Has no one told Enda Kenny of the plans afoot in Europe to end even a pretence of Irish sovereignty? By Vincent Browne.
Aside from his inspirational vision of making Ireland "the best little country in the world in which to do business" (is that aspiration borrowed from the 1916 Proclamation?), Taoiseach Enda Kenny's other grand design for Ireland is to recover its "economic sovereignty".
One of the reasons why we are stuck with the same politics and the same old codgers - in spite of ongoing austerity and deepening inequality - is because the Irish left is a joke. By Vincent Browne.
Four years ago this month, Paul Tansey died suddenly while playing tennis with Shane Ross. Paul had been a brilliant economics commentator first with the Irish Times, then with the Sunday Tribune (where I got to know him in the mid-1980s), and finally again with the Irish Times.
The political structure in Ireland is an absurdity. In practice, the Oireachtas takes almost no decisions, aside from the Dáil electing a taoiseach. By Vincent Browne.
Shortly after Michael Noonan became Minister for Finance in March 2011, he gave an interview to the Limerick Leader in which he expressed his belief that the minister for finance could defy the taoiseach of the day because the position of minister for finance was mentioned in the Constitution.
In so far as we can imagine what Michael Collins might have wished for, it is likely he would wonder what the struggle for independence was about, since we have given away so much of it, so casually. By Vincent Browne.
On 21 June last I received via email a personal letter from Denis O’Brien, marked “Private and Confidential”. The letter was prompted by a column I had written in the Irish Times on 13 June about an anticipated vote of censure against Mick Wallace TD and by comments I had made on the programme I present for TV3. (The correspondence between us can be viewed here.)
Below is a correspondence between Vincent Browne and Denis O'Brien in June and July 2012.
The correspondence was initiated by Denis O'Brien in a letter dated 21 June addressing an Irish Times article and broadcasts in which Vincent Browne refers to Denis O'Brien's media interests and the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal.
While there is lots of talk about how fortunate we are to live in a democratic society, there is almost no appreciation of how thin our democracy is, and certainly no will to do anything about it. By Vincent Browne.
There is an impressive determination on the part of our public representatives to avoid the big issues besetting our society and our system of government.
Statements by lavishly-paid functionaries of international organisations, urging the lowering of the pay of people who are paid a fraction of their salary, are astounding to behold. By Vincent Browne.
Enda Kenny concluded the political season with yet another verbal howler, trying to be smart in answer to a question from Ursula Halligan about Eamon Gilmore having words with James Reilly.
The Government's Infrastructure Stimulus, announced last week by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin, is mostly spin with little substance. By Michael Taft.
If James Reilly had been offered the health portfolio anywhere else but Ireland, the course of action available to him would have been clear and simple - either get rid of the interests in private nursing homes and health clinics, or don’t take the job. By Philip O'Connor.
The real problem with James Reilly appearing in Stubbs Gazette is not the fact that he is officially a deadbeat minister in our deadbeat nation.
It is our moral bankruptcy when it comes to his conflict of interest.