Politics

A new Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) report calls on the government to shift the burden of cuts away from the less well off in society. By Eoin Ó Broin.

In a report released this month, the ICTU says a "determination to load the full cost of the collapse onto working people and the poor" is at the heart of government policy. The consequence of this strategy, argues ICTU, "could turn Ireland into a social and economic wasteland for a decade or more". 

Adrian Hardiman's recent judgement raises uncomfortable questions for the Flood Tribunal. By Vincent Browne.

When the second interim report of the Planning Tribunal (the main report) was published in September 2002, it went on sale for €1, and was an immediate bestseller.

A socialist politician and a proponent of free markets came together on Saturday 17 April to agree on one thing; the failure of the government's economic policies. Joe Higgins, the Socialist MEP for Dublin, and Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev, a finance expert and lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, are situated at opposite sides of the political spectrum but both agreed that decision making at the highest level of government has been deeply flawed.

(Pictured: Constantin Gurdgiev speaking at Wynn's Hotel)

The  European Parliament's two largest groups, the European People's Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, joined forces to suppress a report into the management of the parliament's enormous €1.6bn budget. Some of the most critical aspects of the report were removed from the final draft.

Radical change might be possible if Labour was open to an alternative
strategy of joining leftist groups and individuals. By Vincent Browne.

Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte, Liz
McManus, Ruairí Quinn, Joan Burton, Michael D Higgins, Jan O’Sullivan,
Proinsias De Rossa and many others in the Labour Party are not venal.
They are able, decent, honourable people committed to the idea of a
fairer society. They believe, with some justification, that if Labour
were the lead party in the next government, Ireland would be a better
place: fairer, less violent, more tolerant.

Incompetence and negligence played a part in the calamity that has befallen us. By Vincent Browne.

The social disruption and public anger in Greece over cutbacks are more healthy than the general apathy here.

How is it there is no public anger over the massive bank bailout that will cost this society tens of billions and forfeit adequate education, social welfare and healthcare for generations?

Michael Somers was head of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) from 1990 until recently - almost 20 years. 

The NTMA was responsible for the management of the national debt and held on deposit hundreds of millions of euro in various banks at any one time.

The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) will acquire over 1,200 individual loans with a nominal value of €16 billion for a consideration of €8.5 billion, representing an average discount of 47%. It completed the transfer of the initial tranche of loans from Irish Nationwide Building Society and EBS Building Society on 29th March.

Scientists in Germany have discovered evidence - in the form of a bone in a cave in Siberia - of a previously unknown human species that existed 30,000 years ago.

Aside from the presence of homo sapiens, it was known for a long time that there existed then another hominid, homo neanderthalis, which was around until about 25,000 years ago and which has received a bad press.

The newly-discovered species can be traced back to homo erectus, who left Africa almost two million years ago.