Ian Kehoe: Examinership, Scarp, and restructuring in an uncertain world

Whether we like it or not, institutional investors in Irish property are here to stay. That is why it is crucial that they are properly regulated.

In the decades preceding 1916, British rulers subsidised homes to dampen the demand for Irish independence – with long-lasting consequences. What the Free State did next with this social housing stock helps explain the national property psyche.

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.

The welfare system in Ireland is geared heavily towards ensuring people do not fall into the category of long-term unemployed. Amid the rolling lockdowns, we need to redouble our efforts.

Issues over transparency emerged at every turn of our reporting on the finances of the national broadband contract over the past week. The successive governments involved in the procurement process, from 2015 to this day, have a lot to explain.

Succession is flawed but its portrayal of the rich and the motivations of those in media ring true.

Peter Oborne reflects on another damaging week for Boris Johnson and why he is effectively finished as prime minister of the UK.

The financial details and the appointment of corporate restructuring advisors revealed by The Currency this week raise serious questions about the future of the National Broadband Plan. They could have been addressed earlier if the project was not so opaque.

What would a series of rolling restrictions mean for us? The first order effects would include a stuttering, fluttering economy and a ballooning deficit just as interest rates are poised to rise. The second and third-order effects are much more difficult to foresee – and more troubling.

The conflation of the pre- and post-Lehman experience of the Western banking system and that of China today is flawed. The Chinese financial system and its relationship to the broader economy is fundamentally different by design.