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[@danobrien20](/creator/twitter/danobrien20)
"On the day Ireland looks set to elect a far left president my @thecurrency column argues that to preserve the mixed-economy model that has worked so well the case for non-statist solutions will have to made a lot more and a lot more effectively"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981659675025412116) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-24T09:50Z 24.8K followers, 23.6K engagements


"My column in @thecurrency looks at how no other government in Europe has so much cash to play around with - see chart. Against the backdrop of severe international uncertainty my @thecurrency column this week discusses the Irish economy the public finances and Budget 2026"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1969315560660890092) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-09-20T08:19Z 24.8K followers, 12.9K engagements


"Is Ireland headed for a 'diplomatic crash' as @Levellingbook has warned Today's column discusses that Budget 2026 and the nothingburger on defence spending the latest salvo from the US on the OTB the scale of Irish redistribution and government debt - 200bn+ and another 180bn in pension liabilities"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1976575796304072895) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-10T09:09Z 24.8K followers, 8997 engagements


"@karldeeter @EU_Eurostat Year on year change. August XX to August 25"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1978761422491304291) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-16T09:54Z 24.8K followers, XXX engagements


"As Europe is forced to rearm in order to deter Russia the worlds of business and economics are paying much more attention to security and defence. Yesterday to discuss I was joined by Barry Lunn founder and CEO of @provisio and @juanmejino_econ of @Bruegel_org. You can listen on these platforms Soundcloud: Spotify: YouTube Music: Apple Music:"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1979202718552985754) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-17T15:07Z 24.8K followers, 14.9K engagements


"Irish public debt was XXX% of all revenues collected by the government in 2024 according to data published by @EU_Eurostat today. This is a good measure of debt particularly for Ireland where debt:GDP is a bad measure owing to inflated GDP. Across the bloc as a whole public debt was XXX% of annual revenues"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1980605433933856973) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-21T12:01Z 24.8K followers, 11.6K engagements


"@GorschJame493 @melialfp @_SomeDad @thecurrency Which countries' public housing programmes and wealth/land tax models would you say are 'genuinely centre left'"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981758642882761117) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-24T16:24Z 24.8K followers, XX engagements


"Irish public spending on welfare/redistribution as a share of all spending is now the highest in the OECD at 58%. Yet more evidence of the left-leaning nature of Irish politics to add to this recent discussion"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1973814620508074370) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-02T18:17Z 24.8K followers, 13.9K engagements


"Might be an appropriate moment to re-up a recent column on Ireland's shift towards the populist left"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1976217541740773811) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-09T09:25Z 24.8K followers, 6917 engagements


"Could those who argued that Ireland had influence in the Middle-East with colonial history and neutrality often cited as factors explain why Ireland will not be attending the signing ceremony in Egypt Prime minister of Nato-member Norway a country of similar size and distance from the region is invited"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1977735162604470393) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-13T13:56Z 24.8K followers, 178K engagements


"Today the European Commission published its 'Defence Readiness Roadmap'. No EU member or any of its institutions ever wanted to go down this route but the world has changed unfortunately. Members who don't want to contribute will be viewed as free-loaders losing influence and relevance in the bloc"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1979205333298909269) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-17T15:18Z 24.8K followers, 19.4K engagements


"First column on the year was a wish list of XX things that would make Ireland and the world better"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1979534299092406431) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-18T13:05Z 24.8K followers, 9832 engagements


"Interesting letter to editor by Stephen Kearon a former government special adviser"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1979842731917910520) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-19T09:31Z 24.8K followers, 76.7K engagements


"Illustrates well how different Ireland's positioning on the Israel-Palestine conflict has been compared to the rest of Europe. Full report here"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1980283658805096693) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-20T14:43Z 24.8K followers, 12.7K engagements


"Friend points out that RTE news app has Middle East as priority topic. Europe and Ukraine are not priority topics. Have we floated into the Persian gulf"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1980366946936975582) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-20T20:14Z 24.8K followers, 15.7K engagements


"Being mid-table in public debt after a decade of some of the strongest rates of growth in the world AND 160bn in corporation tax Definite 'could do better' on the report card"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1980639906390241723) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-21T14:18Z 24.8K followers, 7935 engagements


"With the asylum system back in the news worth sharing some hard data. As one might expect given Ireland's geography the number of applications (relative to population) has traditionally been below the EU average. That changed quite suddenly in early 2022 and Ireland has mostly been above the EU average since then. A surge of applications in the UK since 2022 seems to be the most likely explanation"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1980672519397855744) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-21T16:28Z 24.8K followers, 51.1K engagements


"Two points worth adding. Roderic O'Gorman's tweets in multiple languages reckless though they were were posted in February 2021 almost a year before the surge in applications which occurred very suddenly from the beginning of 2022 as the first chart shows. Iceland experienced an equally sudden if much bigger relative surge at exactly the same time as the second chart shows"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1980958589587014032) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-22T11:25Z 24.8K followers, 23.5K engagements


"Populists in government make people poorer with left wing populists doing most damage. Thats the finding of new study covering most of the world from 1900 to 2020"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981008030503518586) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-22T14:41Z 24.8K followers, 291.5K engagements


"Irish voters look set to elect a far-left non-executive president. The office has fewer powers that many other European countries. Portugal Poland and Italy among others all give their heads of state more powers. But it would be significant if somebody with a Corbyn/Melenchon worldview were be president at a time when Putin threatens Europe and Trump is in the White House"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981077400344535071) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-22T19:17Z 24.8K followers, 123.8K engagements


"Worth adding the charts for what has happened after left and right populists begin governing"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981241008193933572) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-23T06:07Z 24.8K followers, 92.3K engagements


"Today's home completion figures show that supply can't seem to break above the 35000 annual units threshold"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981307985747202267) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-23T10:33Z 24.8K followers, 7155 engagements


"Looking at Ireland's drift to the populist left in @thecurrency tomorrow. A highly uncompetitive tax system and ever more resources going into social spending are two issues discussed"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981321745132113986) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-23T11:28Z 24.8K followers, 17.4K engagements


"Statement by Taoiseach and XX other EU leaders from today's summit. Ireland holds the presidency of the EU council in the second half of 2026. Defence issues could prove tricky"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981402534553026812) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-23T16:49Z 24.8K followers, 3609 engagements


"It is an outrage that somebody who should have been deported raped a child. Current rates of immigration into Ireland are too high given multiple capacity constraints. There is no evidence I can find that immigration leads to more crime. If there was I would post the evidence. All these views can be valid at the same time. NB: Murder rates below are widely considered to be the most reliable comparative crime data. But other other data do not support the view that immigration increases rates of any type of crime from my reading of the data"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981800344947765432) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-24T19:09Z 24.8K followers, 30.6K engagements


"@DavQuinn Having trawled the eurostat data I Dont see Sweden showing different trends. Lots of issues around how countries report etc"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1981819353780625842) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-24T20:25Z 24.8K followers, 2517 engagements


"As Europe moves to the right and rearms Ireland elects a far left president who is more worried about the continents so-called military industrial complex than about Russia whose entire economy is on a war footing"  
[X Link](https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1982017364410401164) [@danobrien20](/creator/x/danobrien20) 2025-10-25T09:32Z 24.8K followers, 137.7K engagements