News

By Ann Irwin. New legislation and changes to  funding arrangements, community development programmes and institutional structures are all sowing confusion and frustration among community organisations. The rhetoric behind these changes has been about bringing coherence to the community sector, avoiding duplication and ensuring value for money. So far the opposite has happened. Bringing about so […]

By Mary Murphy. The Department of Social Protection has contracted two private companies to deliver JobPath, a new activation programme for Ireland’s 178,000 long-term unemployed. This follows a tendering process supported by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion in London. A British recruitment firm, Seetec, has been contracted to deliver these activation services in […]

Don’t forget the biggest lessons of the last 20 years (editorial Nov 2014) November’s Village contains several disconcerting pieces about the state of housing and the property market (Michael Smith on the new Planning Bill [p 26], Paul Newsome on our obsession with Landlordism [p38] and Ronan Lyons on the social imperative to reduce costs […]

Laura Harmon is on the phone when I meet her outside the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity College. She finishes, apologises gratuitously, and we make our way into the Arts block to locate an empty lecture theatre. A sensor notes our presence and the lights beam into action as we find seats at a desk on […]

Denis has been busy while his senior billionaire colleague has been keeping his head down

Unions at ‘Belvo’, ‘Rock’ and ‘Zaga’ defend their subsidised privileges

Fund it better and distribute it on basis of need only, not wealth