Despite all the assurances, it seems Nama is a bailout scheme for developers, who will escape paying back hundreds of millions because of it. We'll pick up the tab instead. By Vincent Browne.
Harry Crosbie, one of our more ebullient developers, was on the Saturday Night Show, hosted by Brendan O’Connor, on RTÉ at the weekend talking about the children’s hospital at the Mater, of which he is chairman.
Presidential candidate Gay Mitchell made a representation to the EU Commission in 2009 on behalf of a controversial Ukrainian aviation businessman who supplied Congolese armed forces with military aircraft. The businessman is attempting to reclaim planes confiscated by Ukraine's government in 2001. By Malachy Browne and Graham Stack.
All this talk about the president being the protector of the constitution is just the silly conceit of people who fantasise themselves in that role. By Vincent Browne.
Leinster House is not the most normal of places to spend time. Coming back into the Dáil chamber after seven weeks’ recess was a bit strange, even though I would have been in the Dáil office most days during those seven weeks. I do find the work very interesting and challenging, but also very frustrating at times. Having spent most of my life working in the real world I am still a bit shocked that there is such a disconnect between the Oireachtas and the world outside the gates.
While the world financial system teeters on the brink of a far worse crisis than that of 2008, we here in Ireland are distracting ourselves with the vacuities of the presidential campaign. By Vincent Browne.
A spokesperson for the German government in Berlin said a few hours ago (this is being written at lunchtime yesterday) that the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, had told his cabinet colleagues there were “no plans” to enlarge the European Financial Stability Fund beyond €440 billion.
A Greek default is looking more and more likely - if it happens, what will be the consequences for the Eurozone, economically and socially? By Paul Murphy, MEP.
A spectre haunts Europe – the spectre of a default by Greece, Greece's subsequent exit from the eurozone and a break up of the eurozone. All the signs – economically and politically – are that key sections of the European establishment are increasingly coming to the realisation that this is now a real possibility.
We urgently need a 'Debt Court' to remove power from the hands of the lenders, and to judge the fairness of both debts and the loans on which they were based. By Nick Dearden.
Every day the same news - Greece lurches nearer to a default, the financial markets panic, and governments come up with a few more euros or some soothing words to calm them for a few hours. The meltdown has been put off for another day.
Almost every commentator accepts Greece will default. The question is when, on what terms and who will pay the highest price.
The presidential election campaign is likely to be about Martin McGuinness. Not the presidency, not any of the other candidatures, just McGuinness. That is unless something startling emerges about one of the other candidates or one of them makes a catastrophic faux pas.
On Tuesday (20 September) Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty tabled a motion in the Dáil which called for TDs to reject the Government’s decision to sell off a minority stake in the ESB.
One intention of Brendan Howlin's would-be Oireachtas inquiries would be to keep lawyers out, thereby leaving people at serious risk of having their reputations unfairly impugned, writes Vincent Browne.
At an event recently during the Dún Laoghaire Book Festival, the former British chancellor of the Exchequer, Alastair Darling, said that on the day before the Irish government gave the blanket guarantee to the banks, the then minister for finance, the late Brian Lenihan, assured him the Government would not give a blanket guarantee to the banks.