LATEST ARTICLES
Viewpoints
Funding our water and electricity infrastructure
Colm McCarthy
Ireland is the only European country in which water is free, and even the Green Party has backed off charging for water.
20 March 2024 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy - Green diesel should not be seen as a handout to farmers
The farm organisations should be concerned that the Irish arrangements for green diesel are being characterised as a subsidy to farming.
13 March 2024 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: misfortune strikes hardest for the unprepared
There is a long record in Ireland of a boom-and-bust pattern in the capital budget.
Colm McCarthy: farming emissions figures
Ireland is not well placed to be offering electricity exports, since generating capacity is tight.
6 March 2024 Viewpoints
A solution in search of a problem
Colm McCarthy - the capital cost of MetroLink could be more than the €9.5bn most often cited by journalists.
28 February 2024 Viewpoints
Overshoots in public spending
Prudent management of the public finances needs credible fiscal plans, not just declarations of concern about public money, from Government and opposition.
21 February 2024 Viewpoints
How many stadiums are needed in reality?
There has never been a comprehensive analysis of stadium utilisation in Ireland by the GAA, by any of the other main sporting bodies or by the Department of Sport.
14 February 2024 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy - Paris parking charge hike, lessons for Dublin
Central area residents in Paris already enjoy a 15-minute city in many respects and car ownership rates per household are even lower than in the central areas of Dublin.
7 February 2024 Viewpoints
Green belt restrictions on housing
There are large areas of the country, especially outside Leinster, where new units can be delivered at costs which are within the budget of would-be home owners on average incomes.
31 January 2024 Viewpoints
What's driving the farmer protests in Germany?
The government has been shaken by the scale of the protests, which have attracted public support from outside farming, and they have withdrawn, or diluted, some of the planned changes.
24 January 2024 Viewpoints
What problem is being solved by Metrolink, and at what cost?
The Metrolink scheme in various versions has been around for so long, that people may have forgotten how it ever won a place on the policy agenda.
17 January 2024 Viewpoints
No omelette without breaking eggs
The perception that the population of Dublin is booming as rural Ireland depopulates is simply wrong.
10 January 2024 Viewpoints