Major cost control questions across State’s transport plans
The National Transport Authority (NTA) bought 134 brand new all-electric buses in June 2022 for use in Dublin. There are 100 new double-decker buses and 34 single-deck electric buses in storage around the city, but none are in use because the NTA failed to get planning permission for the charging infrastructure to enable them to […]
Inefficient, expensive, exasperating TV licence regime needs overhaul
The issue of TV licence fees has cropped up again in circumstances where it cannot be kicked down the political road in the way it has been over the last fifteen years. Opinion polls suggest that the public is now increasingly determined to withhold payment of the licence fee as a protest at recent events. […]
Do we want citizens arresting one another for incitement to hatred?
In 1997, the Oireachtas enacted a far-reaching statute to codify and reform the criminal law, much of which was based on judge-made common law stretching back over the centuries. The statute was entitled the Criminal Law Act, 1997. One thing done in that Act was to abolish the ancient legal distinctions between what were termed felonies […]
Clarity needed on definitions of gender in new hate speech Bill
Various recent statutes and proposed Bills make reference to the need to ensure that there will be equal numbers of men and women in the composition of various statutory bodies appointed by the State. Indeed, the law relating to funding of political parties penalises parties which do not field slates of candidates containing minimum quotas of males […]
Ukraine’s counteroffensive cannot fail. Putin must be heavily defeated
If the Ukrainian counter-offensive bogs down in a slow-moving ground campaign aimed at retaking one semi-abandoned village after another, there will be very serious consequences not only for Ukraine but also for the NATO member states and for the wider western world. If by the end of the summer or early autumn this year there […]
Nobody is thinking about the aesthetics of our cities
Some friends in the property business are privately stating that the supply of newly built office space in Dublin has reached the point of market saturation. Even allowing for large firms’ preference for up-to-the-minute standards in climate-friendly office accommodation, it seem that the change in work practices, including work from home, four-day weeks, open-plan layouts […]