Belfast. Members of the Technical Group had proved an able opposition during the 32nd Dail, regularly matching and sometimes outperforming Sinn Féin, as a decimated Fianna Fáil looked by contrast unable to inflict… Read more »

Affairs, 8 April 2020

CHARLIE FLANAGAN STRUCK the most gentle of tones on radio this morning as gardaí were given emergency powers to enforce further restrictions of movement. During back to back interviews, it was left to Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ and Pat Kenny on Newstalk to do the tough talking while the normally truculent Justice Minister remained reticent…. Read more »

Affairs, 7 April 2020

HSE CHIEF EXECUTIVE Paul Reid took over the top job last year with a mission to bring health spending under control. After making headlines in May with all the right fiscal noises on his appointment, Reid soon had to concede that reaching targets and “transforming culture” was likely to be a longer project than initially… Read more »

Affairs, 6 April 2020

GOLDHAWK IS STRUCK by how coverage around government formation has shifted in recent days. Several pol corrs have moved on from lamenting the impasse of election arithmetic and a tone of impatience now festers in the news. Writing in the Irish Times, political editor Pat Leahy concludes that “only those that actually want to play… Read more »

Affairs, 6 April 2020

A WORLD GRIPPED by uncertainty will be encouraged to learn that the Sunday Independent is making significant scientific progress in the battle against Covid-19.  Writing in this weekend’s paper, Newstalk broadcaster Ciara Kelly announced that “I, like thousands of others here, have had Covid-19. I’m now immune. I can’t give it or get it. My… Read more »

Affairs, 3 April 2020

GOVERNMENT PLEAS to avoid rumour and hearsay have quickly come undone. A more familiar side to Leo Varadkar resurfaced this week when he insinuated that some unpatriotic gurriers may be gaming the social welfare system. At a press conference on Thursday, the caretaker Taoiseach claimed that he has “heard stories” of people who “have asked… Read more »

Affairs, 3 April 2020

FANS OF GOLDHAWK will not be surprised to see Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley fail to win a seat in the Seanad elections. Not only was the former Clare TD damaged by the Leinster House voting controversy but his standing in the party has been greatly diminished as leader Micheál Martin promoted a new wave of… Read more »