And the big difference in twenty years? Money. Lots of it now. Back then, not enough.’ (Aine Lawlor, May 2006)
On 31 May 2006 RTE broadcast a ninety-minute documentary entitled That Was Then, This is Now. It consisted of nine personal reflections on Ireland and the changes the country underwent from 1986 to 2006. The contributors [...]

Fintan O’Toole is an intelligent and thought provoking commentator.
His new book, Enough Is Enough, offers 50 proposals for political and social reform. Many offer sensible and credible solutions to the failures of our current system and are remarkably similar to Sinn Fein’s current policy agenda. Others, while not to the tastes of this writer, are [...]

The following is taken from Debt and Development Coalition Ireland’s publication ‘A Global Justice Perspective on the Irish EU-IMF Loans: Lessons From the Wider World‘ (PDF).
This document outlines lessons from the global debt justice movement in responding to debt crises, provides a background to the Irish EU-IMF loans (up to the 28th November 2010 - [...]

UNITE has published their ‘People’s Budget’ - an alternative to the deflationary orthodoxy that retains its grip on the debate and strategy. The principles behind the strategy are

a €15 billion investment programme to reverse the driving force behind the Irish recession and to embed growth and employment in the economy, rather than deficits

a growth-friendly fiscal [...]

As the Justice response to the EU-IMF Loans meeting was cancelled last night due to bad weather, Nessa Ní Chasaide of Debt and Development Coalition Ireland has forwarded video interviews with Dr Andy Storey (UCD Development Studies) and Micahel Taft (Unite) who would have been speaking at the meeting.
Hopefully more video interviews with the [...]

I’d like to mention something that is going on at the moment and which I’m contributing to with a number of bloggers, academics and activists. It’s called Budgetjam, an attempt to disrupt the debate lead by the rightwing around the economy and to provide a resource for people opposing the bankrupting of Ireland.
First of all, [...]

‘Cause I don’t. Commissioner Rehn announces on Sunday that he ‘strongly’ supports the Government’s National Recovery Plan. He even said:
Implementing the plan will offer a “sound basis for stable, job-creating growth.”
Then, on Monday, he announces he doesn’t believe the growth rates contained in the Plan. In fact, he so disbelieved them that [...]

The Real News interviews Leo Panitch on the Irish crisis. Panitch is the author of many books and articles and is a Distinguished Research Professor at York University. We’ve reviewed the most recent edition of his Renewing Socialism and In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives, which was published [...]

Given the current state of financialisation of society, access to basic financial services can facilitate the effective management of one´s income as well as helping provide for the future. The can also be of assistance in helping people emerge from difficult economic circumstances as well as act as a safeguard against falling into poverty. For [...]

From the Unite Trade Union….
Today Jimmy Kelly, Regional Secretary of the trade union UNITE, sent a letter to the leaders of the opposition parties - Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Fein.  In it he called on them to make clear that they will not be bound by the terms of the IMF/EU bail-out. He further [...]