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national / economics and finance Tuesday June 23, 2015 - 23:17 by postman
The drip feed of questionable deals carried out by NAMA is well under way. Regularly now, we see information reaching the public domain whereby NAMA have sold stressed assets at less than their real value and the purchasers are turning them over within 2 years, at profit ranging from 30% to 40%/ The purchasers are mostly foreign investment funds – ‘vulture funds ‘ – who have picked on the carcass of the stressed Irish property market. Many of them have retained the assets, and become serious players in the residential rental market in Ireland, especially Dublin, and have developed a controlling influence, managing to drive up rents astronomically in our capital city. This all doesn’t make them evil people – they just do what they do, it’s called unfettered Capitalism - our problem as Irish citizens is that our Government have allowed a situation to develop whereby the vulture funds win and the Irish tax payer loses. And our present Neo Liberal Government think that this is all fine. I believe otherwise. Here’s my Leader’s Questions with Taoiseach Enda Kenny this week, who knows that all is not well. - ... read full story / add a comment
national / worker & community struggles and protests Sunday June 21, 2015 - 23:26 by postman
Privatisation of Postal Services - A great little neoliberal country to do business in… Yesterday afternoon in the Dáil, we discussed the Communications Regulation (Postal Service) (Amendment) Bill 2015 – a piece of legislation that represents the latest push by this Government to further its neoliberal agenda through the privatisation, or “outsourcing,” of public services in this country. Under this new legislation, our new national postcode system – Eircode – will be privatised and administered by Capita Ireland, which is part of the Ł7bn Capita multinational corporation, a global conglomerate with vast experience of snapping up lucrative state contracts around the world. I asked the Minister why at least €27m of taxpayers’ money is being pumped into a postcode system that many in the delivery industry have described “lacking vision” and utterly useless, while at the same time, rural post offices are being closed down, further isolating the communities they serve. Rural Ireland, and in particular those most vulnerable, are being abandoned in favour of big business. Here’s my contribution in the Chamber. – ... read full story / add a comment
national / politics / elections Monday June 01, 2015 - 23:13 by Pbp
The following statement, as a contribution to the debate at the conference organised by the R2W unions on June 13, has been agreed between the People Before Profit Alliance,the Anti-Austerity Alliance, and some independent left-wing activists including Cllr Brendan Young. The Mayday Conference initiated by the Right2Water Trade Unions was designed to bring union members, community groups and political representatives into dialogue about an alternative to the political and economic establishment. We welcome the fact that these unions initiated such a meeting to build a political movement based on the anti-water charges struggle of the last eight months. Unfortunately, the meeting was a limited and invite-only event, without sufficient space for discussion. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-capitalism Monday May 25, 2015 - 17:47 by Ruared
Nathan Stuart with a short piece on the transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Nathan is an RNU student activist from Armagh, currently living and studying in Belfast. He has been heavily involved in numerous campaigns on student, socialist and republican issues. ... read full story / add a comment
national / politics / elections Saturday May 23, 2015 - 20:40 by Paddy Hackett
 4 comments (last - thursday august 20, 2015 - 17:23)
Marriage in the West is a bourgeois institution. ... read full story / add a comment
national / housing Thursday May 21, 2015 - 23:36 by pbp
1 comment (last - friday june 05, 2015 - 22:59)  1 image
Guess where a property speculator can get their best return on investment in the whole world? Dublin. It is unbelievable but true. After chaos wracked on Irish society by the Celtic Tiger property boom, the speculators are back. A global survey by the research company, MSCI, has found that highest profits can be made in Dublin from buying and selling property. Capitalists generally expect to get a 10 percent rate of return on their investment in industry. If they want more, they shift to riskier areas such as property speculation. If they chose their city right, they can get a 19 percent rate of return. But last year, Dublin provided the jackpot with a 44 percent rate of return. ... read full story / add a comment
national / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday May 13, 2015 - 12:21 by Laurence D.
3 comments (last - saturday may 23, 2015 - 09:22)
In this article I explain why I believe it is possible and necessary to advocate for marriage equality while remaining critical of aspects of the institution of marriage itself. ... read full story / add a comment
international / miscellaneous Thursday May 07, 2015 - 12:53 by Robert Long
2 comments (last - sunday may 24, 2015 - 11:30)
How the last days of Israel may play out. ... read full story / add a comment
national / politics / elections Saturday May 02, 2015 - 19:40 by Pat Waine
The piece deals with how an initiative by R2W should be addressed. It argues for a left alternative to be clearly presented in any initative that is democratic broad and open. ... read full story / add a comment
national / miscellaneous Tuesday April 28, 2015 - 15:01 by Robert Long
The commemoration to come, should be indicative, to those with discernment, of the true nature of the government of this country, those who WOULD take from us, everything that our fore-bearers tried to create. As we approach the centenary of the 1916, Easter Rising, we look to our government to remind us of the origins of our nationhood, of the goals, so cherished by former generations and their tremendous suffering and triumphs, so that we may, through self-determination forge for ourselves, a destiny that we may be proud of and a bright future for our children. However, if one engages in some reflection on our first century of modern nationhood, and in particular, the last several years, it becomes apparent that the ideals upon which our country is allegedly founded, are all but forgotten, purposefully forsaken, by those whom we entrusted to guard and implement them ... read full story / add a comment
international / health / disability issues Friday April 24, 2015 - 03:21 by Polly Peptide
6 comments (last - wednesday june 03, 2015 - 16:32)
Suicide is often thought tragedy or failure—but a person can lead an exceedingly relevant and meaningful life and still have it end with suicide. Suicide, although thought taboo and negative consequence, should not be thought especially conclusive to render some final judgment on that dead person’s attitudes about the entirety of his or her life, or personal series of assumed values while living. Esteemed and valuable lives do happen to end with this form of partial self-control over one’s finality. It can at times be practical to circumstances. The vaunted platitude the “value of human life” (as cultural supposition) has had little real open discussion or debate. Irrespective then of all peoples’ personal opinions (even if personal opinions are not often particularly individualist) one should be able to argue that thee ultimate human right of being-hood (and all related rights of existence) is the right to decide for the self whether one even wants to live a human life (especially as related to circumstances one finds the self). This is really the most basic litmus test to freedom as essential criteria as to whether one is truly free or not. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / environment Wednesday April 08, 2015 - 19:43 by Protect the Irish Hare
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The Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports (CACS) has issued this statement, dated April 8th, 2015: We are alarmed at the news that hares are now EXTINCT on Dublin Bay’s North Bull Island, one of Ireland’s most important nature reserves and coincidentally one that for generations had been almost synonymous with the iconic Irish Hare. ... read full story / add a comment
national / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday April 08, 2015 - 16:27 by rojos
12 comments (last - tuesday april 14, 2015 - 23:24)
Whatever one personally thinks of marriage, just like religion, it should be consigned to the private sphere: I). on philosophical grounds; and ii). because State support for marriage directly contributes to inequality of the treatment of families, and directly discriminates against unmarried parents and their children - regardless of whether the parents are 'straight' or same-sex. ... read full story / add a comment
national / sci-tech Tuesday April 07, 2015 - 16:35 by Unemployed IT Guy
1 comment (last - wednesday april 08, 2015 - 13:29)
My Job Bridge software development experiences... ... read full story / add a comment
international / history and heritage Saturday April 04, 2015 - 10:33 by Jeffrey McNary
A brief, breezy look at the illustrious history Eric Foner ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Monday March 30, 2015 - 00:23 by indymedia
We are republishing this very interesting interview between 'The Saker' and Dr. Paul Craig Roberts a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Reagan and thereby someone with a key insider view and understanding and who writes compelling and hard hitting articles at his own site. The Saker is a blog that has grown in huge popularity because it has been providing very informative and insightful analysis of the situation in Ukraine and wider picture around it relating to the US empire and has accurately predicted the trajectory of this crisis and has helped counter the widespread propaganda that tries to hide the fact that the Kiev regime is a neo Nazi puppet regime used as a tool of Washington to try and destablize Russia and has explained and given context to how each of the European states and the EU are just vassel states of the US and how this crisis and the sanctions are hurting Europe and are essentially suicidal for its own well-being. The interview covers a number of wide ranging issues but what makes it great is the way it strips away all the pretensions that there is anything democractic at all in how the big game of geo politics is working and gets to the core issues and forces driving it ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday March 25, 2015 - 19:18 by Anthony Ravlich
Some of what I saw behind the Global Iron Curtain which, in my view, exists between the UN and the rest of humanity. I describe what I consider to be very much of enormous and profound importance hidden from people. ... read full story / add a comment
dublin / crime and justice Saturday March 14, 2015 - 17:29 by Con Carroll
2 comments (last - monday september 21, 2015 - 09:16)
when are we going to demand the truth, we could be hours, days, nights awaiting. will we ever get there who benefits. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-capitalism Thursday February 26, 2015 - 13:01 by fred
Michael Hudson, interviewed on real news network discusses the class war starting in greece and the panic among the Euro rich and powerful that the rich might actually be taxed for a change rather than crippling the labour force and the poor with endless austerity, and how the finance ministers of currently right wing governments of spain, finland, Portugal, Ireland and germany are determined to make an example of greece to avoid contagion of these dangerous ideas which would likely lead to such governments losing upcoming elections to left wing parties ... read full story / add a comment
international / public consultation / irish social forum Tuesday February 24, 2015 - 16:31 by Nuala
2 comments (last - monday march 09, 2015 - 14:51)
It was bad enough in 1966. I'm glad I'll be at a safe distance when The Circus comes to town next year. ... read full story / add a comment |
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