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Pat Leahy

Pat Leahy

The Irish Times

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So the North still says no. But for how much longer?

08.02.2025 20

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

It normally takes a government a bit longer than this to look so out of touch

02.02.2025 20

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Angry scenes were partly the result of Sinn Féin’s determination to be a more aggressive Opposition

25.01.2025 10

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Have our politicians forgotten what happens when you lose control of the public finances?

19.01.2025 9

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Government is getting nervous about the contentious Occupied Territories Bill

12.01.2025 10

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

We need to see an explosion in house building and new ideas this year

It may seem like a peculiar thing to suggest before it even takes office but the next government is going to face a series of political, economic...

04.01.2025 4

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

These four trends reshaped Irish politics in 2024

Sinn Féin slumped, the Greens wilted, the centre held, and the Donald returned: those were the four most important trends and events in Irish...

28.12.2024 4

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Pat Leahy: The informed sceptic’s guide to Irish politics

Getting ready for arguments about politics at home over the Christmas? Wondering about how you’ll explain Irish politics to visiting foreign...

22.12.2024 5

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Smart people still insist the truth of a patent absurdity – that Gerry Adams was never in the IRA

Election campaign done and dusted, and a comparatively slow-motion government formation process is under way. I’ve been watching the Disney Plus...

14.12.2024 5

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Ireland’s five biggest problems: War, climate change, an EU crisis, housing and Trump

Leave aside for now the wrangling over the construction of the next government that began before all the votes were counted and will continue, I...

08.12.2024 9

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

No election is a foregone conclusion. This will be a fierce and frantic week

Just under a week to go. Right about the time you are reaching for your Saturday morning Irish Times, the votes will be tumbling out of the ballot...

24.11.2024 7

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Someone should take Simon Harris’s phone away before he bankrupts the country

I suppose this is what we expected, isn’t it? The first week of the campaign has seen all parties embark on an incontinent splurge of promises to...

17.11.2024 5

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Here’s what we should be asking politicians in the aftermath of Trump’s victory

Most of the chatter was about how the Dáil had to pass the Finance Bill, which was rushed through the chamber at breakneck speed this week....

09.11.2024 3

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Sniping and competition among party leaders will be central to this election

You don’t have to look very hard to see that the sniping between the two old frenemies has gone up a notch or two as the election approaches. The...

02.11.2024 3

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Three things the Irish election should be about - but won’t

This week, the Climate Change Advisory Council issued its annual review, warning the Government that the rate of progress in cutting carbon...

27.10.2024 4

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Sinn Féin chief Mary Lou McDonald should have a word with Bertie Ahern

Readers of a certain vintage may recall Bertie Ahern’s trials and tribulations regarding his finances during the late-stage Celtic Tiger period....

20.10.2024 1

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Two signposts to an early election: Sinn Féin’s troubles and a glimpse of Micheál Martin’s election posters

Back to the political world’s favourite subject. The time is fast approaching – and will arrive probably next week, I think – when decisions...

12.10.2024 2

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Trouble at the top? Relations between Simon Harris and Micheál Martin are frayed

Assessing the plans for the invasion of Iraq by US forces in 2003, General David Petraeus famously demanded: “Tell me how this ends.” He never got...

06.10.2024 4

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Whatever about the best country to be a child, it’s one of the best to be a finance minister

And so, as before, they were able to do nearly everything. For the third year in a row, after the Covid years, a €10 billion budget that will run a...

02.10.2024 3

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Mary Lou McDonald’s hope of pulling off another Lazarus act is not great. Sinn Féin’s confidence is rattled

Sinn Féin gathers in Athlone for its ardfheis today in a state of uncertainty and disquietude that is unfamiliar territory for the party....

29.09.2024 6

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Ireland’s wealthiest pensioners will benefit from raised tax threshold while 800,000 workers have no pension at all

One of the ways public life works in Ireland is that those with proximity to power tend to find their interests protected rather better than those...

21.09.2024 3

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Apple windfall is not the EuroMillions. We need to get a grip

Though you’d never guess it from the reaction within the Department of Finance, there are worse disasters that could befall the country than a €14...

15.09.2024 7

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Schools abuse inquiry: Redress scheme could cost €5bn

The excavation of the darker sides of Irish life in past decades continued this week with the publication of the report by senior counsel Mary...

07.09.2024 3

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Budget one-offs are economically indefensible and politically smart

Name-tags affixed to uniforms, school shoes bought, bags packed with books and copies and pencil cases and (if they must) iPads: children across...

01.09.2024 2

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy

Here’s my prediction for when the general election will happen

The Cabinet – and everyone else – skedaddled out the door this week as fast as they could as the August break beckoned after a long political term....

27.07.2024 1

The Irish Times

Pat Leahy