Category: Articles

Articles

8th November 2016

Paris Agreement: €30bn Cost for Ireland.

The Paris Agreement will cost Ireland more than €30bn. Although the Attorney General advised the Government that it is necessary to have an indication of the overall costs of complying with the Paris Agreement on climate change prior to Oireacthtas ratification… Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Economic Development, Energy, News, Political | Tagged | Leave a comment

Articles

11th April 2016

Public Pay and Health: daunting challenges for government

By 2000 Ireland had become the fourth most competitive country in the world[1].  Growing at 11 percent, the economy was the most successful in the EU[2]. There was full employment[3].  The budget was in … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Economic Development, Health System, Political | Leave a comment

Articles

31st August 2015

Electoral Reform

On 26 October 1989, just 17 days after the Berlin wall fell, I was in Estonia’s second city, Tartu, as guest of the Communist Party. I was there as president of the University of Limerick, at the suggestion of the … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Political | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Articles

28th November 2014

Teacher unions frustrate reform of Irish education

Over the years the Irish teacher unions have demonstrated a remarkable ability to improve pay and conditions for their members. Periodic threats of industrial action, backed up with the possibility of an escalation to the ‘nuclear option’ (refusing to mark … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Education | Leave a comment

Articles

24th November 2013

Irish Health System Reform: reallocation to the front line

Ed Walsh                                                                             … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Economic Development, Health System, Political | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Articles

27th January 2012

Reforming Irish University Governance

Background
Once most of the world’s best universities were in Europe
• Governing board members drawn from within
• Many board members
• Rectors and Deans elected
Now they are in the US
• Governing board composed of external members … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Economic Development, Education, News | Leave a comment

Articles

30th November 2011

School-based Assessment: Deemphasising the Leaving Certificate

Ed Walsh

The startling rate at which the Irish school system is falling behind was highlighted in last December’s OECD’s PISA report
• In a decade reading levels in Ireland have dropped from 5th to 17th.
• 23 per cent … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Economic Development, Education, News, Political | Leave a comment

Articles

24th November 2011

13 Steps to Reform Irish Education

1. Secularise and reform the education of primary teachers: more civics, science, math and modern languages.
2. Limit places in teacher education, making it an elite profession from which all but the most suitable are excluded
3. Upgrade the performance … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Economic Development, Education, News, Political | Leave a comment

Articles

25th October 2011

My Education Week at Limerick, January 1970

Since 1845, when Limerick failed to get one of the Queen’s Colleges that went to Cork and Galway, a campaign for a university in Limerick simmered. Eventually in the 1960s it flared into a boisterous national campaign organised by the … Continue reading

Posted in Articles, Education, News | Leave a comment

Articles

21st August 2011

Beal na mBlath Address

Michael Collins Commemoration

Beal na mBlath

Ed Walsh

21 August 2011

It is some 47 years since last I stood here.
It must be admitted my motives were romantic rather than political:  I was madly in love with Stephanie, the… Continue reading

Posted in Articles, News, Political | Leave a comment