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Push for EU vaccine travel permits has begun – but the devil is in the detail

Despite the doubts about when and how – or even if – the Covid-19 vaccine will get to you, the debate has already opened on how vaccination can boost people’s freedom to travel sooner rather than later.

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John Downing Opinion Watch this space – Merkel’s departure may herald more change across Europe

Angela Merkel got her ‘long goodbye’ off to a good start when her Christian Democrat delegates picked her preferred candidate to take over the party leadership. Merkel’s very unsubtle hint that she backed Armin Laschet for the CDU leadership was a big help to him winning through in a contest where he was the underdog.

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John Downing Opinion The nation is close to ‘apology fatigue’ and now mother and baby homes survivors need restitution

For Irish politicians “sorry used to be the hardest word” – but now sorry seriously risks becoming a political commonplace and the nation is near apology fatigue.

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Cluskey’s memory shines through from this very grim Mother and Baby report

The name of Frank Cluskey has emerged as one of the scarce positive aspects of the 3,000 pages of the Mother and Baby Homes report.

‘Inconvenient women and children’ were best kept ‘out of sight’ in mother and baby homes

So we are reminded yet again: Of course, there was sex in Ireland before the advent of television. But there is strong evidence that, for many decades, we didn’t talk much at all about this essential facet of human existence.

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John Downing Opinion Report will be worthless if victims of mother and baby homes don’t get redress

‘Ireland is a peculiar society in the sense that it was a 19th century society up to about 1970 – and then it almost bypassed the 20th century.”

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John Downing Opinion Clear communication is crucial during vaccine roll-out

Ned O’Sullivan, the quiet Kerry senator, has probably forgotten more about politics than many of us will ever learn. And the other day he took to social media to note that Israel, so long an international pariah for some political activists, is suddenly being cited as an example because of the speed with which people are being vaccinated against Covid-19.

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John Downing Opinion History teaches us that there is rarely ‘a good time’ for a leadership coup

There is an old joke about a magician cum ventriloquist who worked the ocean liners. His magic was a bit ropey, so his main trope was a bolshie parrot perched on his shoulder giving very scathing commentaries on his attempts at sleight of hand.

We won't change our tax regime in return for support on Brexit – Byrne

Ireland will always acknowledge EU support in getting “a good Brexit result” – but never agree that changes to its company tax regime must be conceded in return.

Farmers can now get 100pc tax back for farm safety measures

Farmers are being offered 100pc tax relief for equipment to improve farm safety and save lives, Junior Agriculture Minister, Martin Heydon, has revealed.

Cowen’s stinging criticism of Fianna Fáil leader divides party, as support grows for power heave

More Fianna Fáil TDs have expressed doubts about Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s leadership of the party – after former minister Barry Cowen said he should not lead them into the next election.

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Green Party fears about EU-Canada trade deal are ‘wrong’, Phil Hogan insists

The Green Party is “wrong about the EU-Canada trade deal”, former EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has insisted.

Tighter lockdown within weeks unless cases fall

Tighter restrictions, including a reduction of the 5km exercise limit to just 2km, may be introduced in a desperate bid to tackle spiral ling Covid-19 infections.

Cowen’s stinging criticism of Fianna Fáil leader divides party, as support grows for power heave

More Fianna Fáil TDs have expressed doubts about Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s leadership of the party – after former minister Barry Cowen said he should not lead them into the next election.

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North’s 2021 census changes may not mean end of the Border

The Northern Ireland Census, due in March 2021, is expected to show a nationalist majority for first time in the North’s 100-year existence which is also being commemorated this year.

Law changes are needed to protect workers’ pay-offs when firms close, says O’Dea

The law must be changed to give workers who are made redundant more rights and to protect their legal entitlements to a proper pay-off, Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Willie O’Dea has said.

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John Downing Opinion My eight political predictions for 2021 – but please don’t quote me on them...

Predictions – especially those that relate to the political future – are a total mug’s game. Yet they can be fun, though less so when some tedious pedant unearths them 12 months later to point out some, er, shortcomings.

Final Covid battle ‘will be toughest’ as Taoiseach warns rising case numbers 'will deteriorate further over the coming days'

The new year will begin with at least a month of restrictive lockdown in a bid to crush the comeback of the coronavirus and buy vital time to vaccinate vulnerable groups.

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John Downing Opinion Now comes the big parting of EU ways for Ireland and UK after 47 years

From the beginning, amid the ashes, misery and poverty of the post World War II world, Ireland’s European fate was largely driven by London.

Welfare review is needed due to price hikes, says O’Dea

Brexit will inevitably increase the price of food and other basic household items, hitting people dependent on welfare the hardest, Fianna Fáil’s new finance spokesman Willie O’Dea has said.

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John Downing Opinion Chronicle of a death foretold may move closer to reality for Fianna Fáil in 2021

This time 12 months ago we thought we ‘knew’ all sorts of things, which turned out to be total rot. And I’m not just talking about the unseen Covid-19, which nobody at all in this country knew a blessed thing about, but which was about to knock the stuffing out of our politics and much else.

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The Big Interview: ‘It would have been nice if I had got some kind of due process’ – Phil Hogan breaks silence on Golfgate

Phil Hogan is speaking four months after his enforced resignation as Ireland’s EU Commissioner . It was a resignation unprecedented in the country’s 47 years of EU membership.

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The Big Interview: ‘It would have been nice if I had got some kind of due process’ – Phil Hogan breaks silence on Golfgate

Phil Hogan is speaking four months after his enforced resignation as Ireland’s EU Commissioner . It was a resignation unprecedented in the country’s 47 years of EU membership.

Phil Hogan says UK was left ‘embarrassed’ by its failure to identify what it wanted from Brexit talks

The UK government was left embarrassed by its failure to identify what it truly wanted from Brexit trade negotiations, according to former EU Commissioner, Phil Hogan.

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Whatever the cost and red tape, any Brexit deal is better than none

You are already forgiven if you had long ago tuned out of the repetitive Brexit noise amid a sense of “déjà vu all over again” and a more immediate preoccupation with that other bundle of joy, Covid-19.

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John Downing Opinion With more of a whimper than a bang, Brexit’s headed for the exit

And lo it came to pass on Christmas Eve, that after four years of threats of mutual economic Armageddon, high-wire diplomacy, low-grade name-calling, and an inevitable potentially deal-breaking row over fish, Brexit was about to just limp out the gate.

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Brexit Briefing: Michel Barnier might just get a deal under his Christmas tree tonight – but there are no guarantees

It’s all mostly agreed – bar the fish. Christmas is as good to Brexit negotiators as it is to anyone else.

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Brexit Briefing: Just 10 days left and, yes, that was the sound of another deadline being smashed

British Brexit negotiators were treated to mulled wine and mince pies at the splendid UK embassy to the EU close to the Brussels talks centre on Sunday evening.

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John Downing Opinion As Northern Ireland turns 100 this week, we need to reflect and we need to talk

Next Wednesday Northern Ireland turns 100 as it was on December 23, 1920 that the Government of Ireland Act was passed in the London parliament.

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John Downing Opinion Brexit’s ‘final hours’ have arrived – and it’s mainly all about fishing rights

“It’s the moment of truth. We have very little time remaining — just a few hours," Michel Barnier said.