Full coverage: colm mccarthy

Ireland’s aversion to charging motorists has turned congestion into a policy choice. Roads, like water, are scarce — and refusing to price them simply spreads the costs more widely and inefficiently.

Warnings about unsustainable spending have gone unheeded as government promises mount, from regional wish lists to defence upgrades. Neutrality has quietly delivered one of Ireland’s greatest fiscal dividends, and abandoning it could cost more than any infrastructure project ever has.

Ireland risks another cycle of capital cuts and fiscal crises unless early corrective action is taken and spending discipline restored.

Donald Trump’s foreign policy pivot is unsettling smaller nations, forcing them to navigate a world where old alliances no longer guarantee protection. What does it mean for Ireland?

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has seen its influence downgraded in the interests of ‘delivery’ and the decline in the quality of the capital programme is already underway.    

Fine Gael has proposed a new Department of Infrastructure to take charge of large project delivery. But who is in charge of project selection? Who weeds out the low-priority schemes before they get underway? 

A sane and fiscally sustainable economic policy is a bulwark for the small business sector in Ireland, but a bespoke policy, made-to-measure for any faltering sector, is delusional.  

Ireland is the only European country offering free water and Uisce Éireann is the only Irish semi-state which has the majority of its staff on the payroll of agencies it cannot control. Something has to give.

The constant refrain from politicians seeking to avoid decisions about the 32 million cap is to urge scheduled airlines to use Cork, Shannon and other regional airports. Yes, they have capacity, but there is a reason why.

The Government has never formally abandoned the Public Spending Code but one could be forgiven for imagining that it has. Every mistake in capital allocation means that, sooner or later, better projects must wait.