Colm
E: edit@farmersjournal.ie
T: 01 419 9500
Colm McCarthy is a contributor to the Irish Farmers Journal.
Colm McCarthy on 20 Feb 2019
Colm McCarthy: controlling our carbon footprints
The climate challenge is real and the delay in facing the music means that policy changes could be abrupt whenever they eventually arrive.
Colm McCarthy on 13 Feb 2019
Colm McCarthy: balance on the BBC?
When the dust settles, the abject performance of the BBC will come under scrutiny.
Colm McCarthy on 06 Feb 2019
Is a citizens' assembly a way forward for the UK?
Referendums in Ireland avoid political and constitutional crises for a different reason.
Colm McCarthy on 30 Jan 2019
Spinning the Brexit bottle
Don’t hold consultative referendums with a 50-50 prospect of winning would be one obvious lesson, especially for a party calling itself conservative.
Colm McCarthy on 23 Jan 2019
Overruns and overspending
It is now time to abandon whatever ‘long-established arrangements’ have been relied upon, especially where large once-off projects are concerned.
Colm McCarthy on 16 Jan 2019
We cannot count on steady economic growth
The immediate threat to spending control for 2019 is in public service pay. This is not a good time for a public service pay explosion.
Colm McCarthy on 09 Jan 2019
Universal consumption-based carbon tax needed
If you really believe that Ireland is a low-cost producer, it makes no sense to divert dairy output to places where costs, including carbon costs, will be higher.
Colm McCarthy on 21 Dec 2018
Colm McCarthy: Ireland's Fiscal Advisory Council is not impressed
Much of the unexpected bonus in tax receipts during 2018 came in the form of corporation tax and there are good reasons for fearing that it could be transient.
Colm McCarthy on 19 Dec 2018
Brexit and the myth of EU oppression
There is no occupying army to dislodge, yet the media version of Brexit, especially on the Tory right, proceeds with evocations of the Dunkirk spirit .
Colm McCarthy on 12 Dec 2018
The decline of Brexit-on-Sea
It is a delusion that Brexit, whatever form it takes, will rejuvenate English towns like Clacton, whose decline has nothing to do with EU membership or EU constraints.
Colm McCarthy on 05 Dec 2018
Blame the car, not the Government
The advent of online shopping and internet banking has merely accelerated a trend that was well established 30 years ago, namely the consolidation of retailing into larger units.
Colm McCarthy on 21 Nov 2018
Brexit choices: no deal, May's deal or second vote
The choices are no-deal, May’s deal, or just possibly a second referendum and a choice to remain in the EU.