Honohan's report casts light on the reasons for our banking crisis. Seventy-five percent of these reasons are internal factors. By Vincent Browne.

Following the Dirt tax inquiry, which revealed criminal fraud in the banks in the 1990s - naturally, nobody was ever prosecuted or even interviewed by gardaí - there was a proposal that directors of financial institutions be required to sign an annual statement confirming their compliance with their duties as directors.

An alliance dedicated to changing the structure of Irish society to make it more fair and equitable is crucial. By Vincent Browne.

The economic and financial crisis offers an opportunity to reshape this society, making it more democratic, fair and equal, and giving it a robust sense of solidarity. We are not talking about revolution here, nor communism, but changes which, intuitively, we all (or most of us) would welcome.

In the week of the publication of the Honohan report on the banking crisis there will be no debate on the issue, no Dáil questions, no Dáil motions, nothing. By Vincent Browne.
Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan’s report on the financial collapse of the banking sector was presented to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan last Monday.
Lenihan read it then, and told his cabinet colleagues about it on Tuesday. The report is to be considered this Tuesday by the cabinet - or at least by those cabinet ministers who have decided not to go off on an unearned holiday.

Two separate reports contradict Pat Carey's claim that deprivation and social exclusion are being tackled.  By Vincent Browne. 

Pat Carey, the new Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, showed up early yesterday morning at a seminar on poverty in a European perspective. And as Ministers are expected to do, he read a speech which contained the obligatory self-congratulation that every Minister is now expected to intone about how wonderful the Government strategy has been in addressing the fiscal deficit crisis.

On November 4, 2004, the late Tony Gregory asked the then minister for the environment and local government, Dick Roche, whether there were any conflicts of interest which would inhibit the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) from making balanced planning decisions in the Docklands area.

Up to 20,000 Pfizer employees are to lose their jobs as profits remain staggeringly high. By Vincent Browne.

Jeff Kindler is a bright fellow.

He graduated from Tufts University in 1977 with a summa cum laude, which is saying something.

There are three categories of cum laude. A simple cum laude means with honour. Then there is magna cum laude, which means with great honour. Then summa cum laude, which means with the highest honour.

Both Seán Brady and Brian Cowen perceive a happy coincidence between the wider interest and their own. By Vincent Browne.

Brian Cowen's recent 'mea culpa' was really just an exercise in finger-pointing. By Vincent Browne.

Several years ago, I was asked to speak at a lunch function in Limerick. I asked the chairman how long I should speak. He said: ‘‘You can talk for as long as you like, but we’re going to the bar in ten minutes.”

I hope that is what the chairman of the North Dublin Chamber of Commerce said to Brian Cowen last Thursday evening before he started his 7,427-word, extremely qualified half-apologia.

Faith in Jesus cannot be squared with the pernicious authority the church claims to derive from his person. By Vincent Browne.

Greek anger contrasts with our own abject apathy. By Vincent Browne. 

Following graphic television reports of the demonstrations in Athens last week, the first question an RTE presenter asked was about the financial markets’ reaction to the demonstrations.

The question was not why the Greeks were so angry over what was happening. Why are they saying on the streets of Greece: ‘‘We are not like Ireland’’ (meaning: ‘‘We won’t lie down in the face of the demands of the financial markets, as the people of Ireland did’’)?