RISING TAXES, spending cutbacks and a litany of stealth charges levied on those with the least ability to pay, this was Budget 2009. Free article

Speaking to An Phoblacht's PEADAR WHELAN at a Sinn Féin selection convention that endorsed sitting MEP Bairbre de Brún as the party's candidate for the Six County constituency in next year's European election Party President GERRY ADAMS addressed the current crisis in the political process. Free article

Many people have spent the past couple of months trying to decipher the incomprehensible business jargon filling the newspaper pages so as to understand what's behind the unfolding crisis in the world's financial markets. Free article

ORGANISERS of the Acht na Gaeilge demonstration held in Belfast on Saturday 11 October welcomed the huge turnout of people from across the country who made the march a vibrant and colourful event. Free article

SINN FÉIN West Belfast MP Gerry Adams MLA met families from the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee and Relatives for Justice at Parliament Buildings last Monday. Free article

THE Public Health Service Campaign held a rally in Dublin on the Saturday before Budget Day to lobby against cuts and against privatisation. Free article

IN ITS edition of 10 October, The Irish Times falsely reported that Sinn Féin's Budget Priorities document has rowed back from the party's fundamental policy position of universal, single-tier public healthcare, free at the point of delivery. Free article

Speaking in the Dáil during Taoiseach's Questions, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the current impasse in the Executive in the Six Counties was caused by the refusal of the DUP to agree to the inclusion of key overdue issues on the Executive agenda, including the transfer of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast. Free article