MANDARINS DEFEND NAMA
May 21, 2020
THE DEPARTMENT of Finance (DoF) went out to bat for Brendan McDonagh and Frank Daly (CEO and chair of Nama respectively), claiming that there... Read more »
MANDARINS DEFEND NAMA
AFFAIRS OF THE NATION
Article Category: Affairs of the Nation
SPECIALISTS IN SPLITS
May 21, 2020
THE HIPPOCRATIC Oath brigade are a great bunch for splits and it looks like another has emerged in recent weeks. The 400 private-only Spartan... Read more »
AENGUS Ó SNODAIGH LEADS THE WAY
May 21, 2020
THE MORE ‘respectable’ political parties were recently made to look amateurish and even disrespectful of parliamentary procedure by Sinn Féin. At a virtual meeting... Read more »
BOI SUPERWOMAN
May 21, 2020
Things seem to keep going from bad to worse for Bank of Ireland (BoI) boss Francesca McDonagh. Having spent days last week calming the... Read more »
NURSING HOME CASH
May 21, 2020
INDEPENDENT CLARE TD Michael McNamara will have his work cut out running the new Oireachtas Covid-19 committee. Real teeth will be needed to get... Read more »
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S APPALLING VISTA
May 7, 2020
THE REMARKABLE aspect of the current crisis in Fianna Fáil is the almost deafening silence, not just from senior politicians but the media, which,... Read more »
MICHAEL SOMERS AND THE LAWYERS
May 7, 2020
WITH THE state focused on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated mounting costs, a new front was opened by loaded... Read more »
ANNE HERATY’S REWARDS
May 7, 2020
INTERESTING to see that eager nurses who thought they would be recruited by the HSE when seeking to help fight the pandemic are instead... Read more »
FESTIVAL FEELS THE PAIN
May 7, 2020
WITH THE 61st Rose of Tralee hooley cancelled, it will be 2021 before the successor to Limerick’s Sinéad Flanagan is crowned. Given the financial... Read more »
TALES FROM THE FRONT
May 7, 2020
THE SOOTHING tones of the messages pumped out on the state broadcaster, reassuring employers that the government of Ireland has their backs in keeping... Read more »
CONSULTANTS HOLD THE LINE
May 7, 2020
THE SUDDEN appearance of what looks like a single, public-only health service has come as a shock to the better-paid specialist doctors in the... Read more »
LUCINDA TAKES ON LEFTIES
May 7, 2020
LAST MONTH Lucinda Creighton got back into her Renua ‘flat-tax’ mode with hysterical attacks on harmless Labourites, do-gooder Social Democrats and environment-loving Greens as... Read more »
COMING AND GOING AT REHAB
May 7, 2020
THE PANDEMIC means that few – apart from regulators in HIQA and some funders in the Department of Health – have noticed the rapid... Read more »
RACEHORSE OWNERS SADDLE UP
May 7, 2020
AFTER MEMBERS of the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) got quite the shock last year, there has been some corporate jockeying. The bolshy... Read more »
ARMS TRIAL REPLAY
May 7, 2020
THE Sunday Times selection of academic Eoin O’Malley – son of then justice minister Des O’Malley (Jack Lynch’s prodigy) – to review Michael Heney’s... Read more »
TADHG DALY’S REVENGE
April 23, 2020
THE TURNING of the PR tide against Simon Harris has been in no small measure due to the relentless efforts of one Tadhg Daly,... Read more »
CAROLINE KEELING’S WORKERS
April 23, 2020
THERE WAS a predictable outcry by Ireland’s hair-trigger xenophobes when fruit company Keelings was reported to be bringing in migrant workers to pick fruit... Read more »
DECLAN KELLY’S DANCING SHOES
April 23, 2020
TENEO FOUNDER Declan Kelly is not one to play down his accomplishments. The latest talent no one knew he had is that of an... Read more »
BILL HOLOHAN’S WASTED COSTS ORDER
April 23, 2020
THERE WAS a pretty damning ruling issued in the High Court earlier this month by Judge Denis McDonald, in relation to the case of... Read more »
ROBERT ARMSTRONG’S RECORD
April 23, 2020
THE 1,700-word obituary of Lord Robert Armstrong, published in the Irish Times last weekend, omitted a few interesting details. As principal private secretary to... Read more »
JOHN McGABHANN’S REPORT CARD
April 23, 2020
TEACHERS’ UNION boss John McGabhann probably cannot believe his luck as he prepares to retire as general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland... Read more »
JOHN KIDD’S LOBBYING
April 23, 2020
GIVEN THAT there is only one thing on people’s minds these days, it is predictable that some of the latest lobbying activity has focused... Read more »
EY RESCUES HSE
April 23, 2020
THE STRAIN on the HSE is beginning to show, with top dog Paul Reid having to turn to EY Ireland to draft in one... Read more »
IRISH TIMES AND “THAT CHURCH”
April 23, 2020
YOU’VE GOT to hand it to the Irish Times. When it comes to the dreaded Catholic Church, the paper knows the right tone to... Read more »
HOLDING THE LINE ON €350
April 9, 2020
THE LACK of probing by some newspaper editors and parts of the state broadcaster of the party line from Government Buildings has at last... Read more »
BRIAN McENERY’S CRITICS
April 9, 2020
THE SLOW reaction of Simon Harris and the government’s National Public Health Emergency Team to the spread of Covid-19 in nursing homes created significant... Read more »
COFFEY BITES HIS LIP
April 9, 2020
CONGRATULATIONS to Cork University economist Seamus Coffey on his diplomatic skills as he watched (what did he say?) the government pile huge debts to... Read more »
SLOWLY DOES IT
April 9, 2020
THE HEALTH department and HSE’s leisurely approach towards critical care beds has certainly come back to haunt them. The inevitable ‘critical care major surge’... Read more »
WHO WILL INHERIT HOSPITAL MESS?
April 9, 2020
WHILE SIMON Harris will be glad that the coronavirus crisis is distracting from the mess that is the National Children’s Hospital (NCH), he must... Read more »
CORPSE COUNT
April 9, 2020
THE BIG avoidance in the Covid-19 crisis is discussion on how to cope with the potential surge in corpses. Not surprisingly, the army and... Read more »
KELLY TO PURGE APPARATCHIKS
April 9, 2020
THE ELECTION of Alan Kelly has led to an expectation of a Stalinist-style clean-out of many of the Labour Party’s functionaries as the new... Read more »
MICHAEL D’S ‘COCOONING’
April 9, 2020
ONE PERSON valiantly trying to keep up with Leo Varadkar after that St Patrick’s Day broadcast is one Michael D Higgins, cocooned or not.... Read more »
THE (NOEL) KELLY GANG
April 9, 2020
WITH COVID-19 keeping much of the nation glued to RTÉ, we have had more exposure than usual to the celebs managed by super-agent Noel... Read more »
FRANCESCA MCDONAGH’S WITHDRAWAL
April 9, 2020
FRANCESCA MCDONAGH, chief executive of Bank of Ireland (BoI), took everyone, including the government, by surprise with last month’s announcement that no less than... Read more »
GERARD KIELY’S PR
April 9, 2020
THE EU Commission’s local point man in Ireland, Gerard Kiely, has a tough job promoting a sense of EU unity when the Italians have... Read more »
REGINA’S BAD PANDEMIC
March 26, 2020
OUTGOING MINISTER for Social Protection Regina Doherty looked like the first political victim of the Covid-19 virus last weekend, while colleagues Simon Coveney, Simon... Read more »