The 52 member Dublin City Council (DCC) will vote this evening on its 2010 budget which, combined with last week’s budget cuts, will worsen living standards for Dubliners already living in poverty and threaten to take thousands more into poverty. The People Before Profit Alliance (PPA) is urging Independent and Labour councillors to oppose the measures which will be introduced tonight at the DCC estimates meeting. With 10 and 18 councillors each respectively, Fine Gael and Labour together hold a majority in the council.

Climate change sceptic and Professor of Geology, Ian Plimer and Guardian journalist George Monbiot finally engaged in a live debate on climate change this week. The pair have long been at odds over the science behind man-made global warming; indeed, the quarrel itself warmed considerably in the months following the publication of Plimer's latest book, 'Heaven and Earth', which says that there is no evidential basis to anthropogenic warming of the atmosphere.

A mobile phone application has been developed which could reduce road crashes worldwide. The technology, named iZUP, uses GPS tracking in smartphones to detect the speed at which the phone is moving in a vehicle. At speeds of over 5 miles per hour, calls are automatically routed to voicemail, text messages are held and only outgoing certain emergency numbers may be used.

The interruptions of Labour TD Emmet Stagg in the Dail earlier today riled Green Party TD Paul Gogarty into the "unparliamentary" outburst: "Fuck you Deputy Stagg, Fuck you." Gogarty had been explaining during the Dáil debate on the social welfare cuts why he believed cuts to vulnerable people were necessary in Budget 2010.  He said that a third tax band for high earners may be introduced next year.

Hear the language below, and the remix.

The reduction in excise duty on alcohol in Budget 2010 caused genuine astonishment –why, given our many alcohol-related social problems, would the government entice us to drink more? The shock at this measure is itself surprising, because never has this government demonstrated coherent policy around alcohol. By Malachy Browne and Deirdra O'Regan

Vaccination camps treating thousands of Congolese children were attacked by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) army last month.

The army reneged on a security guarantee it gave to the medical-humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) that runs the camps. Instead, the army used the camps "as bait" to attack members of the independent military group, Rwandan Liberation Democratic Forces (FDLR). MSF had launched a mass vaccination campaign in the DRC's Masisi district to support the DRC Ministry of Health in response to a measles epidemic.

Successive Irish governments have repeatedly ignored the need to shape policy on a new set of indicators that measure real social progress rather than just economic progress. Their obduracy has squandered the potential for “major social gains” during the Celtic Tiger era, a conference heard on Tuesday. The same policy recommendations were re-iterated at the conference. By Malachy Browne. Additional reporting by Deirdre O'Regan.

The Irish football team's exit from the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifiers has prompted a wave of abuse against French footballer Thierry Henry on Facebook. Within two hours of the final whistle, a Thierry Henry "hate" page on Facebook had 15,435 fans, hundreds of comments, and tens of photos, many of them abusive and bigoted. Ireland was eliminated from the qualifiers in a 1-1 draw with France (2-1 to France on aggregate) in which Thierry Henry clearly handled the ball in extra-time to create France's only goal.

Topic: Why did Communism fail?
Panel: Constantin Gurdgiev (TCD), Kieran Allen (UCD) and John O'Brennan (NUIM). Niamh Lyons (Daily Mail) and Barry Whelan (NUIM).

why ar dweling in d past when der are so many serious issues to b discusd at present. Francis mollaghan, commerce student at ucd.

***

The 'Android' phone, Google's answer to the iPhone, was finally released in Ireland this week. This should have opened a lucrative market for Irish technology companies to develop and sell applications for Android. But a barrier to the Google payment system prevents Irish developers from selling their product. Only developers located in nine countries (all first-world) may register for the payment system. By Malachy Browne