Ireland's political and cultural magazine
Ivana Bacik This summer we saw yet again the tragic consequences of the eighth Amendment. In the Ms Y case, a young rape victim, an asylum seeker with a crisis pregnancy, was denied the abortion she sought, and ultimately forced to endure invasive medical procedures against her will. She had sought an abortion early in […]
The Interloper: Ireland’s national accounts extraordinarily manipulated. By Constantin Gurdgiev. Since the publication of the second quarter 2014 (Q2 2014) National Accounts on September 18th, Irish media have virtually abandoned any critical assessment of the economy in a fog of fawning, culminating in some wayward demi-jubilation over the Budget. The ‘crisis easing’ narrative of […]
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European Parliament should block Juncker’s shocking attempt to undermine EU environmental policies. By James Nix As currently proposed, the EU Commission would, for the first time in more than two decades, have no dedicated environment Commissioner. Instead environment is rolled in with fisheries and maritime to make up one of what are essentially 20 […]
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By Caroline Fahy. In July 2014, over 5,000 recipients of the One Parent Family Payment (OFP) lost the payment. This was as a result of the decision announced in Budget 2012 to restrict eligibility for the OFP to those parenting alone whose youngest child is aged seven or under. Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton […]
By Sinead Pentony. Preparations for Budget 2015 are under way. As with previous budgets, the Government has choices it can make in meeting the requirement to reduce the deficit in the public finances to less than 3% of GDP in 2015. Unfortunately, there are no such self-imposed or externally imposed requirements to reduce inequality and […]
By Kieran Fitzpatrick. The Aarhus Convention aims to protect the environment and proclaims the public to be the best guardian of the environment. There are three strands to the convention: 1) Access to information; 2)Public participation; and 3) Access to justice to review environment-related decisions or to enforce environmental law. Ireland was the last member […]
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By John Gormley. In May of 2013 I predicted in this column that Eamon Gilmore would step down as Labour leader before the General Election to be replaced by Joan Burton. So now that it has all come to pass, as though perfectly scripted, can I apply my soothsayer’s powers again? I’ll give it a […]