Friday, November 12th, 2010
Minister for Health Mary Harney has criticized protestors who throw things at her - today it was eggs, last week paint - as she visits different parts of the country:
"'I think it's a great pity that in a democracy people don't use the opportunity to put their perspective forward in ...
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Friday, June 18th, 2010
The BAI are currently undertaking a consultation on proposed increases in the amount of time that can be devoted to advertising on Irish television. They are proposing to increase the limit from 10 minutes per hour to the maximum allowable under EU law, of 12 minutes, and also to increase ...
Posted in Corporate media, Media regulation | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Fianna Fáil backbenchers have been predictably reactionary in their response to the proposal to reduce the drink driving limit in Ireland. However, there have been some interesting suggestions from the head of Macra na Feirme (the young farmers' association), who has largely supported the change, while looking for policy changes ...
Posted in Society and culture, Tobacco and drugs | Comments Off
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
The Green Party urge changes to NAMA legislation.
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Monday, June 15th, 2009
"The great motto of Mother Mary Aikenhead, who founded the Sisters of Charity, was 'give to the poor what the rich could buy with money.' What better way to live up to this mission, and to make recompense for the wrongs done to children, than to stop taking from the ...
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Sunday, June 7th, 2009
This is the first Irish election in many years where I have not been following the results from the counting centre. I remember in 1987 heading in to see the last few hours of the Galway-West count, as Michael D. regained his seat in the Dáil. There's something special for ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Electoral politics, International Affairs, Public Service Media, Radio | 3 Comments »
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
People 'fed up' with negativity of Opposition
So goes a headline in tomorrow's Irish Times. Intrigued when it showed up in my daily email bulletin, I clicked through. Had there been a survey showing annoyance on the part of the public? Were the opposition failing to strike a chord with the ...
Posted in Corporate media, Society and culture | Comments Off
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
The Irish Times aren't generally known for coherent or incisive editorials, but their reaction to the Ryan report makes for sobering reading:
We have to call this kind of abuse by its proper name – torture. We must also call the organised exploitation of unpaid child labour – young girls placed ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Education, Prisons and crime, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
There's something strange in the latest live register figures released today by the CSO. Not the increase of 87.1% in a single year - that, unfortunately, could be predicted. RTÉ's report mentioned that 71% of the increase was among men.
[I should note that I'm using two sets of data here ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
It's not wholly surprising, but it seems possible that the meteoric rise of the Celtic Tiger could very soon be eclipsed by the current free-fall of the Irish economy.
Following on from news that the economy fell into recession in the second quarter of 2008 (with two consecutive quarters of declining ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »
