Affairs, 6 June 2021

HAS APACHE Pizza bitten off more than it can chew with the announcement of its plans to open 20 new stores in the next six months? The big question is whether basing an expansion strategy on the growth in sales it experienced during the pandemic is sustainable, given that options for dining outside the home… Read more »

Affairs, 1 June 2021

THE COUNRTY’S elite builders waste no time in getting their message across. Sally Anne Sherry, general counsel for developers Bartra, has written directly to An Taoiseach earlier this year to “increase awareness of potential amendments to planning procedure and legislation which may assist in improving the delivery of property and infrastructure efficiently.” Judicial review appeals… Read more »

Affairs, 28 May 2021

“DUP IN CRISIS” may be something of an evergreen headline, but division rules at a moment when unionism is striving for unity. New leader Edwin Poots has now on a number of occasions this fortnight spoken on behalf of “the people Northern Ireland”, amid mounting evidence that he does not even command the full support… Read more »

Affairs, 27 May 2021

FORMER SENATOR Paul Bradford’s departure from politics did not put an end to his contact with Leinster House. The one-time Fine Gael TD was expelled from the party along with other abortion rebels in 2013, and now plies his trade as a lobbyist with partner Lucinda Creighton at Vulcan Consulting. While the spouse and CEO… Read more »

Affairs, 26 May 2021

IS FINE Gael’s golden boy in Dublin Bay South starting to feel nervous? Marking three years since the vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment this week, Labour Party candidate Ivana Bacik posted on social media her memories of “a monumental day for women’s rights.” The Government is required to review the legislation this year and… Read more »

Affairs, 26 May 2021

GOLDHAWK IS most impressed to see the Irish Government strongly condemn the actions of Belarus this weekend. “Appalling, reckless and unacceptable”, is how An Taoiseach branded the “forced landing” of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, where a journalist could be arrested by President Alexander Lukashenko’s draconian authorities. Foreign Minister Simon Coveney separately pledged that the… Read more »

Affairs, 26 May 2021

IS LUCINDA Creighton aiming to put herself out of a job for a second time? The former Fine Gael TD is CEO of Vulcan Consulting, which, she says, “is made up of some of the leading political and public affairs experts in the business”, and promises to “help companies navigate regulatory hurdles and shape policy.”… Read more »

Affairs, 21 May 2021

FIANNA FÁIL were in government just over a decade ago when talk of a “housing crisis” first began to re-emerge in Dáil Éireann. The matter was of concern for Joan Burton, at least until her party entered power and promptly denied that there was any substance to disquiet until Labour got a fright at the… Read more »

Affairs, 21 May 2021

CONSTITUENTS IN Dublin Rathdown are fortunate to receive such a well-produced newsletter from TD Neale Richmond this month. An exceptionally attractive and well-designed document brings news of the ambitious young Blueshirt’s work on the border poll debate, insurance reform, outdoor dining supports and a selection of highlights from Richmond’s many strident media performances. Such a… Read more »

Affairs, 20 May 2021

“DISAPPOINTING AND CONFUSING” is how Regina Doherty summed up the Government’s message on air travel this week. The Fine Gael Seanad leader was dismayed on Tuesday to learn that a memo on the proposed EU “green cert” was bumped off the agenda of a weekly cabinet meeting consumed with housing and HSE hacking. Confusion is… Read more »

Affairs, 20 May 2021

JACK CHAMBERS was left red-faced this week as the Dáil adopted a Sinn Féin resolution on affordable housing. The Government failed to back its own counter-motion and granted Eoin Ó Broin a victory more symbolic than his party could have wished for. Malcolm Noonan’s lapse on the Government side has been attributed to “genuine error,”… Read more »

Affairs, 19 May 2021

IT SEEMS unlikely that the full unvarnished truth will ever be uncovered about the ransomware operation on Ireland’s health service. For some time now we have seen growing interventions in media and political debate concerning the state’s preparedness for such an attack. The military minded interests behind these warnings now claim a pyrrhic vindication and… Read more »

Affairs, 18 May 2021

THE CONCEPT of “net zero” emissions has moved from the margins to the policy mainstream with remarkable speed. Carbon neutrality, the idea that just as many emissions would be removed as produced each year has moved centre stage since the Paris Climate Accords in 2016. For a society bingeing on fossil fuels, the scale of… Read more »

Affairs, 18 May 2021

A GENERATION locked out of home ownership have at last found their champion as Fine Gael by-election hopeful, James Geoghegan, has pledged to make housing his “priority”. That the cost of accommodation threatens to dominate the race, even in the well-heeled suburbs of Dublin Bay South, underlines the scale of trouble facing the Government. That… Read more »

Affairs, 13 May 2021

WITH THE annual Pieta House PR-fest over for another year, it marks a further 12 months of official failure to reform the Mental Health Act, legislation accepted as dated by the Government and branded by advocates as “seriously out of compliance with international human rights standards.” As the country’s suicide rate soared during a decade… Read more »

Affairs, 12 May 2021

LAST WEEK the Fianna Fáil parliamentary meeting party was told that the Government is “drowning in the shadows of Fine Gael housing policy.” The impassioned warning from TD John Lahart was only the latest colourful outburst in the crisis of identity currently gripping the Soldiers of Destiny. Whatever about the present malaise, the party at… Read more »

Affairs, 11 May 2021

POLITICIANS, PUBLIC sector workers, journalists, historians, trade unionists, political staff, authors, activists and others on that long list who might be permitted a moment of satisfaction in the downfall of Eoghan Harris have largely kept their glee from the public arena. In far-away London, Alan Rusbridger, who only recently had a taste of the Sindo… Read more »

Affairs, 11 May 2021

SUNDAY EVENINGS are not the only opportunity for reeling in the years as the lobbying register this week sees the return of one of the Cowen era’s most beloved figures. Former Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has been busy over the pandemic on behalf of waste and forestry interests. Coughlan secured meetings with Environment Assistant Secretary, Philip… Read more »