Will the terms of reference for the Irish Banking Inquiry be as wide as that of Iceland?
 

The Irish public does not have any such opportunity to engage in an inquiry which from the outset is perceived to lack legitimacy because of the decision to hold the investigation in private, unlike similar inquiries in the [...]

Who will be accountable when we discover, like in Iceland, that no global bogeyman was to blame for our banking collapse? asks ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES 14 April 2010
 
THE SPECIAL investigation commission, established by the Icelandic parliament, published its nine-volume 2,300-page report yesterday into the causes of Iceland’s ecnomic collapse.
 
It found the collapse [...]

RENEWING THE REPUBLIC: This series has shown a thirst for political reform coupled with an uncertainty about how to achieve it, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish Times April 3 2010
 
ACCOMPANYING THIS series has been an image of our national flag, contorted at the centre by a knot. The narrative embarked upon by the various [...]

Elected to the Althing in the ‘kitchenware revolution’, a leading writer has found politics a frustrating profession, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES March 9, 2010
 
THRAINN BERTELSSON describes himself as someone “who happens to being doing time in parliament”. The Icelandic “kitchenware revolution” of January 2009 enticed him to join a contagious grassroots coalition [...]

ELAINE BYRNE in Reykjavik in Irish Times March 8, 2010
 
SATURDAY’S ICESAVE referendum was resoundingly rejected by 93.2 per cent of Icelanders, with just 1.8 per cent casting their vote in favour of the current €3.9 billion repayment package.
 
Although severe weather conditions have prevented counting of the hundred or so ballots from Grímsey island, Iceland’s northernmost island [...]

In contrast to our Government’s mantra that banks cannot fail, Iceland’s population is poised to vote against a deal to repay Icesave’s debts, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish Times March 2, 2010
 
I LIKE to describe the manner in which I play Gaelic football as that of being a determined footballer. Unfortunately referees do not always [...]

WHEN WAS it decided to call this inquiry into our financial crisis a banking inquiry? By limiting the description of what is under scrutiny, the perception may arise that the Irish banking and regulatory systems are the sole focus of inquiry, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES January 26 2010
 
In the Dáil last week, [...]

Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore need to convince the public of the radical policies they intend to put forward, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish Times January 19 2010
 
THE RETURN of the Dáil today marks the inauguration of a decade which will commemorate the 100th anniversaries of the 1916 Easter Rising, the seminal 1918 election, [...]

Endemic localism and our whip system ends up reducing budget day to a theatrical exercise in parliamentary voting, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES December 8, 2009
 
IT IS of course entirely coincidental that International Anti-Corruption Day falls tomorrow, the same day as budget day. By a quirky twist of fate, tomorrow is also the [...]

We need to ditch our innate conservatism and seize the opportunity for fundamental systematic change

IRISH TIMES September 8, 2009

THIS COLUMN is at a crossroads.

In the manner of Robert Frost, two roads have diverged in a wood and I’m not sure which one to travel by.

The first road is the one we have looked down as far as we could to where it bends in the undergrowth. This is the Ireland with new international monikers: Eirn Go Broke (New York Times), Direland (Financial Times) and Tin Hat Time (Economist). On this path, we accept the need for sober and responsible action, in the national interest. We need to do the right thing for the long-term future of the country. I would like to travel on this road.