Faced with Nama and the McCarthy report, our political parties lack the will to mount an effective campaign, writes ELAINE BYRNE in THE IRISH TIMES August 18, 2009

IT IS now 44 days until the second Lisbon referendum. At this same point in last year’s failed referendum campaign, Mark Hennessy wrote an opinion piece titled Pro-Lisbon campaign still to get off ground. Hennessy quoted the Spanish philosopher George Santayana, who said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Deja vu anyone?

With 44 days to go, our politicians are still on their holidays. When the Dáil and Seanad return on September 16th, it will only be two weeks to referendum day.

Just as Watergate transformed journalism internationally, it appears the recession will do likewise. Elaine Byrne in The IRISH TIMES, August 11 2009
 
THE FORTUNES of journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein rose considerably when they broke the biggest story in American politics.
 
Between 1972 and 1976, Woodward and Bernstein uncovered political dirty tricks that ultimately resulted in [...]

Hiding decision-making processes behind the cloak of ‘commercial sensitivity’ is no way to build trust in the asset management agency, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES, August 4 2009

BRIAN LENIHAN scares me sometimes. When Áine Lawlor asked him on Morning Ireland last Friday about Nama’s process of valuing toxic assets, he had this to say: “Some of the land is at present not sellable in what is a very illiquid market and some allowance can be made, and it’s a limited allowance, but some allowance can be made for that in determination of what’s a fair price . . . some allowance can be made for longer term economic value.”

His liberal use of “allowance”, which translates as “discretion”, was very disconcerting.