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  TAX AND SPEND: Part One: Tax . . .

  
  Painfully ironic though it feels to write this, it’s time to repatriate the taxes of the Irish companies relocated ‘offshore’ and call out the bogus non-resident non-tax-paying billionaire moochers who pay for nothing and walk away with everything, including lucrative Government contracts. (8 minute
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  TAX AND SPEND: Part two . . . and spend

  
  the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful at the expense of the rest of us in a rigged system. Public waiting lists for medical treatment get longer as we shovel money into The private sector. Rich kids get a better education at our expense. And then the Government cheats on the Leaving Cert results to see that they get the top university

• SENATE REFORM

  
  Think Nationally, Act Locally What is the Senate good for? Ideally, in a bicameral legislature, each house acts as a check and/or balance to the other. In our case, however, there is no check, given that the balance is well and truly tipped in favour of the Government of the day. The Taoiseach gets to nominate eleven Senators, which is a nice head start, but it’s hardly necessary: even though all Bills nominally need the approval of both houses, if the Dáil sends a Bill to the Senate, the
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  TAX AND SPEND Part three: Anyone for Redistribution?

  
  More equality is better for everybody, including the economy.Social Justice Ireland Right-wing governments are predictably reluctant to impose a wealth tax on their friends. But in a time of multiple crises—not just the coronavirus and its effect on the economy, but also the perennial favourites in health, housing, climate action, and so on—there’s nothing to be gained by endlessly cutting the national cake into ever thinner slices in an attempt to make it stretch further. We’ve been
• 

  ANGRY COMMONERS

  
  Despite a century of republican independence, the common ownership of Ireland’s wealth promised by the first Dáil continued to find its way into the hands of privileged private interests. Public rights and welfare are now subordinate to property rights, citizens are taxpayers, and workers are human resources. 15-min read.
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  A VERY IRISH COUP

  
  Shaw said it’s past time to see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’; it’s time to dream of what never was and ask, ‘Why not?’ Why not a first-class, single-tier healthcare system, a first-class single-tier education system, housing for everybody, and a taxation system that makes the rich pay their share? 12-minute read.
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  BROKEN DEMOCRACY

  
  Self-governing republican freedom is shared among equal citizens, and so is the responsibility for maintaining it. That requires active participation from us all, individually and collectively, taking responsibility for the state we’re in. Our democracy is broken. It’s time we did something about it. 10-minute read.
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  THE NOT-SO-QUIET REVOLUTIONARIES

  
  In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that laws criminalising homosexuality supported the ‘Christian nature of the Irish State’ and a two-to-one majority voted for the Eighth Amendment. But by 2018, we had legalised same-sex marriage and repealed the Eighth. 12-min read.