Last night on Tonight with Vincent Browne Steve Keen referred to an email he had received following an interview on Newstalk Lunchtime earlier in the day which outlined what Keen described as “an interesting scheme, which I rather like” - namely, that Ireland issue its own currency on a 1:1 exchange rate with the euro.  We tracked down that emailer –

Results from the first Irish League of Credit Unions What’s Left tracker index for 2012, released today, show that almost half (47%) of Irish adults have less than €100 per month left over after all essential bills have been paid. 61% have less than €150. A quarter of working adults have a disposable income of less than €50 per month.

Half of those surveyed said they have experienced a fall in disposable income compared to six months ago.

Below the jump, Labour's election manifesto for 2011.

After the jump, a paper from Tom Healy from earlier this year, in which he shows that has Ireland has "one of the lowest general government expenditure levels in the EU27".

After the jump, read Social Justice Ireland's report, Shaping the Future, in full

In a statement earlier today Stephen Donnelly, TD for Wicklow and East Carlow, raised the issue of today's €1.5bn payment to unsecured, unguaranteed bondholders at state-owned AIB, and pointed out that the cost of this payment per household is €1,100 - or 11 times the Household Charge. Read the full text of his statement below. 

A document examining the handling by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) of its investigation into the Corrib ‘rape tape’ incident in Co Mayo on 31 March 2011 has described the manner in which that investigation was conducted as “deeply troubling”.

Padraig Mc Shane, Independent Chairman of Moyle District Council in North Antrim, is currently in Gaza and is preparing to sign a twinning agreement later today with the Mediterranean coastal enclave. The twinning is the first of its kind in the UK or Ireland and the first anywhere in the world since the siege on Gaza began.

Above: Hoarding around the unfinished Anglo HQ in the Dublin docklands

The Anglo: Not Our Debt Campaign has described the deal on the deferral of the €3.1 billion promissory note payment due tomorrow as a “political stroke” that does not address the real issue and that squanders an opportunity to write down an illegitimate debt.

Economist Michael Taft and author Conor McCabe will be among the speakers lifting the lid on the notorious secrecy of http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/02/28