Colm McCarthy

1 month ago | farmersjournal.ie | Colm McCarthy

In an uncertain budgetary environment created by threats to global trade and to Ireland’s corporation tax bonanza, the Government has been forced to acknowledge the failure of its numerous efforts to meet the housing shortfall. One of the magic formulae is the recurring illusion that the Government has piles of suitable sites that could be released for housing, without any site acquisition costs.

1 month ago | farmersjournal.ie | Colm McCarthy

A timely report just released by the Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE) fills a gap left by official agencies, notably the Department of Environment, in formulating a coherent policy about energy security. Growing electricity demand, driven by population growth, the spread of data centres and rising demand for electric cars has resulted, for the first time, in reliance on substantial net imports of electricity over interconnectors from the UK.

1 month ago | farmersjournal.ie | Colm McCarthy

Had the news media declined to overdose the public on the tariff pantomime from Washington last week, greater attention would have focused on the revised National Planning Framework (NPF), approved by the cabinet on 9 April. The title is misleading as there is little sign of revision – the new framework is, in key aspects, a prisoner of the old.

1 month ago | thecurrency.news | Colm McCarthy

Tánaiste Simon Harris met US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington on Wednesday, coincidentally the day tariffs collected on imports from China into America kicked off at an initial 104 per cent rate – increased to 125 per cent later that day, according to a presidential social post. This marked day one of a new world order, potentially broader than a trade war and Harris, representing a small EU member state without an independent trade policy, had no cards to play.

1 month ago | farmersjournal.ie | Colm McCarthy

As a prelude to negotiations supposedly with allies and trading partners, Donald Trump’s performance in the Rose Garden early last week will long be remembered, if only for the crass hyperbole. The United States has been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” he proclaimed, not by alien invaders from the Dark Planet but by, for example, Canada. A long list of countries identified as co-conspirators with the evil Canadians included Jordan, Cambodia and New Zealand.