NELSON McCaulsland’s Assembly statement on the future of the Housing Executive has caused a bit of a stir. Much of the debate has focused on whether the minister’s proposals have an underlying sectarian motivation. This is hardly surprising given the reasons for the establishment of the Housing Executive in 1971 and Nelson McCausland’s own dubious record on housing issues in north Belfast for over two decades. Free article

MORE than 115,000 people took part in a massive rally in the centre of the Basque capital of Bilbao on 12 January to demand the release of the hundreds of Basque political prisoners still being held in Spanish and French jails. Organisers say that their release is key to a succesful peace process. Free article

DURING the recent visit to the EU Parliament by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD I challenged him on a number of issues affecting the people of Ireland. Free article

BASQUE separatist party Batasuna announced in January that it has formally dissolved its structures. Free article

IT’S ESTIMATED to have cost €91million in taxpayers’ money yet not a single block has been laid. Say hello to one of the last white elephants of the Celtic Tiger years: Dublin City Council’s Poolbeg Incinerator — a project that has been squeezing millions out of people’s pockets since the late 1990s with no end in sight to the fiasco. Free article

A RECENT Ipsos MRBI opinion poll showed that more than half (55%) of people wanted to see the upper house of parliament in Dublin, the Seanad, scrapped. Many consider it a talking shop, a place where politicians go to either launch their career or to ‘retire’ from the Dáil with a cushy number. The costs associated with operating it is also of major concern. In their Programme for Government, Fine Gael and Labour pledged to hold a referendum on abolishing the Seanad. Sinn Féin has said the Seanad is “undemocratic” and called for it to be “scrapped in its current form” followed by a root and branch reform of the instiution. An Phoblacht’s MARK MOLONEY spoke to Sinn Féin Senator KATHRYN REILLY — at 24, the youngest member of the Oireachtas — about the Seanad’s future. Free article

NUAIR a iarradh orm áit Paul Maskey a ghlacadh mar Ball Tionóil Bhéal Feirste Thiar baineadh stad asam ar dtús nó ní raibh cliú dá laghad agam go mbeadh an athrú seo ag tarlú agus déanta na fírinne níor smaoinigh mé riamh go mbeinn féin i ról mar seo. Ar ndóigh, thuig mé go soiléir gur onóir mór é gur tugadh an deis seo dom agus chuir sé gliondar ar mo chroí go raibh muinín ag daoine s’againne asam. Premium service article

PALESTINIAN FARMERS have called on shoppers, trade unions, social movements, non-governmental organisations and human rights campaigners across the world to help enforce an effective ban on trade with Israeli illegal settlements. Free article

BEYOND the news headlines at Belfast City Hall about the Union flag controversy and unionist attacks on the Short Strand neighbourhood in east Belfast, Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey was in the Philippines in December as part of an international delegation to help in the peace process in the south-east Asian islands. Alex Maskey writes for An Phoblacht about how the Irish Peace Process is helping peace in the Philippines and while there is still a way to go he is hopeful. Premium service article

FOR SEVEN YEARS, Inez McCormack and I sat on the board of InterTradeIreland. I knew little of Inez’s immense record of achievements in what was even then an unsurpassed career of political activism, covering a spectrum that ran from trade union agitation, civil rights, gender issues, fair employment, community representation to tackling disadvantage and poverty. Free article

IT IS WITH DEEP REGRET that we record the recent death of Maureen McCullagh, New York, who passed away on 29 December. Free article