What we now reap is the harvest of decades of inaction on what voters just six short months ago told us were the major issues affecting our society, writes Dr Anthony O’Connor.
The Irish Cancer Society said that lifesaving medicines should be available to everyone who could benefit from them, not just people with private health insurance.
Productivity at work is up, but we need to see decent pay rises and career progression for all workers. Trade union membership is the key to this, writes Paul Dillon.
It is summed up by the fact that while TDs will benefit by more than €50 a week, young unemployed people will get a miserly €2.70, writes AAA-PBP TD Paul Murphy.
‘Why would you move to Ireland, as a doctor or an executive looking to invest, if you could take a job elsewhere and earn more after tax?’, writes Aaron McKenna.
The pontiff is to issue a scathing papal encyclical directly linking rampant capitalism with irreversible environmental catastrophe and rising global inequality.
A concerted push for global development, the Millennium Development Goals, will wrap up next year. The UN is meeting today to discuss what comes next – inequality and climate change must be on the agenda this time.
Social Europe is being destroyed. Will our EU 2014 candidates pledge commitment to fighting rising poverty, unemployment, inequality and social exclusion?
TODAY IS THE first day of the Puck Fair, an annual three-day event in Killorglin, Co. Kerry, which is said to be Ireland’s oldest festival.
The festival’s centrepiece is a wild goat, which is caught from the mountains and brought back to the town for the fair, traditionally by a local schoolgirl.
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But animal rights advocates have raised concerns about the event for many years, which includes the tradition of placing the “King Puck” on a 50-foot tall platform for the duration of the three day festival.
This year there are specific concerns about the welfare of the goat amid a hot spell of weather.
A spokesman for the festival has said that if necessary, the animal will be taken down if the heat gets too much and will be given a health check.
So today we’re asking: Have you ever been to the Puck Fair?
Sunshine
Max: 27 °C
Min: 13 °C
Mostly sunny
Max: 23 °C
Min: 14 °C
Partly sunny
Max: 23 °C
Min: 14 °C
