Capital Gains Tax and Local Property Tax are in need of radical reform
At this time of year, officials in the Department of Finance survey the entire horizon of taxable activity in the hope of finding some low-hanging fruit which would help fund increased expenditure, lowering of other taxes, or debt reduction, or all three. As this activity coincides with the media silly season, the potential for scare […]
Our housing and home-ownership problems require more than government talking and hand-wringing
Irish society is sleep-walking towards another tipping point. That point is when the younger cohort of our state’s population begin to strongly believe that things are not going to be better for them than they were for their parents’ generation. It is, of course, good news 10 years after the financial crash that economic growth […]
Middle Ireland must end the stalemate in our politics
In a world in which this last week has seen the terrorist outrages in Spain, the departure of Steve Bannon as Trump’s strategy advisor, the flip-flopping of Trump on whether American neo-Nazis are to be condemned, the temporary cessation of Kim Jong Un’s plan to fire ICBMs at the seas surrounding Guam, the almost-instant collapse […]
Trump is itching to use America’s military might
When I wrote last week about the sudden departure of Sean Spicer as Trump’s press spokesman and the advent of Anthony Scaramucci, I sensed yet another looming crisis in the White House hothouse. But the events of this week have been mind-boggling even by the “standards” of Trump’s presidency. Now we know for sure that […]
Trump’s political freefall casts doubt on his capacity to remain as president
While this column has been a Trump-Free Zone for a week or two, there are clear signs that his behaviour is continuing its downward spiral in complete political free-fall which must raise real doubts over his capacity to remain as president of the United States for the entirety of the four year term, one eighth […]
Appointing a Chief Justice is a right and a duty of Government alone
In a grubby capitulation to the ill-informed obsession of one minister, our weak-kneed, frightened Government has decided to appoint a three person committee, consisting of the President of the Court of Appeal, the Attorney General and the chairperson of the Public Appointments Commission, to advise it on the issue as to who should succeed the […]