WE ARE all familiar with the concept of the people becoming exasperated with their government. We have seen it happen here and even more dramatically across Europe. The government gets it wrong, causes hardship for its people and they in turn lose faith and confidence in the administration of the day and the permanent bureaucracy.

There is a form of deductive reasoning called a syllogism. In essence, it consists of deriving a conclusion from two related statements of fact. A classic example is: all mammals are warm-blooded. All dogs are mammals, therefore all dogs are warm- blooded. But there are false syllogisms too, such as: all runners sweat, you are

If there was a prize for hardest working part of government it would undoubtedly go the Taoiseach’s image-makers. Their most recent achievements have been impressive: Enda’s face on the cover of the European edition of Time magazine and his naming as European of the Year by the German Magazine Publishers’ Association. With the Taoiseach’s biography

‘IN this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” So said the American founding father, Benjamin Franklin. Clearly he reckoned without the members of this Government. With the Budget barely two months away we are seeing another absolute certainty in Irish political life: kite flying from Government ministers. Despite protestations

Some months ago here I outlined how ministers in this Government can be divided into three distinct categories: the high=flyers, the passengers and the weak links. Leaving aside the temptation to label them all as passengers following their mass exodus to Brussels, the events of the days before and after that modern-day flight of the

Less than two weeks ago, the Taoiseach was confidently telling us that his Government was going to “squeeze the maximum” amount in savings from the Croke Park Agreement. His assurance came on the back of a week of indecision and confusion from his Health Minister. There was to be no hesitation or confusion about this,

LAST Tuesday the Taoiseach deftly slipped into his office before disability campaigners gathered outside Government Build-ings to protest against his Government and his Health Minister’s health cuts. While he arrived in time to avoid the protesters, he did not manage to elude the cameras. He was at least prepared for them and had some carefully

Though he is said to have uttered it during a radio debate, Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s great phrase — “You’re entitled to your own opinions. You’re not entitled to your own facts” — could have been coined with Enda Kenny in mind. While we have seen glimpses during his time as leader of Fine Gael of

Last week, the Sunday Independent broke the story that a former parliamentary colleague of mine, Chris Andrews, was the person behind several hundred anonymous tweets attacking Fianna Fail. To say I was taken aback by this news is an understatement, not least because I was one of the people he attacked. While I am used

Last Wednesday I published a short and long overdue piece of legislation: The Bank Bonuses Bill. If the government accepts this Bill in September then we can at last do something to tackle the continuing scandal of bank bosses awarding themselves excessive bonuses. It is a simple piece of legislation. It will require all top