There is something of George Orwell’s Animal Farm about the arts — “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.

What’s planned and funded won’t catch up on, let alone pass out, what’s coming, writes Gerard Howlin

Irish Water needs €5.5bn up to 2021 and that is only to start, but the funds now will have to come from the same purse as health and education, writes Gerard Howlin

After Ophelia, and especially after a Fianna Fáil ard fheis, don’t forget that the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China opens in Beijing today. It may be more important.

There may be collaboration on the budget, but there is deadly political competition between the two big centre parties, writes Gerard Howlin.

It’s only this week that budget negotiations get seriously political, writes Gerard Howlin.

Social democracy compromised across Europe, but the centre has swallowed it, writes Gerard Howlin.

In a world where figures are not facts, it is down to politics, writes Gerard Howlin.

The sooner we stop talking palaver about the decent men and women in the force the better. writes Gerard Howlin.

We have no ambition to be part of the system. Our ambition is to change it” was Gerry Adams’ line at the Sinn Féin think-in yesterday.