TUESDAY saw a major announcement by Six-County Education Minister Caitríona Ruane in the Assembly aimed at transforming the future of education in the North - a huge challenge, given the fact that years of misrule led to a 60-year-old education system which has not adapted with the changing times. Caitríona Ruane wants to truly transform our system into a world-class system fit for the 21st Century. She talks exclusively to An Phoblacht's ÉAMANN Mac MÁNAIS about her vision of an education system that provides equality of access and educational opportunity. Free article

IT'S crunch time for the Fianna Fáil-led coalition as Finance Minister Brian Cowen presents his 2008 Budget (as An Phoblacht goes to press), with tax revenues falling, election promises coming home to roost and economic growth slowing down considerably. For a number of months, Minister Cowen has been working hard on conditioning the public for a tight budget. The deceit on which the election was won is clear for all to see as tax-cutting proposals which were never viable have to be abandoned in the face of a €1.75 billion shortfall in tax revenues. Free article

I BELIEVE that if we are to reverse the deterioration in health and education delivery, North and South, the respective ministers could do worse than visit Cuba to learn from them how they tackle their many social programmes such as health and education delivery. The approach to learning at the Sierra Maestra School for Special Needs students aged from 4 to 18-years-old in Havana is inspirational. The students are taught every aspect of skills required for independent living. While the required emphasis is put on writing, reading and maths, the students are also taught subjects such as horticulture, woodwork, electrical, domestic science and hairdressing to equip them for life's experiences. Free article

A LUMP of roofing was hurled in to the centre of the Wicklow County Council chamber on Monday night and smashed into thousands of pieces, scattering across the floor during a special debate on the provision of a full-time fire service for the north of the county. The piece of roofing came from council-owned properties in the Bray area described in a recent fire safety audit as "death-traps". The meeting had been convened to receive a deputation of family and friends of Brian Murray and Mark O'Shaughnessy, the two fire-fighters who lost their lives in a blaze at a disused factory in Bray in September. It was the first opportunity the families had to put questions to councillors and their officials in relation to the incident. Free article

Cha raibh a dhath níos measa agus mé i mo thachrán nó fiú mé i mo ghlas-stócach - nuair a chaithfinn dul chun an phortaigh. Dá mbeifeá ag tiontú na móna fliche, bheinn i gcónaí ag ceistiú mo athar "an bhfuil muid chóir a bheith réidh, tá na míoltóga mo mharú!" Free article

So much for a lot of the talk about the Louth hurlers meaning as much to the GPA as the Cork hurlers. And, of course, the poor women who play senior camogie and ladies' football get nothing Free article

THE Sunday Times published a fascinating account last weekend of the plight of white "aristocrat" settler, Thomas Patrick Gilbert Cholmondeley, son of the 5th Lord Delamere and heir to the largest estate in Kenya's Rift Valley, who claims he is the "victim of a new kind of bigotry". Apparently, the 'bigoted' Kenyans are trying the Eton-educated aristocrat for murder and he stands accused of shooting a black poacher, Robert Njoya, on his 58,000 acre estate. Free article

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column Free article