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Monday 7 August 2017

The bottleneck is driving up house prices and therefore affordability. Stock picture

Editorial

Housing supply at root of affordability squeeze

In his foreword to a report on the affordability of the housing market last summer, Professor Peter Clinch, chairman of the National Competitiveness Council, noted the impacts of the amount of money needed to pay a mortgage on a monthly basis.

Issues: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar outlines Ireland’s key concerns over Britain’s Brexit plans during his speech at Queen’s University in Belfast. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Colm McCarthy

Border issue means that customs union must stay

Leo Varadkar's speech at Queen's University last Friday reflected (politely) his judgment that the British political leadership has wasted 14 months since the referendum in dodging the key challenges in implementing Brexit. The continuing retreat from reality saw foreign secretary Boris Johnson in New Zealand last week and the trade secretary Liam Fox...

Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald. Photo: Arthur Carron

Ruth Dudley Edwards

You'd wonder about the people who join political parties that tolerate no dissent

Knowing the bloody, cruel and counter-productive IRA campaign that their political wing still retrospectively honours, and its abject failure to bring about the United Ireland for which it fought, what kind of person in the Republic of Ireland would join Sinn Fein these days?

Gene Kerrigan

Unfortunately, we need to talk about Kevin

The low point in last week's Kevin Myers circus was, for me, the moment he went on BBC Radio 5. Myers climbed down into the hole he'd dug for himself, took out his trusty shovel of contorted rhetoric and proceeded to dig.

Eoghan Harris

Varadkar and Coveney are dancing too close to Adams

Leo Varadkar rounded on the Brits about Brexit last Friday week. Gerry Adams led the chorus of approval - and is still gushing.

Declan Lynch

Time for a new immigration ballad- lamenting the lack of it

When Gina Akpe-Moses - who was born in Nigeria but raised in Co Louth from the age of three - won the 100metres for Ireland at the recent European Under-20 Athletics Championships, I thought of my late and great friend George Byrne in a taxi in Detroit.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Comment

Martin and Varadkar face to face again with the SF question

The "phoney war" was the period after September 1939 when all sides had declared war on one another, but the actual fighting, bar the odd skirmish, still hadn't begun. Instead armies spent the months eyeing one another warily, preparing for battle.

LEGAL DILEMMA: About 45pc of criminals released from prison have been convicted of new offences within three years

Dan O'Brien

Extra jail time for repeat offenders would protect public

How does society balance the rights of old women to sleep safely in their beds and the rights of hardcore career criminals? Is it fair that an innocent person's life is ended violently because another person, who has already committed dozens of violent crimes, has been given yet another chance?

The beach near Rosslare, Co Wexford. Picture: Getty

Opinion

This Man's Life: A child-rearing gender gap storm rages over St Helen's Bay

If my wife Aoife is a very young 40 years of age, then I am a very old 49. After this holiday in undeniably beautiful Wexford, however, I can say without fear of exaggeration that I feel like a very young 79-year-old.

Brave new world: Is Mark Zuckerberg ushering us over the threshold into a new era of artificial intelligence?

Brendan O’Connor

Zuckerberg and the infinite peril of voting for a catchy word

Have you heard anyone, apart from the odd nut, saying what a great idea Brexit is? Have you read one piece where top businessmen discuss the huge opportunities and riches that will flow from Brexit?