RTE’s costly promises won’t cure its ills

Last Tuesday, the Communications Minister spent two hours with the RTE Authority discussing the serious breaches of the Broadcasting Act made by the infamous Mission to Prey programme. The Chair of the RTE Authority later described the encounter with the minister as “candid”. I can only pay tribute to Mr Savage’s skills as a communicator

Read More »

‘Yes’ camp must get its message straight and show leadership

THE referendum campaign is barely one week old and already it seems that not all is well in the Government and the Vote ‘No’ camps. Both have displayed moments of incoherence and inconsistency that does nothing to help debate. This was in evidence on last Tuesday night’s TV3 debate. Fine Gael’s Director of Elections, Simon

Read More »

Blame-shifting Coveney shows deeply cynical approach to politics

IT IS rare enough that you find yourself mentioning Simon Coveney, Conor Cruise O’Brien and Jean-Marie Le Pen in the same sentence, but it happened last Monday. The trigger was Minister Coveney’s appearance on last Monday’s Six One News on RTE. He was there is his capacity as Fine Gael’s referendum campaign director. His brief

Read More »

Our weak-link ministers could damage this Government

IT IS possible to categorise ministers into three distinct groups. The first are the high-flyers. These are the top performers who the public recognise and even like: the ones who party members hope may one day lead the party. The second group, the passengers, counterbalance these luminaries. These are the ministers who neither impress nor

Read More »

Public patience is running out while ministers spend their time bickering

ONCE upon a time, governments used the Easter, summer and Christmas recesses to focus on implementing policies. Not this Government. Within days of the Dail finishing up for the Easter Break, the parties were sniping and attacking each other. Unsurprisingly, Labour’s Joan Burton was first into the fray. Playing to the increasingly nervous Labour gallery,

Read More »

Collins family have done us an outstanding service

THREE years ago, this month, Roy Collins was shot in the back in his family’s pub and amusement arcade in the Roxboro Shopping Centre. As I wrote here at the time, “his killers — and the people who sent them — did more than gun down a father of two and bring pain to a

Read More »

Political spin can’t cover up lack of action

The conventional political wisdom is that a new government takes the tough actions in its first year or two so that the benefits will have started to appear in time for the next election. For whatever reason — be it confusion, lack of direction or the sheer elation of getting into office — this administration

Read More »
Scroll to Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy for more information.

Subscribe to my newsletter

Advanced Search

Search archived posts using our predictive search facility.
Note: Predictive search currently only works with english translation.