Top Issue 1-2024

22 October 2009 Edition

Policing and Justice - agreement on transfer published

22 October 2009

THE financial package from the British Government to support the transfer of powers over Policing and Justice from Britain to the North of Ireland was published on Wednesday. The development follows the latest round of negotiations on the package between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the North's First and Deputy First Ministers, Peter Robinson of the DUP and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness. McGuinness held talks with Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin before meeting Mr Brown in Downing Street. Free article

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams outlines challenges to British and Irish Establishments, unionists and republicans

22 October 2009

SINN FÉIN President Gerry Adams MP MLA made a keynote address to the British/Irish Parliamentary Assembly in the Welsh city of Swansea on Tuesday in which he laid out some serious challenges for the British and Irish Establishments, unionists and republicans in these new political times. This is the full text of what Gerry Adams said. Free article

Oireachtas reform must also look at Cabinet, Committees and wages

22 October 2009

SINN FÉIN has said that Dáil and Seanad reform needs real action and not rhetoric and that verbal commitments in recent days to reform the Oireachtas from both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ring hollow given their long years of dominating Irish politics and setting in place the current system. Saying that the Seanad, in its current form, should be abolished the party also said that any serious proposals to reform the Oireachtas must also look at the Cabinet and the Oireachtas Committees for savings. Free article

Current electoral system failing voters

22 October 2009

SPEAKING at the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution on Wednesday, which was debating the effect of current 26 County electoral system on Irish society, Sinn Féin's representative Robbie Smyth said the current system is failing voters, candidates and those elected to the Dáil. Smyth said larger constituencies with more seats would result in a Dáil which would be more representative of Irish society. Free article

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Repression fails to silence Basque independence movement

22 October 2009

A MASSIVE PROTEST was held on Saturday 17 October in Donostia/San Sebastian in the Basque Country to protest against the Spanish Government's new wave of arrests against the Basque pro-independence and labour movement. On Tuesday 13 October, 10 prominent activists, including Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi and former general secretary of the left-wing LAB trade union Rafa Diez, were arrested and accused of trying to "reorganise the leadership" of the Basque left-nationalist movement. Five of the 10 were arrested in a raid on the national headquarters of the LAB union in Donostia. Free article

St Teresa's Gardens regeneration abandoned

22 October 2009

RESIDENTS of St Teresa's Gardens, in the Dolphin's Barn area of Dublin's south inner city, are meeting Dublin City Council this week, as An Phoblacht goes to press, following the council's decision to scrap a promised regeneration of their complex. Sinn Féin Councillor Críona Ní Dhálaigh, who was instrumental in securing the emergency meeting for the tenants, is concerned that residents will be abandoned to the very poor conditions in which they now live - dampness, sewage problems and general poor maintenance. Free article

Sinn Féin 2009 National Draw

22 October 2009

Results of the private members draw Free article


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