Labour Party members Joe Costello, TD, and Nessa Childers, MEP, have condemned the closure of the Light House cinema in Dublin's Smithfield. Said Childers: "If action isn't taken on behalf on the Arts Council and the Government, the only cinemas that exist in Ireland will be those housing big budget American blockbusters. This would represent an enormous cultural deficit for Ireland. This could in turn have a serious economic impact, and arguably already is.

Yesterday, IBEC, the Irish Exporters Association and Chambers Ireland all warned that reversing the minimum wage cut and restoring the rate to €8.65 an hour would be 'unwise'. IBEC said that the government's decision to raise the minimum wage back to €8.65 is "at odds with the economic needs of the country".

Yesterday, during a debate on suicide prevention, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan took his Dáil colleagues to task for comments made about Richard Boyd Barrett's choice of clothes, saying, "If abuse is constantly thrown at Members because of the way they look, that will send a signal to young people that if they do not look the same as everyone else then there is something wrong with them when there is not." His full speech is below.

The "We the Citizens" initiative launched today in Dublin's Royal Hibernian Academy. Funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies, it aims to show "how Ireland can benefit from her citizens engaging in new forms of public decision making." As part of the project, a national citizens' assembly will be held in Dublin on 25 and 26 June. Its agenda will be decided by seven citizen-led events around the country and by a nationwide poll, conducted by an independent polling company.

In October 2008, the Icelandic bank, Landsbanki, collapsed. With it collapsed its online Icesave branch and the investments of 340,000 British and Dutch savers. Iceland’s Depositors’ and Investors’ Guarantee Fund lacked the funds to compensate its investors. The Icelandic government initially refused to take responsibility for the failure of a private bank.

Below is the full text of Stephen Donnelly TD's speech in support of the motion tabled in the Dáil on Tuesday 5 April that the government hold a referendum on the bank bailout and the EU-IMF loan package arrangement. The full text of the motion is available here.

We need to strike a balance between community-based and hospital care in our mental health services. By Justin Frewen and Dr. Anna Datta

The majority of economically 'developed' countries have experienced three main stages in the evolution of mental health careThe first one, between 1880 and 1995, was dominated by the concept of providing treatment in 'asylums', large medical institutions that were generally located far from the patients' communities.

Magill was Ireland's foremost and most influential current affairs magazine. Magill 'looked beyond the news' to bring gripping analysis of social, political and cultural issues through the 1970s, '80s and 90s.  

Mag

The release of the film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's bestselling novel Never Let Me Go (2005), and the current reissue of the novel itself, makes it timely to consider the moral questions raised by cloning. By Joseph Mahon.

The novel describes a post-war society whose scientists have been commissioned to furnish a supply of cloned human beings to be used as life-saving organ generators for the rest of the population. The clones who feature in the novel have a pleasing childhood and adolescence at a remote rural boarding school called Hailsham, in England.