Society

The government can take a different approach to public services, one based on growth, efficiency and targeted investment to achieve better outcomes. By Michael Taft.

Peter Godwin talks about his latest book, The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe. Interview with John Paul O'Malley.

Peter Godwin is sitting in a busy café on Hampstead High Street in North London. Before this interview he had a meeting with a human rights lawyer. "We're trying to help out these people who use homeopathic medicine in Africa. It's part of their culture, and pharmaceutical companies are trying to rip them off. It's the equivalent of copyright, it's kind of tricky and to do with international law," he says, ordering a second latte.

With more Irish women in the work force than ever before, an increasing number are experiencing some form of unfair treatment. This is most common among women on lower incomes. By Bernard O'Rourke. 

The HSE's Crisis Pregnancy Programme (CPP) has revealed that almost 30% of the 2,300 women they surveyed for the study Pregnancy at Work: A National Survey, released today, experienced some form of unfair treatment from their employers as a result of their pregnancy.

Hospital consulants have been exempted from the Government's voluntary 15% pay cut, for now. Why so? And how much do they really earn? By Sara Burke.

Ireland had the most spectacular collapse in personal incomes of all European counties since 2007 - no other country came close to that subsidence, writes Vincent Browne.

But, in spite of that, Ireland is still one of the richer countries in the EU, far richer than many of the recent accession states and many people here are in the super-rich club, whose wealth worldwide has continued to grow.

A new report highlights the long waiting times faced by pateints seeking non-emergency treatment in Ireland, and the lack of communication between GPs and consultants. By Bernard O'Rourke. 

The Health Information and Equality Authority has criticised the long waiting times experienced by patients between being referred for treatment by their GP and receiving treatment.

The Centre for Astronomy at NUI Galway is leading the way in the study of pulsars, another example of Ireland’s strong position in the global scientific community, writes John Holden.

“I ofen looked up at the sky an' assed meself the question - what is the moon, what is the stars?” Captain Boyle of the Sean O’Casey play, Juno and the Paycock, asked the question scientists are still trying to answer. And while Ireland’s reputation for serious scientific endeavour is all too often thought to amount to no more than Captain Boyle’s enquiry, the reality is anything but.

The Garda vetting system is in need of reform in order to make it more efficient and user-friendly. By Sandy Hazel.

Garda vetting is in the news thanks to its long waiting list and the burden of bureaucracy it places on businesses, community groups, volunteers and prospective adoptive parents. So what is the problem with the system and what is being done to fix what many see as a flawed process?

If one recognises water as a basic human right - a concept endorsed last year by the UN - then the decision to allow it be taken out of public control and given to private interests is reprehensible, writes Frank Groome.

Cutting public sector employment by 23,500 will reduce the fiscal deficit by a paltry 0.3%. By Michael Taft.

There may be all sorts of reasons to cut public services, but reducing the fiscal deficit is not one of them. I repeat: we can cut the number of public sector employees – but it will have only a trivial effect on the fiscal deficit. It will, however, do considerable damage to the economy.