Archive for the ‘Income and poverty’ Category
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005
For those of us with only a passing understanding of the EU's agricultural subsidies the current furore over sugar subsidies is confusing. The EU has announced plans for a radical 'reform' of these subsidies, reducing them substantially.
Where it becomes complicated is that the changes are expected not only to wipe ...
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Wednesday, June 1st, 2005
Via the EU Observer, a new report on incomes in industry and services across the EU. As usual I'm interested in pulling specific points - especially those involving Ireland - into relief rather than the headline figures.
Ireland has the fourth highest average income (in the areas covered) in the EU, ...
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Saturday, May 21st, 2005
"These programmes touch a raw nerve", said the RTUK's head, Fatih Karaca, in support of the closures. "They discuss family, children, marital relations - sensitive topics to Turks - in an indecently open way."If you're interested in the public/private sphere division, women's rights or the role of talk shows in ...
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Monday, May 9th, 2005
Regular readers will know that I'm fascinated by economic statistics, the ones that pull trends out of masses of data. The Atlantic Monthly has a short piece on the economic impact of Democratic and Republican presidents across income. Interestingly, Democrats are generally better (in terms of income growth) for everyone ...
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Friday, April 15th, 2005
It's Tax Day in the United States - I'm beginning to get used to having to file each year, though I'm not yet ready to file before the deadline - and to make me feel even better ZNet has published a breakdown of where federal tax dollars go: 30% military, ...
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Monday, April 4th, 2005
So it seems that Dermot Ahern, the Irish minister for Foreign Affairs, has been appointed by Kofi Annan as one of four 'special envoys for UN reform' who will:travel around the world and engage political leaders, civil society representatives, academics and the media. They will present the broad package of ...
Posted in Income and poverty, International law and structures | Comments Off
Thursday, March 31st, 2005
There's a very interesting new report out from Ireland's Central Statistics Office. Called 'Measuring Ireland's Progress 2004' it examines Ireland's economy and society on over 100 issues, comparing them in many cases to statistics across the EU (and beyond, including Norway, Iceland and candidates for EU membership Bulgaria and Romania).
There ...
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Tuesday, March 15th, 2005
It's a slightly out-of-the-way issue, but one I'm glad the Labour Party is addressing. Irish pensioners have a right to free travel on public transport, but people who have emigrated - and in particular those thousands who emigrated through economic necessity in the 1950s and earlier - are not eligible. ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Income and poverty, Political activism | Comments Off
Friday, March 11th, 2005
The Irish Minister for Finance has defended the Irish government's decision to renege on its promise to meet the UN overseas aid target of 0.7% of GNP (following criticism by Bob Geldof). He claims Ireland will hit the target but refuses to say when. He also draws attention to the ...
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Friday, February 18th, 2005
Early in the New Year I emailed An Taoiseach (the Irish Prime Minister) regarding ODA. As regular readers will be aware the Irish government recently abandoned a pledge to reach the 0.7% ODA target by 2007. I've just got a reply, which includes some information I haven't seen elsewhere and ...
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