I'm pleased to share my new website which details the services I'm offering to clients. I began working self-employed last year and I've already helped several organisations navigate complex issues in the Irish economy. davidwhiggins.ie/

Heartbreaking watching the stories on RTÉ Investigates - Fertility Uncovered. It's right that the focus for couples struggling with fertility is on access to treatments like IVF. A wider look is needed on how we've allowed so many couples to cluster at the end of the fertility window, in their late 30s. The key life milestones of home ownership and marriage have moved later in life. Starting a family gets pushed back with them. Economics plays a huge role, but it's also cultural. We've sold young adults a lie about their 20s. Study, work, travel and experiences. Try out things and people. But committment? Settling down? A marriage? Gosh no. Ireland once had a culture and an economy which sustained a higher fertility rate, but crucially a younger age of these milestones. The most typical Irish life journey was being married and housed before 30. That gave couples vital time to have the children they wanted. For some reason, the couples who came through this generation don't pass down this wisdom with any confidence. They'll talk about their 20s as "ah, we were too young", and they tell their kids to go off and see the world they didn't. It's joyous watching the fertility stories with a happy ending by the end of the programme. What can be done to turn this around? One change I'd offer is that the fertility window should be part of sexual education in schools. We should be putting IVF clinics out of business. Not through regulations, but by having a society where so few couples need it in the first place.

Great to hear an economist as respected as Alan Ahearne take the same outlook on housing as I've had for several years now. Falling prices are a false dream, but a rise in wages could meaningfully improve affordability.

The Government continues to use high-risk receipts to fund permanent tax and spending measures. It plans to spend about six-in-seven euros of all corporation tax revenues it takes in. Most of it is for current spending.

I'm very proud of a budget measure that's a result of research I provided for the country's primary schools. The analysis looked at the accounts of 1,521 schools and found that 71 per cent run a capitation deficit. Budget 2027 increases the capitation grant by €50 per pupil. This is a big jump that helps close a gap that's opened due to cost inflation. @_verecon @CatholicPrimary

Budget Day is here. While everyone is looking out for spending or tax cuts, I'm reflecting on what it means to put aside revenues you can't be sure of. Norway since 1996 has built a €2 trillion fund. If Ireland had the same with "excess" corporation tax, we could have a €130 billion fund. independent.ie/comment/opini…

Spain, hello from Ireland, this doesn't work for an incumbent government

What’s the evidence on rent control? I charted the findings from 112 studies: Great for rent-controlled tenants ✅ But: Pushes up rents for other people ❌ Pushes down new housing construction ❌ Pushes down building quality ❌

A lesson in historic inflation and hotel running costs, watching Only Fools and Horses, the famous 1989 special The Jolly Boys' Outing (9.6 / 10⭐️ on IMDB)

Neat visualisation on rent control from John Burn Murdoch

Today's @FT on Spain's housing crisis moment, but with Ireland among the charts. Housing stock growth lags population growth, but doesn't when you exclude migration. cc @peterburkefg @JamesBrowneTD @OCallaghanJim @davidmcw The right and wrong lessons to learn from Spain’s housing crisis - ft.com/content/437ca3f0-9db4… via @FT

Austria is one of the strongest supporters of Israel in the EU. The protests aren't against their team, but against our own.

Pope Leo XIV: “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion,’ but says, ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life.”

New Irish seasons guide: January – winter February – winter March – spring April – SUMMER May – SUMMER June – SUMMER July – SUMMER August – SUMMER September – SUMMER October – autumn November – autumn December – winter

I wrote a tribute for RTÉ about my Grandad who passed away recently He served as Director of Programmes for the national broadcaster May he RIP rte.ie/culture/2026/1001/159…

A little Ed Sheeran in Dublin's Pearse Station. Because putting Macklemore on the tour in the first place reveals a lot more than he will ever say in public. And aren't we all a bit sick of a mob rule. Nobody is "perfect".

Next week's budget is being looked to as the cure all for cost of living and energy costs. We forget there's a second package already in motion from the private sector. independent.ie/comment/opini…

Very insightful clip from BBC NI on the legal wrangling which developed over the weekend youtu.be/dzDYSkone-0?is=Qwyn…

FAI President Paul Cooke says to the media here in Debrecen that he is disappointed with the Irish football media. "I thought journalists were meant to be balanced. I have never seen a piece from any of ye saying the case for playing the game" @offtheball LIVE from 7.30AM tmrw

It is very significant that Pope Leo XIV is visiting the city of Metz, a border town close to where France meets Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, the hometown of Robert Schuman, one of the founders of the European Union. Schuman was hugely influenced by St, Columbanus the first to speak of “totius Europiae” of one Europe @KANDLEi @theway_ie

Push notifications all weekend over the drama in Hungary, but I didn't see one from the major outlets for the wonderful match result.