Social Partnership is corruption.   Illegal corruption – in its various forms and expressions – is hardly a rarity in Irish society. This much we know. Perhaps less well understood are the legally permitted forms of corrupt behaviour that contribute to social and economic degradation and undermine democratic institutions and the legitimacy of the State.

Pádraig Ó Ríordáin, a partner with Arthur Cox solicitors, is recent governments’ go-to lawyer for finance and now aviation. After a seven-month search by Fine Gael’s scrupulous Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, the appointment, over the becalmed Christmas period, of high-flyer Pádraig Ó Ríordáin to the role of chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA)
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Human rights and Equality should be protected by  a special constitutionally-recognised ‘Ombudsman’ Donncha O’Connell The infrastructure of any civic society is about much more than road and rail networks or broadband connectivity. The invisible and, perhaps, tenuous bonds of common humanity are just as important. This is, of course, beautifully chaotic but we try to
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