We should have known from the awful blather and bombast of the Labour manifesto that we were being set up for another con job. By Vincent Browne.
Just last year, in February of last year, they were talking of a new politics. No more the cronyism, stroke politics, abuses of corporate and political power.
The Debt Justice Action (DJA) campaign, of which I am a part, has just lodged an application with the Guinness Book of Records to recognise Ireland as having the world’s most expensive ever bank bailout. A video accompanying the application can be viewed below. The satirical intent behind the project is well captured by DJA member Diarmuid O’Flynn: “We’ve had a difficult few years here in Ireland.
Even though there are another three years to go to an election, the goose is already cooked for many Labour TDs. By Vincent Browne.
Ireland is still a very rich society - the problem is not how poor we are but how badly we distribute those riches. By Vincent Browne.
The Labour Party is right. Had Fine Gael got an overall majority in the 2011 election, last week’s budget would be much more unfair. Social welfare rates would be cut again, having been cut in the first Fine Gael budget of last year; child benefit would no longer be a universal payment; there would be no mansion charge, the cuts in health and education would be deeper.
Apart completely from the regressive nature of the Budget measures apart, that is, from the challenge to parents to get by with cuts in child benefit or back-to-school allowances; apart from the heartache from cuts to respite care or the struggle of young people to hang on in college with new demands on their families' incomes - apart from all of that, it's worth looking at the language in which the budget measures were presented. By Sheila Killian.
Below, the full text of Stephen Donnelly's Dáil statement on Budget 2013, delivered yesterday (5 December).
Below, Clare Daly's Dáil statement in response to Budget 2013. Scroll to the bottom of the piece to view a video of the speech.
Below, the full text of Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald's budget speech, delivered yesterday (5 December) in the Dáil. Scroll to the bottom to view a video of the speech.
There is a clear division between the two government parties on abortion, and also a clear necessity to bring clarity to the law. By Vincent Browne.
On Monday, 14 May 2007, during that year's general election campaign, I did an interview with Enda Kenny on behalf of Village magazine, which I then edited.
Enda Kenny has reflected the prevailing political consensus throughout his career. By Vincent Browne.
On the day that yet another piece of bungling by this government was identified by the Supreme Court ("acted wrongfully. . . in a manner that was not fair, equal or impartial"), Enda Kenny was being feted in Berlin as the "European of the Year" - essentially because of the docility of the Irish people surrendering to the troika's austerity diktats.