Society
Travellers' lives as short as some in developing countries
On 2 September, Minister Mary Harney launched the first ever All Ireland Traveller Health Study. The minister herself acknowledged that there was 'no good news' in terms of Travellers' life expectancy.By Sara Burke.
Some of the key findings in the report are:
Evidence shows no benefit from prescription charges
Mary Harney says prescription charges will raise money and "discourage the overuse of medication". By Sara Burke.
Ten years ago Mary Harney, then tánaiste and minister of trade, enterprise and employment made her political position clear.
"Geographically," she said, "we are closer to Berlin than Boston. Spiritually, we are probably a lot closer to Boston than Berlin." She firmly articulated the then government's chosen economic model which "had a clear tax-cutting agenda" and went on to say that "this model works".
Comrades in arms
Rude health I: Mary Harney must go
Mary Harney is a politician without a party, a minister without a mandate. She has been in government for 13 years, the Minister for Health for nearly six years. Despite the demise of the PDs, their ideology prevails. The Minister does not understand that free market economics does not apply to running a health service. By Sara Burke.
Mary Harney has overseen the most 'radical' reform of the Irish health system since 1970 with the foundation of the HSE.
The transformation of private debt into public debt
Ireland has guaranteed the assets and liabilities of a large part of its banking system. Parts of this banking system are, to use a technical term, dead. That is, these parts of the banking system will no longer provide credit (for a profit) to the real economy (plumbers who need overdrafts to pay their workers and buy materials).
Forces that shaped white-collar betrayal
Those who have ruined the country came through a mostly Catholic schools system without any sense of being part of a society
IN HIS speech in Rimini last week Diarmuid Martin said: "School catechesis, despite the goodwill of teachers, does not produce young Catholics prepared to join in the Christian community. Sometimes, after 15 years of catechesis, young people remain theologically illiterate." He might have been referring to me.