Society

Pressure mounted this week on Green Party leader and Minister of the Environment John Gormley to publish the Climate Bill promised in December 2009. Then, John Gormley said the bill would be delivered by the end of 2010. By Malachy Browne. Photo (left) and protest video (below) by Paula Geraghty.

On 11 December 2009, John Gormley unveiled the Framework for the Climate Change Bill 2010 which he described as "the cornerstone of our efforts in meeting ever more demanding national and international obligations post-Kyoto". (Details below)

The current stand-off between the VHI and some of Ireland's most high profile private hospitals may result in privately insured patients with VHI cover having to pay more for their care. So, what's going on and why now? By Sara Burke

Every year the VHI negotiates new contracts with Irish private hospitals. The fees the VHI pays for private patients in public hospitals is set by the State but what it pays to private, largely profitable, hospitals is negotiated on a one by one basis.

Politico is running a series of interviews with people in Ireland living on the verge of poverty who will be plunged deeper into poverty if their allowances are cut significantly. This third interview in the series focuses on the experiences of a South African asylum seeker living in Galway. [Interview conducted by the European Anti-Poverty Network, edited by Alison Spillane of Politico]

The real genius of our warped social system is the fact that the rest of us have been persuaded it all makes sense, writes Vincent Browne.

How did we devise a society in which a private, rich elite got control of the country's financial institutions, which made them spectacularly rich?

The four-year National Recovery Plan outlines budget cuts for health totalling €1.4 billion, 6,000 fewer staff in the public health system and patients having to pay more for essential healthcare. So how painful will it be in the years ahead for the health services? And will the policy aspirations actually happen given the inevitability of a change of government...

If the government's four-year plan goes ahead it will reduce the social welfare budget by €2.8 million by 2014; around €850 million of this will be "frontloaded" in Budget 2011. Politico is running a series of interviews with people in Ireland living on the verge of poverty who will be plunged deeper into poverty if their allowances are cut significantly. This second interview in the series focuses on a single mother living on disability allowance.

Around 100,000 people took to the streets of the capital today as part of a national demonstration against the government's austerity measures. By Alison Spillane (Photographs by Lucy White; Video by Evie Franks)

The demonstration, organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), departed from the civic offices at Wood Quay shortly after 12 noon and proceeded to O'Connell Street where a protest rally was held outside the GPO.

J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace (1999) challenges its readers and, indeed, literary history itself. By Shane Creevy.

The legacy of literary traditions is an important one. Too often throughout the centuries the English language has been used as a tool of domination; from Edmund Spenser's polemic on the barbarians of Ireland to Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.

The HSE early retirement and voluntary redundancy schemes closed at midnight on 19 November. So are these schemes the solution to getting rid of surplus HSE staff or just another example of inept health service management? By Sara Burke

The schemes are a way of cutting down HSE staff numbers but they are another exemplar of ineptitude of its architects – the Department of Finance and the Minister of Health. The numbers applying are well below the target, the scheme was totally unplanned and is being badly managed.

America, September 2006.