Full coverage: Politics

The government has provided some answers to the questions surrounding the financial structure of NBI, including conditions for the debt funding provided by private investors and the calculation of fees paid to a company controlled by David McCourt.

Soon after I started to work in government, a very senior official confided that the reason the civil service rules the roost in Ireland is that the political system is “immature”. Regardless of who is in the next government, it is time for politics to assert its primacy.

In a special podcast following COP26 and the publication of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, four of The Currency’s writers focused on climate change discuss the vast distance left to cover between official discourse and reality – and its implications for the role of the state.

Humanity’s latest experience of climate change was the Little Ice Age in the 17th century, which resulted in widespread upheaval and loss of life – but also led to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, with lessons on the role of the state.

Under the us-versus-them approach favoured by conspiracy theorists, no policy decision can ever be made. Yet it underpins a lot of the reaction to the Government’s Housing for All plan among those who won’t settle for a step in the right direction – only a full leap into Nirvana.

Des O'Malley was implacably opposed to terrorism, rejected the fiery nationalism of Charles Haughey and his contribution towards cleaning up Irish political life will ensure a prominent position in Irish history.

Political interference has blurred the picture of what is in many aspects a typical story: Two corporations are merging. They and their investors are fighting to protect their interests.

The UK and the EU remain at loggerheads over how to manage trade around Northern Ireland after Brexit, yet current issues were first raised four years ago and solutions agreed in 2019. In his book, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier explains how we came to this, but also reveals his personal outlook on Ireland, partition and why peace was his top priority.

We are not yet through Covid, and the housing crisis is already back on centre stage. In this extensive interview, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O'Brien talks about how he intends to turn things around.

The sale of an entire housing estate in Co Kildare did not happen by accident. It occurred because of policy choices that the Irish state made over the past eight years – choices that have changed the nature of home ownership and distorted the housing market.