Monday Blog: TTIP - the best thing since the invention of sliced pan bread?
There is widespread official support for the Transatlantic Trade, Investment Partnership (TTIP) across European member states – especially in the Republic of Ireland where the level of enthusiasm and zeal for promoting TTIP exceeds that of other member states. TTIP is seen as a saving grace to pull...
NERI Seminar: Deprivation on the Island of Ireland
Trutz Haase was the speaker at the most recent NERI seminar on deprivation on the island of Ireland. Over the course of the presentation, Trutz provided an overview of the Irish deprivation indices, covering the conceptual underpinnings of the 2011 Pobal Haase-Pratschke (HP) Deprivation Index for...
Gender equality: Ireland and the EU
Sunday marks International Women’s day, an opportune time to reflect on gender equality issues and the latest data on this topic. Last July the CSO issued their annual ‘ Women and Men in Ireland’ report and included for the first time a new index summarising gender equality in Ireland and comparing...
Monday Blog: Unlearning 'economics'
Economics has been described as a ‘science’. A ‘science’ is a body of knowledge and methods which uses evidence and measurement linked to the exercise of testing, repeating and predicting. Most first-year students of ‘economics’ will be taught that it is a ‘positive’ science in the sense that it...
NERI Seminar: Funding Universal Health &Social Care in Ireland
Yesterday's NERI seminar, given by Professsor Charles Normand, examined the drivers of health care expenditure and assessed the feasibility of universal health care in Ireland. Professor Normand argued that it is feasible to develop a practical definition of universal care, and to work out the costs...
Monday Blog: The beginning of the unwinding of a European tragedy?
While the results of the general election in Greece are not known at the time of writing this Blog, it is clear that the tectonic plates of political affiliation and sentiment are shifting dramatically almost everywhere. The unthinkable suddenly becomes thinkable and the thinkable becomes irrelevant...
NERI Seminar: Spatial Justice and Lessons from the Crisis
The latest NERI seminar, Some Lessons from the Crisis: Spatial Justice, Uneven Development and Future Choices, was held yesterday in the INTO Learning Centre. Gerry Kearns (professor of geography, Maynooth University) and David Meredith (senior research officer, Teagasc) outlined a concern that, as...
UK recovery still unbalanced and unstable
Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement contained few new announcements and some decidedly grim long-term trends for the UK economy. There were further details given on pre-announced infrastructural spending on house building, roads and rail in addition to earmarked funding for established...
NERI Post Budget Seminar
The October NERI seminar took place yesterday afternoon in the INTO Learning Centre. Michelle Murphy (Social Justice Ireland), Cormac Staunton (TASC) and Michael Taft (UNITE) provided on overview of the impact of the Budget 2015 with a focus on changes to system of income tax and the prospects for...
Income Taxation and Budget 2015
Judged from an income taxation perspective, Budget 2015 was reminiscent of Budgets of ten years ago, or more - maybe a worrying starting point! Cuts to income taxes dominated the announcements, and policy implementation within the Budget. This was at the cost of other priorities, including securing...