Society

Laura Agustín is renowned for her ground-breaking research, writing and advocacy on migration, sex work and trafficking. Her writing is available on her blog The Naked Anthropologist and in her highly acclaimed book Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry. Writing frequently about the sex workers she has worked with, she has attracted controversy from those who would rather see sex work and prostitution completely abolished.

The idea, now enshrined in our Constitution, that there is an equal right to life of the unborn child and of the mother is nonsense. By Vincent Browne.

A new person, a girl, has come into the lives of people I know. She has not yet been named but the attachment to her is very real. Her grandfather can hardly wait for a time to play with her and to make her laugh. But there is a problem at present.

She isn’t born yet and the thought of anything happening to her, at this vulnerable stage of her life, is awful to anybody close to the family.

The controversy over horse DNA found in beef burgers should be put it in its proper context - that of a society characterised by quite serious material inequality. By Alistair Fraser.

The Irish political establishment will no doubt use its presidency of the EU to paint a rosy picture of a ‘social' European Union. But such a picture will jar dramatically with the reality of an EU that is the driving force in the austerity destroying lives in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. By Paul Murphy and Kevin Henry.

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Ireland may not win football’s European Championship but when it comes to banking debt we are Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United all rolled into one with Real Madrid for a bench. By Michael Taft.

Whatever the reasons for cutting public sector employment and or pay, reducing the deficit is not one of them. By Michael Taft.

With negotiations over an extension of the Croke Park Agreement starting yesterday, it is helpful to remind ourselves how daft it is to downsize the public sector payroll in the hopes it will reduce the deficit.

Is higher taxation a bar to high investment levels? Obviously not - otherwise Ireland would be a league leader. By Michael Taft.

The Government seems to have done a U-turn on the issue of tax exiles. Despite the Programme for Government’s commitment on the issue, the Sunday Business Post reports that following an avalanche of submissions from the likes of the American Chamber of Commerce, etc. the Minister for Finance looks to do nothing. Why? Because it would undermine investment.

Increasingly, social welfare in Ireland is moving towards the model of the workhouse. By Tom Boland.

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.

The 1913 Alternative Visions Oral History Group was set up in September 2012 to collect stories from people whose families, communities or unions have memories of the 1913 Dublin Lockout and to consider the legacy of the Lockout in the light of 100 years of subsequent history. The project is sponsored by various trade unions and is led by oral historians Dr Ida Milne and Dr Mary Muldowney. Interviews will feed into a book due for publication in 2013 to celebrate the centenary of the Lockout.