In the light of this week’s horrific report of the Child Abuse Commission, and as the Government flounders and flip-flops with regard to how to ensure that those responsible are held accountable, it is now clear that we need to take a critical look at how our schools are owned, governed and managed. The fact [...]

Earlier this week I read that the Dept of Social and Family Affairs writing to over 50,000 unemployed young people telling them about the opportunities they have to return to education. What they forgot to say is that this government has made no effort to improve the range of schemes open to the newly unemployed. [...]

There have been some interesting developments in Education in recent days. Last week, Batt O’Keeffe confirmed to me in a letter that the Student Support Bill 2008 was to be effectively shelved (see question 445). This bill had intended to reform the student grants system, which provides money for students who qualify for it to [...]

This has been a busy week for all in the Dublin South East Labour Party. The Local Elections kicked off on Wednesday and our five Labour candidates were well prepared. We have four sitting Cllrs and one new candidate. In the Pembroke-Rathmines ward, we have Cllr Mary Freehill, Cllr Dermot Lacey and Cllr Oisin Quinn. [...]

The 1st of May saw a treaty which enabled people in Ireland  to adopt Vietnamese children  lapse. This has caused a huge outcry amongst those who are trying to adopt. Many have spent years going through all the paperwork and now their efforts have come to nought because our government was so careless, it didn’t [...]