In January 2018, the minimum wage increased from €9.25 per hour to €9.55 per hour.

I feel, like a punch in my gut, comments like those of Verona Murphy... that ISIS supporters make up ‘a big part’ of the migrant population., writes Victoria White

In 2019 do we cherish all our children equally?

The problem at the heart of Extinction Rebellion is that we are rebelling against ourselves.

This report looks at a decade's worth of data on unpaid work for caring, housework and childcare.

Poor recognition of the qualifications they hold is among the barriers to employment that non-EU migrants face in Ireland.

Juno McEnroe Political Correspondent

As Will Das Weib? What do women want? That was a question which vexed the great mind of Sigmund Freud to his dying day.

Cash payments work for families. Robert Putnam, the US author of Bowling Alone, quotes research showing that a €3,000-a-year-payment in a child’s first three years improves that child’s academic performance and increases his or her eventual salary by 20%.

The Government is planning for a doomsday Brexit outcome which could result in job losses, emergency laws, budget changes and the grounding of flights to and from the UK.

Fianna Fáil has also done many God-awful things but the fact is they handled the banking crash well, writes Victoria White

The Taoiseach has suggested that the homelessness crisis will be solved by 2019, when, he says, more houses will be built than are needed.

Demand for housing will get even worse before it gets better the Housing Minister has admitted.

UPDATE 10am: The Dáil debate on the government's new housing strategy has been postponed - amid signs the scheme could be abandoned.

Europe “walked away” from Ireland during the financial crisis the Dáil has heard. Former Fianna Fáil junior finance minister Dara Calleary yesterday questioned whether Irish citizens would choose to remain in the EU if a referendum were to be called here.

WHAT ARE we like that it’s big news in environmental circles this week that the Government is appointing the first Climate Change Advisory Council, asks Victoria White.

Fears have been expressed in West Cork that the HSE and the health minister may not upgrade community hospitals in the region, leading to elderly patients being transferred miles away from their families.

The ESRI is the latest body to come out against the Central Bank’s proposed 20% deposit requirement for mortgage lending, saying it had the potential to do more harm than good.

WHITEWASH. Greenwash. Hogwash. Whatever kind of wash you’re having yourself, our Taoiseach has been spewing it at the UN climate summit in New York.

Victorial White's article last week about the immorality of SMA sponsoring ‘pregnancy and baby’ fairs, in Cork and Dublin, drew a phenomonal response, some of it positive, some of it angry. Here she expands further on her arguments and responds to the criticism. (Comment on this story) 

Austerity should end in 2015 if the Government adheres to the current €2bn fiscal adjustment path and the economy continues to grow, according to the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, John McHale.

AROUND 20 staff look after the Lee Road waterworks facility in Cork which supplies most of the drinking water to homes and businesses across the city. The old waterworks have been there since the 1700s.

Sport is all about keeping score, identifying the winners and losers, and it takes no prisoners.

The Wheel, a resource organisation for charities and voluntary groups, described Section 38 agencies to me as “arms of the State in all but governance”. But shouldn’t all arms of the State be headed by the State? Isn’t governance all important?

The idea that the less well-off would have done better had the entire banking system been allowed to fail is nothing short of puerile.

We're all on the same page here. There are people who are OK and people who are not OK.

While Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton has insisted that the Irish tax regime is transparent, tax campaigners accused Ireland of being a ‘doormat’ state while academics claimed that up to 150,000 jobs could be jeopardised by Apple’s tax practices.

THE simple answer to the question posed by the National Women’s Council of Ireland as to whether women are “bearing the brunt” of the recession is “No”.

I CAN be mature about this.

RAISING children is a passion.

Pharmacists should be able to offer patients cheaper drugs as an alternative to more expensive brands prescribed by GPs, experts have said.

ECONOMIST Richard Tol’s prediction, as he departed his ERSI post, to the efffect that Ireland faces another decade of economic austerity, might be wholly depressing, but it was scarcely a revelation.

THREE quarters of children in Ireland live with two married parents.

A quarter of all babies delivered during Ireland’s baby boom were from women born outside the country, it has emerged.

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) says there are signs of a turnaround in Ireland, but it has downgraded its growth expectations for the economy.

THERE were almost 20,000 acute hospital discharges last year — 14,000 of which were for men and 145 of which were under 15 — where a mental or behavioural disorder after taking alcohol or psychoactive substances was part of the final diagnosis.

THE huge progress made in saving pensioners from poverty must not be lost in the December budget, Age Action Ireland has warned.

I TAKE predictions of economic recovery from the ERSI with a pinch of salt. This taxpayer-funded agency not too long back was predicting growth when the dogs in the street were predicting further contraction and job losses. The dogs in the street were right.

WATCHING Vincent Browne’s news programme on Wednesday night I found myself thinking that young people should seriously consider emigrating because the prospects here seem so bleak. This is the third major recession I can remember and there are reasons for suspecting it could be the worst, notwithstanding the ERSI’s recent prediction that things will pick up in 2011.

ONE of the major challenges in the years ahead will be to ensure the water we drink is safe.

TRADE unions have accused the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) of being the “cheerleader for the Government policy” fixated with cutting public service pay.

YOUR editorial (September 22) totally distorts the reality of public service pay and seeks to divide public and private sector workers. It is so full of inaccuracies one can only wonder if the real objective is to reduce the pay and conditions of all workers.

LACK of suitable accommodation, insufficient social work support and lack of clear immigration status are the main issues surrounding the care of unaccompanied migrant children in this country, a new study has found.