Why the Public Accounts Committee is so keen to get its hands on RTÉAuditors are watchdogs not bloodhounds, and the only guarantee would be a day out in the public eye for PAC membersTue Feb 27 2024 - 19:06
Metrolink is going to cost a fortune, but perhaps we have got the infrastructure costs we deserveNobody is pretending it won’t be expensive. Colossally.Thu Feb 22 2024 - 11:30
Kneecap sue the UK Secretary of State. This is going to be entertainingRap trio’s biggest achievement is how petty and small they have made the British Government lookWed Feb 14 2024 - 11:45
DUP’s claims of ‘significant further advances’ don’t stack upThe genius of the Windsor Framework was that it allowed Donaldson to climb down from his own petardFri Feb 09 2024 - 05:30
Can the success of the plastic bag levy be replicated with bottles and cans?The levy on plastic bags relied on a stick. The Re-turn scheme offers a fairly paltry carrotThu Feb 01 2024 - 14:30
Elon Musk has ratcheted up his feud with the Irish Government. It should just ignore himPassing the hate-speech legislation would be a better riposteThu Jan 25 2024 - 11:00
Perverse incentives reward those who drive around for years without a full licenceLackadaisical approach to unaccompanied learner drivers adopted by the Government seems to indicate a general acceptance of the practiceMon Jan 15 2024 - 06:15
There’s no moral argument for the State to subsidise private schools. Just a pragmatic oneRather than 'save' the €112m the State pays in teachers’ salaries and other supports for private schools, it could end up paying considerably moreThu Dec 21 2023 - 06:00
Exodus of small landlords from the market has been greatly exaggeratedResidential Tenancy Board data reveal that most of them are not going anywhere fastFri Dec 15 2023 - 07:00
Sellafield leaks: How alarmed should we be about reports of discharge at nuclear waste plant?There is more than a touch of the ‘known unknowns’ made infamous by Donald Rumsfeld about this. And that’s worryingThu Dec 07 2023 - 16:38
Eamon Ryan’s natural gas storage plan not as daft as it looksBoth demand Irish solutions to Irish problemsFri Nov 17 2023 - 05:45
Peter McVerry Trust has been bailing the Government out for a decade. It’s time the favour was repaidSniffiness about stepping up and rescuing an organisation that provides thousands of beds for homeless people every night seems a little misplacedMon Nov 13 2023 - 05:45
On a roadtrip though Bosnia and Herzegovina, the enduring legacy of war is evident everywhereThe appalling human cost of trying to forcefully unpick a multi-ethnic and fragmented country is in living memoryMon Oct 30 2023 - 06:32
John McManus: Here’s some advice for Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly as they prepare to go before PACTDs and Senators don’t necessarily take up posts on committees purely because they care passionately about the subject at hand. They also do it for the chance to be on the TV newsThu Jul 06 2023 - 14:40
Helen McEntee has been dragged into the wider culture wars over hate speech BillLurking in the background of McDowell’s question about the extended definition of gender is a possible constitutional challengeFri Jun 30 2023 - 06:10
John McManus: It shouldn’t be a big deal to accept British honours in a modern IrelandPresident’s comments appeal to a certain atavistic Irish nationalism that is out of kilter with modern realityThu Jun 22 2023 - 12:24
We don’t need fewer data centres. We need more electricityBefore you grab a pitchfork and march on the local data centre, consider that it’s now part of what we areFri Jun 16 2023 - 06:30
Why is the Attorney General Rossa Fanning in the news again?The high profile of the office of its chief law officer is a valuable asset from the Government’s perspectiveFri Jun 09 2023 - 11:10
John McManus: Is €25 million a year a high price to establish that Charles Haughey was on the take? How much money is too much money to spend on shining a light in places that those with money and power would rather one was not shone?Thu Jun 01 2023 - 10:35
Ireland really did not want Meta’s €1.2bn. There are good reasons whyData Protection Commission appears to interpret its mandate in a way that is sympathetic to the companies it regulatesSun May 28 2023 - 05:30
The Irish Times view on hospitals building housing for staff: proceed with cautionIt would be a mistake for hospitals to view the provision of housing for staff as an opportunity to create a financial asset or an income stream.Tue May 09 2023 - 20:15
Our air defence treaty-not-a-treaty with the UK is great valueJohn McManus: Like some of the other peculiarities of Anglo-Irish relations, the logic – for both sides – of the air defence treaty-not-a-treaty trumps the spiteful instincts of even the pettiest of political mindsTue May 09 2023 - 12:35
At every past pupils’ event, after a few drinks, the stories of abusive priests were toldBlackrock College will be tempted to distance itself from what happened, arguing it is a historical Spiritan problem, not a comtemporary difficultyMon Nov 14 2022 - 01:00
How to write an opinion piece for The Irish TimesThe most important rule is to have a clear point to make and get to it quicklyTue Jan 18 2022 - 00:49
John McManus: God forbid Stephen Donnelly should have a good ideaVaccine proposal was killed off by a combination of Government’s terror and Opposition’s opportunismTue Apr 20 2021 - 00:53
Harry Styles in a dress. A South County Dublin parent writes...“You have had your fun and now I am left to pick up the pieces”Thu Nov 19 2020 - 14:51
John McManus: Is this the best little country in the world for lockdowns?Ireland lacks institutional wherewithal to do anything but lie low til Covid passesMon Oct 26 2020 - 01:39
John McManus: Is reopening hairdressers a risk worth taking?Other European countries have taken a different approach to IrelandWed May 06 2020 - 14:33
We are dropping the ball on Covid-19 testingEU roadmap sees capacity for large scale testing as a prerequisite for exiting lockdownThu Apr 16 2020 - 06:04
Government flying blind on lifting restrictionsNew case figures do not give an accurate picture of the spread of coronavirusFri Apr 10 2020 - 10:13
Consultants want private business exempt from national effort to save lives‘Many’ and ‘some’ are words people use when they don’t have accurate figures and oftentimes translate as ‘not a lot’Mon Apr 06 2020 - 12:28
John McManus: A black swan moment for Sinn Féin?Events characterised by failure of the supposedly clairvoyant to predict the future accuratelyThu Feb 20 2020 - 14:54
The trouble with saying ‘I’m not right wing or racist but . . .’Ireland is as predisposed to racism as any society although we are probably more prone to self-deceptionMon Nov 11 2019 - 01:21
Johnson deserves a hearing in Ireland but will not get oneAt this late stage there seems little appetite for alternatives to the backstopSat Aug 24 2019 - 01:20
John McManus: The real reason why the state subsidises private schoolsThe fiscal arguments for this state of affairs are flimsy, but change is still unlikelyWed Jul 31 2019 - 10:34
Should the rich get to choose how they contribute to society?Inviting wealthy to fund housing may add philanthropic legitimacy to tax avoidersSun Jul 14 2019 - 13:30
How Mytaxi killed Irish taxis and now owns the futureSuccess in Ireland and new €5 cancellation fee point to winner-takes-all capitalismWed May 15 2019 - 09:22
John McManus: Someone finally shouts stop but nobody caresSenior civil servant warns over €3bn rural broadband fiasco in waitingFri May 03 2019 - 10:01
Should we care about Trinity College ‘hazing’ antics?Controversy over reporting by student newspaper has upside for freedom of expressionThu Mar 28 2019 - 00:46
Varadkar and Rees-Mogg have different tailors but wear much the same clothesWorrying to see Taoiseach and Paschal Donohoe demonstrating ambivalence to expertiseFri Dec 07 2018 - 00:52
Are men just better at science than women?Study showing women are more empathetic, men more analytical, stresses social factorsWed Nov 14 2018 - 06:05
Simon Harris should get off Twitter and start doing his jobMalak Thawley case shows limits of his trigger-happy approach to the health serviceFri Sept 28 2018 - 06:00
John McManus: Has Ireland developed shitlife syndrome?Life expectancy has started to peak as inequality risesSat Sept 01 2018 - 05:00
Shane Ross is helping to fight against fascismJohn McManus: Minister and Independents are a bulwark against strong-man politicsFri Aug 10 2018 - 01:15
John McManus: Why did Robert Pitt take on Denis O’Brien and Leslie Buckley?Former chief executive crucially was an outsider in tightly-knit corporate IrelandSat Apr 21 2018 - 05:00
How have we all ended up working for free for waste collection firms?John McManus: Panda has enslaved me as an unpaid rubbish sorter facing finesFri Mar 02 2018 - 09:11
John McManus: English deserve a break over BrexitIrish smugness about UK folly must be tempered by memory of independenceFri Jan 19 2018 - 01:00
Irish-based structure may still help Apple avoid billions in taxParadise Papers: Apple says it changed residency of its Irish subsidiaries but insists move did not reduce tax paymentsTue Nov 07 2017 - 01:00
The stockmarket says everything about the Government’s housing policy€700 million new entrant Glenveagh sees little chance of meaningful intervention to reduce pricesFri Oct 13 2017 - 01:00
