Paddy Cosgrave versus Crony Ireland

The Honorable Society of King’s Inns was founded in 1541 during the reign of Henry VIII (he declared himself king of Ireland in 1542) when the king granted the Society the lands and properties on which the Four Courts now stand, but which were stolen from the Friars Preachers (Dominicans). When the Four Courts were built in the 1790s, King’s Inns moved to Constitution Hill. “Nolumus mutari” is the motto of King’s Inns in Latin and can either mean; “we do not wish to change” or “we do not wish to be changed.” It may also be a response to the removal of some restrictions on Catholic lawyers in 1792. The Inns comprises of benchers, barristers and students. The benchers include all the judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court and a number of elected barristers. In 2015 after 34 years of reports recommending reforms to the legal profession, the Government surrendered to the legal lobby (see below).

Paddy Cosgrave, the co-founder of the Web Summit, has been campaigning against Crony Ireland in recent times. That depiction of Ireland has a lot of evidence to back it but government leaks are not the greatest evil. In fact, Ireland needs more of them.

Irish digital economy firms account for 1.4% of employment

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said that "since the mid-1990s, the average real wage has increased by over 50% in Ireland, compared with around 30% in the United States or the average OECD country." The 2018 OECD Economic Survey of Ireland noted that "the vast majority of innovation activities are undertaken in foreign-owned enterprises: research personnel account for less than 1% of the workforce in locally-owned firms ...80% of all patents granted in Ireland are filed by foreign-owned firms. As such, of primary importance for most Irish businesses is the extent to which new innovations are successfully integrated into their operations."

Irish-owned digital economy firms accounted for 1.4% of total employment in December 2020 while the foreign-owned firm rate was 5%.

Total 'Information, Communication & Computer Services' employment including temporary and part-time workers was at 131,600. High tech manufactured products in the 'Computer, electronic and optical products' category had an additional 34,000 employees, resulting in 156,600 or 6.4% of total employment.

The important sub-category 'Computer Programming' had only 1,900 employees in Irish-owned firms while there were 38,000 employed by foreign-owned firms in this area.

Simply, most Irish tech firms do not engage in writing, modifying, testing and supporting software.

Japan is most backward advanced country

The empty seat known as the 'gaijin seat' on a crowded Japanese train: This topic was popularised by the Japan Times columnist Baye McNeil. “If you’re a conspicuous non-Japanese living here who rides the trains or buses, or goes to cafés or anywhere in public where Japanese people have the choice of sitting beside you or sitting elsewhere, then you’ve likely experienced the empty-seat phenomenon with varying frequency and intensity.”

The Global Gender Gap Report 2021 published by the World Economic Forum has Japan with the 120th ranking among 156 countries. Angola has the 119th rank and Sierra Leone is at 121th. Just 10 countries have a woman Head of State, and 13 countries have a woman Head of Government and for representation of women in the Lower House of Parliament (Diet), Japan is at the 165 ranking of 190 countries. Naura is at 164 and Qatar is at 166th.

In October 2021 Japan raised the number of female Cabinet ministers by 50%, from 2 to 3 among 22 members.