LATEST ARTICLES
Viewpoints
Least-cost strategies need priority
Colm McCarthy
Congestion charging in cities reduces air pollution and frees up peak-time bus capability as a by-product.
25 January 2023 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: Each scheme needs to pass a cost/benefit test
There are some cheap and expensive ways to attain whatever target is chosen and each scheme needs to pass a cost/benefit test.
22 January 2023 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: Brexit - buyer's remorse
Public and political opinion has shifted and there is growing support for a normalisation of relations with Europe.
Ill-conceived projects should not be delivered, they should be cancelled
An oversight mechanism for public capital spending is meaningless unless some projects fail the test.
11 January 2023 Viewpoints
Looking forward - interest rates
The holiday from ultra-low interest rates is over, for Government, households and commercial borrowers.
4 January 2023 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: Government's target to cut car numbers a curious choice
The sudden adoption of this new target to reduce car numbers, never before mentioned, betrays a lack of confidence by the Government in its own stated strategy.
28 December 2022 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: emissions measurement model matters for Irish agriculture
Some lines of production are so dominated by exports that the production-based measurement gives a misleading picture.
10 December 2022 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: crypto collapses in spectacular fashion
Just why fools are so readily parted from their money has puzzled students of financial markets for centuries.
30 November 2022 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: Is a congestion charge the answer?
How should the costs of the road system, including costs imposed on everyone else by road traffic, be recovered?
23 November 2022 Viewpoints
International cohesion in short supply at COP-27
It would all be so much simpler if each country was a planet, fully incentivised to look after its own unique atmosphere.
16 November 2022 Viewpoints
Colm McCarthy: Grants or prize money?
Racehorse owners are racing’s benefactors, and help to sustain the breeding industry as well as the 26 racecourses around the country and the 350 or so public training establishments.
9 November 2022 Viewpoints
Governments face higher borrowing costs
While the surge in inflation is the worst that has been experienced for several decades, there has been no change in the preferred inflation-fighting policy of the major western governments.
2 November 2022 Viewpoints