One of the great political fallacies of the past half century is that the “triple lock” is some great obstacle to the participation of our Defence Forces in international peace and security operations. The triple lock has, as the name suggests, three components: (i) government decision, (ii) Dáil approval and a (iii) UN mandate. These

My recent article published in the Sunday Independent: There is no shortage of political pundits who are happy to regularly disparage the holding of constituency clinics by TDs. But, for every one of them, there are several thousand more members of the public see these weekly T.D. clinics as a vital way to engage face

What happened in Cherry Orchard last Monday night was shocking, but it was not surprising. It was not surprising to those of us who have warned for months that chronic anti-social behaviour is on the rise and going unchecked. It was certainly no surprise to the countless thousands of decent law-abiding people living and working

August is so regarded as a slow news month that folks call it the “silly season.” The time of year when idiotic political statements get a prominence they wouldn’t otherwise attract. But even this basic fact of political life cannot explain last week’s grotesque series of political pronouncements from Fine Gael claiming there is no

When I called for a mid-term review of the Programme for Government (PfG) little did I expect the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to respond as indignantly as if I’d demanded they abstain for a month from foreign travel and soft-focus interviews. But that’s what happened. Opening last week’s Sunday Independent I found a near identical response

I rarely attend Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meetings. Gone are the days when they saw a lively exchange of ideas and suggestion. They are now a listening exercise, with the backbenchers expected to stay in listening mode.   Not that I am missing out on much, as much of what is uttered at these meetings

–  If there is to be a debate on our policy on international defence and security I will advocate strongly for a continuation of our policy of military neutrality –   There are few political topics that can evoke as much raw passion and base misunderstanding as military neutrality. Indeed so deep and fundamental are

By Willie O’Dea TD – Minister for Defence 2004 – 2010 Last Wednesday the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces was published. It is an excellent piece of work. The Commission members have done the State a great service by avoiding the temptation to take the easy road and declare that all is

I have written to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health urging them to remove all Covid restrictions by the end of January, as hospital and ICU figures have remained stable as a result of high levels of vaccination and natural immunity. Hospitality businesses should now be allowed to operate as normal & the use