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– Sarah McCarthy reports on last night’s draft legislation on life-saving abortion, and the reaction of pro-choice groups.
Savita Halappanavar died last November as a result of Ireland’s restrictive laws on abortion.
Last night, the Cabinet finally published the draft of the Heads of Bill for the ‘Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013’. After 21 years, it looks like we will finally have legislation on the X Case before the summer is out.
The Bill requires one doctor to approve a termination to save a pregnant woman’s life in the case of an emergency, two in a non-emergency situation, and three consultants to unanimously approve a termination when a woman’s life is at risk due to “suicidal ideation”. If a woman at risk of suicide is denied a termination she must appeal to another panel of three consultants, who must also be unanimous in their decision.
– Robert Nielsen discusses the ongoing dispute over the Croke Park II proposals, and why cutting wages is always a bad idea.
At the moment there is a great deal of controversy over the Croke Park Deal. In essence the government is trying to cut the wages of public sector workers while the public sector unions are opposing this. Regardless of the politics of the agreement, cutting wages is bad economics. It depresses the economy, worsens the recession and doesn’t even achieve its objective of reducing the deficit. The union membership was absolutely right to reject the Croke Park Deal and the government must completely reconsider its plan of action, because the current one isn’t working.
Sarah McCarthy writes about the scandal that has raged this week about banks possibly forcing parents to give up their jobs.
There has been a good deal of uproar this week about the soon to be published Personal Insolvency Service guidelines. The controversy has centred around the possibility that parents whose incomes is less than the cost of their family’s childcare will be forced to quit their jobs.
What Happened?
Disillusioned with the results in the Meath East by-election? Well Shane Fitzgerald is here to give you the break down on the the crisis in Irish politics. You know the small matter of people not voting.
Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee who was elected in the Meath East by-election
The Meath East by-election(#mhe13) is over. Helen McEntee just about wins the seat which her father, Shane McEntee (RIP) had until recently been incumbent of. Read the rest of this entry »
In his debut for the Irish Student Left Online Garrett Mullan adds to the ongoing debate about USI citing his own experiences of Students’ Unions in both England and Ireland. This piece is reposted from Garret’s own blog over here.
In 1999, two years after tuition fees had been introduced in Britain. I stood with a slate of candidates on a platform that we would use the student union resources to campaign against tuition fees. I had already been campaigning against their introduction since before they were introduced by the Labour government. Read the rest of this entry »
The USI’s idea of effective protest.
– Sarah McCarthy writes about her experiences of engaging with her students’ union and the Union of Students of Ireland (USI).
We’ve had two articles here on the ISLO concerning UCD’s Disaffiliation from the USI. While I have a number of more theoretical and comparative points I’d like to contribute to this debate, the last article makes me think it would be useful to explore what engaging with our SU’s and the USI actually looks like. I’ve had a relatively high level of engagement with the NUIG students’ union during the near three years I’ve been at University. I’ve been in Free Education for Everyone (FEE) since I began, was a class rep for two years, and ran for the position of Welfare Officer last year. This article essentially outlines the highlights of the experiences I’ve had during that time, in order to illustrate that we lefties don’t moan about our SU’s and the USI for no good reason.
In his debut for the ISLO Robert Nielsen goes through the bizarre and tragic nature of the recent “deal” on the Promissory Notes. Robert blogs over here normally.
Whenever discussing the banks people often preface their comments by saying that they don’t know much about economics. It is assumed that the bank bailout only seems absurd due to a lack of economic knowledge, that in actual fact the government is following well-established economic principles. As an economics student, let me tell you that nothing is further from the truth. There is no economic logic or theory behind the government’s Read the rest of this entry »
Sarah McCarthy writes on the recent proposal that five doctos would be required to diagnose if someone is suicidal to be allowed access to an abortion.
Tensions in the Government coalition have delayed Health Minister’s Reilly submission to Cabinet on proposed changes to abortion legislation. The strain comes as some of the ultra-conservative anti-choice deputies in Fine Gael are insisting that five doctors would be necessary to determine whether the life of Read the rest of this entry »
Irish Student Left Online 
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