Here's How ::: Ireland's Political, Social and Current Affairs Podcast

Dan Mac Guill is a journalist with TheJournal.ie, and he has authored their excellent Fact Check series, including the one that we discussed about the effect of the closure of rural Garda stations. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul article that I mentioned is here. Details about the shortages of sugar, Coca Cola and other commodities in Venezuela are here.

Gemma O’Doherty is an investigative journalist who has worked on the disappearance of Mary Boyle, the murder of Fr Niall Molloy and the penalty points cancellation scandal.  This is a report in the Irish Independent about Conor Lenihan’s obsequious article praising the Mr Justice Frank Roe who acquitted Richard Flynn in bizarre circumstances.

Jim O’Callaghan is a senior counsel, and TD for Dublin Bay South. He was key to the negotiations between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that led to the formation of the current governmnet. This is the text of the confidence and supply agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Information is here about the Lib-Lab pact, where the British Labour Party, with just under 50 per cent of UK MPs was supported by the 13 Liberal MPs, who comprised two per cent of the House Of Commons, and this is information about confidence and supply arrangements in general.

This is Ray’s petition against what he calls the unfair ‘2Tier’ Irish car tax law. This is a table of the current motor tax rates for pre- and post-2008 vehicles. Dr Julien Mercille is a lecturer in the Department of Geography in University College Dublin, and a frequent columnist and media contributor.

Tony Downes is an Administrative Officer in Census Publicity with the Central Statistics Office. Census day is on 24 April, the exact centenary of the 1916 Rising. If you didn’t receive a census form yet, you should call 1850 2016 04 to get one. Information about problems in the US census is here. Note that the initial question on religion in our census assumes that the respondent has a religion, and that religions are presented in declining order of popularity in the previous census, but No Religion, the second most popular response by a wide margin, is listed in seventh place, separate from the rest of the list. The study Religious Practice and Values in Ireland, done by the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference  in 2010 found that 82 per cent of the republic’s population label themselves as Roman Catholic, but of those, * Half don’t believe in hell * 30 per cent don’t believe in life after death * Quarter don’t believe in heaven and * 10 per cent don’t believe in god. Which makes you wonder exactly what exactly the five per cent of Irish people who identify as Catholics, do not believe in life after death but do believe in heaven are thinking.

Cllr Sorcha Nic Cormaic is the Sinn Féin councillor for Dundrum on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and candidate in Dublin Rathdown. In our discussion, I mentioned this report from the EPA. Cllr John Brassil is the Fianna Fáil councillor for Listowel on Kerry County Council and one of the party’s candidates in Kerry. Seán Kyne TD represents Galway West and is a Fine Gael candidate in the new constituency of Galway West – South Mayo.

Paddy Power’s odds on the next government are listed here, and this is Adrian Kavanagh’s analysis of recent opinion polls. Eamon Delaney is the director of the Hibernia Forum, he’s also a writer, journalist and former diplomat. We discussed their general election briefing and mentioned the UN’s target for overseas aid, which Ireland falls far short of. Resistance to reform of Ireland’s arcane legal system is detailed here and here.

Bríd Smith is the People Before Profit candidate in Dublin South Central.

Anne-Marie McNally is the Social Democrats candidate in Dublin Mid West. She also writes extensively for Broadsheet and works in Leinster House for the party.

Eamon Ryan is the leader of the Green Party, and a candidate for the Dáil in the Dublin Bay South constituency. This is theJournal.ie article about Glenealy, Co Wicklow persuading candidates not to display posters along with dozens of anti-poster comments, and this is their, and in their online (unscientific) poll, 89 per cent of people supported banning posters entirely.

Mailo Power, running in Waterford for Renua defends her party’s policies ahead of the election.

With the approach of the election, I hope to interview a candidate for each political group about their platform in the 2016 election. Finian McGrath TD will be running in the election in Dublin Bay North for the Independent Alliance. These are the 10 principles that the Independent Alliance says it will require to give its support to any government.

This is the coverage of Patrick Durcan’s comments about Martin McNamara and his 321 previous convictions at Killaloe District Court on 5 January. Conor Cullen is the head of communications and advocacy for Alcohol Action Ireland. In the discussion we talked about the report recommending a minimum price for alcohol, proposed to be €1.00 per unit of alcohol – a unit is 10ml of pure alcohol. This would make the minimum price for a standard bottle of spirits (700ml, 40% alcohol) to be €28.00; a 500ml can of 5% beer would have a minimum price of €2.50. The 2011 Fine Gael manifesto (p26) said Supporting Irish Pubs: Fine Gael recognises the importance of the Irish pub for tourism, rural jobs and as a social outlet in communities across the country. We will support the local pub by banning the practice of below cost selling on alcohol, particularly by large supermarkets and the impact this has had on alcohol consumption and the viability of pubs. This seems like a clear commitment to protectionism, and the policy proposal is entirely consistent with that commitment, albeit dressed up as a public health measure. This is a Q&A from the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group on their study of minimum pricing, and this is the 2012 Steering Group Report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy. Neither document discusses secondary effects, that is they limit themselves to considering how people would react to the proposed regulation – they don’t consider the reaction to those reactions, in particular they don’t consider the effects of the vastly increased profit margins, and the non-price mechanisms that alcohol sellers could use to increase sales. Prices in a typical supermarket in Italy. Gordon’s Gin, €9.99, Absolut Vodka €12.70, J&B Whiskey €12.49. All of these would have a minimum price of €28.00 under the proposals. The weaker Bailey’s, priced here at €12.79 would have a minimum legal price of €11.70.

Following the interview with Sarah Benson from Ruhama in Episode 21,  Gaye Dalton got in touch with me to discuss her personal experience, and how that affects her view or Ruhama’s work. Gaye’s YouTube channel is here.

Sinead Carroll is a solicitor with Ernest J. Cantillon Solicitors. Jason O’Sullivan is the founder of JOS Solicitors. Hugh McElvaney has been a Fine Gael councillor in Monaghan since 1999. He has been central to massive inappropriate rezoning throughout his career as a councillor. The Standards in Public Office (SIPO) Commission has been constantly undermined by Phil Hogan and this government in general. Hogan also scrapped the investigations into planning irregularities in  Monaghan, Waterford, Carlow, Dublin, and Donegal. Michael Noonan scrapped the 80 per cent windfall tax on the proceeds of rezoning, creating a huge incentive for planning corruption.