It is absolutely incongruous to champion TV3's late-night 'chatline' ads as signs of a new, sexually liberated era. By Clara Fischer.

Last week, Fine Gael TD Derek Keating called for the banning of late night adverts, shown on TV3, for what he described as “sexual entertainment services”. There appears to be some dispute about the exact nature of these advertisements, with ComReg purportedly calling the ads “chatline” or “partyline” services, rather than “sexual entertainment services”. Judging by the scantily clad women starring in these particular spots, though, that seems rather odd. Do women always chat and hold parties in their underwear? As a woman, this is news to me.

Keating went on to assert that they serve as a front for organised prostitution. This is a strong claim, and one Keating professes “given the information” he has. The question remains: what is that information, and is his claim true? The Government has dealt with the issue by referring the matter on to ComReg, the regulatory body for electronic communications; and Vincent Browne, whose show has become rather unfortunately embroiled in this debacle, has referred the matter on to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

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The Government may welcome talk of growth, but cuts in public investment and current expenditure along with tax increases will reduce GDP by over €6bn by 2015. By Michael Taft.

This debate – you wouldn’t know whether to laugh, cry or bang your head on the asphalt repeatedly. Following the rejection of austerity parties in Greece and France, the Taoiseach says:

“I welcome the fact that president-elect Hollande has been talking about growth and investment which is what Ireland has been talking about along with a number of other leaders for the last number of months.”

Indeed, since the treaty debate began Government ministers have been talking so much stimulus you’d fear that the economy will explode with all that dosh the Government intends to pump in.

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The main argument for a No vote in the Fiscal Treaty referendum is to call a halt to Europe's march to a neoliberal drumbeat. By Vincent Browne.

Transport minister Leo Varadkar had a point when he said a few weeks ago that referendum campaigns are usually fought over issues that are irrelevant to the point of the referendums.

His colleagues are proving him right on the Fiscal Treaty. So too are the opponents of the treaty.

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An Ipsos/Mrbi poll in April recorded 23% satisfaction with the Coalition Government and 73% dissatisfaction. The level of dissatisfaction is up 16% from October 2011. Nothing changes however as the current government races to the levels of unpopularity enjoyed by its predecessor. Welcome to democracy Irish style! By Niall Crowley (video below). Add a comment

8 May was the Fête de la Victoire in France. It was also the day of François Hollande’s first public appearance as president-elect. The right-wing Le Figaro featured photographs of “deux presidents sous l’Arc de Triomphe”, in which Sarkozy managed to look even more disgruntled than usual and Hollande looked as if he had just grasped a double-edge sword by the blade.

The public holiday commemorates the surrender of Germany at the end of WWII and the defeat of fascism in most of the states of Europe – Spain and Portugal being the exceptions. It was an interesting day, as left-wing newspapers like Libération, L’Humanité and Le Monde expressed concern about the rise of the neo-nazi Golden Dawn in Greece and a near 20% support for Marine le Pen in France, while at the same time noting left-wing advances. Without drawing any parallels, it is also worth remarking that the consensus is that no matter what François Hollande thinks about austerity, Germany rules.

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To surrender to fear is to surrender to perpetual austerity for future generations. By John Farrell Clark.

At the height of the Depression in 1933 Franklin Roosevelt spoke these words in his first inaugural address:

“This great nation will endure…will revive and will prosper…let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless,  unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

“They (“money changers”) know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

“. . . we (need to) apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

“. . . our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”

So far our government leaders are only using a fear campaign in that they say that if we don’t approve the Fiscal Treaty, there will be no money available when a second bailout will likely be required. Frankly, this is no way to govern. Fear may be a motivator, but is that the kind of society we want to live in?

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The Government and their austerity supporters have co-opted the language of progressives to avoid answering a fundamental question:  what the cost of the Fiscal Treaty will be in terms of future austerity measures. By Michael Taft.

Will the Fiscal Treaty – in particular, the notorious structural deficit rule – require additional austerity? John McHale of the Fiscal Council says it won’t. He accepts that in 2015 the gap between the Department of Finance’s projected structural deficit (3.5%) and the Fiscal Treaty target (0.5%) is €5.4 billion. But then he argues that growth can wipe that deficit out:

“Growth affects both the denominator and the numerator of the structural deficit as a share of GDP. (For simplicity I assume that actual and potential GDP grow at equal rates post 2015.) The denominator effect is straightforward. For the numerator, we could use the standard coefficient used by the European Commission for Ireland that assumes that the reduction in the deficit is 0.4 times the change in nominal GDP. (This coefficient is usually used for doing cyclical adjustments, but it should also be applicable for measuring the impact of changes in nominal potential GDP on structural balance in the absence of discretionary adjustments to tax and expenditure parameters.)”

On this basis John does some calculations – using a more conservative co-efficient of 0.2. He finds the structural deficit is effectively wiped out by 2019/2020 without any additional austerity, because growth has done all the heavy lifting.

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The ethos, regularities, hierarchies and deferences of the Catholic Church created a mindset in Seán Brady which quietened in him the normal human impulses to care for children in danger. By Vincent Browne.

Several years ago, I had a brief meeting with Seán Brady in a hotel lobby, a meeting spontaneously instigated by him. My fleeting impression was he was a decent, modest man, and nothing that has been revealed since then disturbs that impression.

Not that I now think that how he behaved - knowing, in 1975, that children were in danger of abuse - was justifiable, or that his defence now is justifiable. But his conduct then, even when fortified by his retrospective justification of it, does not define him.

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