Ministerial responsibility for health services in the Republic of Ireland has been compared to a stay in some African country. For all its woes and failings the National Health Service (NHS) seems to be a badge of national pride in the UK even 60 years after its establishment. What is it about the...

Wages are rising again for most workers in most sectors of the economy. The increases are moderate and in many cases the settlements made stretch out over a number of years and are, typically, related to ‘productivity’ measures. Growth in wages and in productivity is good news all round. Yet, the...

To brexit or not to brexit is a question for the people of the UK next month. There is, however, an even more fundamental question for all Europeans: what sort of Europe do we want and how do we attain it? Inevitably, the short-term questions and concerns regarding trade, investment, employment...

‘Neither a borrower or a lender be’ so said Polonius in The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. However, economies in modern times don’t work this way and neither did medieval societies notwithstanding the moral strictures placed on usury. The fact is that income does not...

The level and quality of employment together with the distribution of skills is central to productivity. Full employment is possible provided that public policy is directed to this as an overriding priority. When some economists speak of a ‘natural rate of unemployment’ they betray an underlying...

Although inequality of income has taken up a lot of analytical space for many years much less attention has been given to trends in wage inequality. Last week I focussed on the share of labour in total income in the Republic of Ireland. This week I look at trends in wage inequality. Two facts stand...

I bet you are perplexed by the title. Read on. Since the 1980s wages have declined sharply as a proportion of total income in the Republic of Ireland. While total income or production (GDP, GNI or GVA as you wish) has grown dramatically since the early 1990s the share of wages in the total cake as...

The National Living Wage of £7.20 will come into force from tomorrow across the UK for those aged 25 and over. This new minimum wage rate will amount to an automatic increase of 50p per hour for the coming financial year and it is set to rise to £9 per hour by 2020. There has been much discussion of...

In the course of a decade and a year of commemorations there has been much discussion and consideration about the past. Difficult issues and questions are negotiated and depending on which tradition one tends to associate with, particular emphasis will be placed on certain events or certain...