There are more than 100,000 households on local authority waiting lists in the 26 Counties while 300,000 homes lie empty across the state. It just doesn't make any sense. Official government figures claim that only 56,000 households are on the waiting list. However this figure is from April 2008. Free article

AND SO the battle is on. The cuts to social welfare and child benefit in Budget 2010 saw the government cross the Rubicon to a place where no 'right' is safe anymore. That means that the long-time target of employers' groups, business lobbies and vested interest politicians - the minimum wage - is back on the table for discussion. Free article

The Irish peace process was painstakingly nurtured with the view of coming up with mechanisms that could be embraced by all of the parties as a unique but workable form of governance. With the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement a form of administration often referred to by the DUP as a 'mandatory' coalition was devised. Although this was prescriptive of a power-sharing Administration and allocation of ministries, there is no obligation on any party to nominate. Free article

Wicklow Sinn Féin Councillor John Brady is a longtime campaigner against drugs. This week he has called a meeting in Bray to highlight a worrying development in his native county - the arrival of drug outlets otherwise known as 'head shops'. For the uninitiated it should be explained that these shops are in the business of selling various items connected with drug taking, like pipes or bowls for inhaling drugs, along with products loosely defined as 'natural highs'. Free article

JACK BROGAN, the Connacht honouree for this year's Le Chéile event, is originally from Castlederg in west Tyrone. Born in 1941, Jack has led a busy and active life having been shot, 'on the run' and arrested for his republican involvement. On top of all that, he and his wife, Rose, raised 15 children. He tells ELLA O'DWYER a story that has the makings of a thriller. Free article

It is just over 12 months since the Israeli military ceased its all-out assault on the trapped, cornered population of Gaza: in excess of 1.5m people crammed into 360 square kilometres, the most crowded and densely populated place on earth. Over 4,000 homes were destroyed and Gaza's infrastructure - including health, water and sanitation - was systematically destroyed. Today, it is still in ruins and the ongoing Israeli blockade prevents it being rebuilt. Israel claimed the offensive was necessary to protect its civilians from Hamas rocket attacks. Over the course of the assault 1,417 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli forces, while 13 Israelis lost their lives. Free article

THE Jackeen is out with a broken arm. The Lord God, I often lifted hay with the same thing after maybe being injured playing hurling or dancing. Well not dancing, to be strictly honest, but fighting with the townies at the dance. Good honest manly fighting it was; none of your knives and Glock pistols in those times. Other than maybe a plank of wood if it was handy to give a lad a skelp across the back of the head if he wouldn't lie down. Free article

Following the split in the IRA in December 1969 and Sinn Féin in January 1970, one of the first actions of those who rejected the Goulding/MacGiolla leadership and who formed the Provisional Army Council of the IRA and the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Féin was to launch a publicity fund with a view to establishing their own republican newspaper. Free article