Hundreds attended a lunchtime protest outside the Dáil yesterday in support of carers who will be affected by cuts announced in last week's Budget. The protest was organised by The Carers Association.

Protesters were demanding the reversal of the 19% cut in the Respite Care Grant announced in the Budget. The cut amounts to a loss of €375 per year for an individual carer.

On 12 September 2012, Labour MEP Nessa Childers raised the prospect of the Labour party splitting, when she made the following comments in an interview on Newstalk, saying, “I think there is a risk in the medium term of a breakaway political party forming, of people who feel that they’re, if you like, more representative of the Labour Party. This is very evident all over Europe with centre-left parties.”

On 24 May 2012, 23 former workers of the Vita Cortex manufacturing plant in Cork left their former plant after a six-month sit-in protest. Their protest had already lead to a compromise deal to resolve the dispute earlier in the month, in what was one of the longest sit-in protests in Irish industrial history. The workers had to take extraordinary measures to enforce their rights and they were not the only ones to find themselves fighting for what they considered was fair recompense after being made redundant.

What is the reality of life on the dole, behind Government and media caricatures of scroungers and skivers? Paul Walsh finds out. 

The construction of a dedicated children's detention centre at Oberstown has been put on hold. While plans for the centre have not been entirely shelved, there is, worryingly, no clear indication of a timeframe for its completion. By Paul Walsh.