Derry MLA Raymond McCartney has welcomed the news, which emerged over the weekend, that the INLA had been engaged with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) and has put its weapons beyond use. Free article

PAY CUTS on public servants earning less than €100,000 per year should be reversed, Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said in the Dáil on Tuesday evening on a Private Members' Motion on the pay levels of senior civil servants. Free article

THE PSNI is under mounting pressure to suspend its use of stop and search powers granted under Section 44 of the British government's Terrorism Act 2000. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on 12 January that the power to stop and search people arbitrarily - without any grounds for suspicion - was a violation of the human right "to respect for private life". Free article

Welcome to Ireland if you are a tax exile, or seeking a tax haven for your multinational firm. Maybe you want to protect the maximum profits from your patents or R&D activity. Maybe you are a high paid executive looking for a few years of tax free income. If you are an Irish firm or an Irish entrepreneur and you want to do some R&D or set up a business, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party can't do that much for you right now. If you are a disadvantaged community in Limerick or Dublin, forget any help this year. Free article

Sinn Féin victims spokesperson Francie Molloy says the announcement by British junior minister Paul Goggins of the extension of the British Police Survivor Support Scheme from Britain to the North of Ireland is no surprise. "Over the past number of years they have put inordinate resources into the widows, dependants and injured members of the British Army and RUC and ignored all other victims," said Molloy. Free article

The Sinn Féin Dáil spokesperson on Fisheries, Martin Ferris TD, last Thursday questioned the role played by former Minister for the Marine Frank Fahey in the creation and operation of the Lost at Sea Scheme. The scheme, established to compensate fishermen whose boats had been lost, was the subject of a critical report by the Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly, which was debated in the Dáil that afternoon. Free article

Minister for Health & Children Mary Harney and the HSE have been slated by Sinn Féin over the decision to further downgrade Navan Hospital. Free article

Last week primary school children who had sat a mismatch of unregulated Entrance Tests in December 2009 received their results. Regardless of the results they received, all of the children who took these unnecessary tests deserve to be congratulated, and the same also applies to anyone who did not take these exams. Free article

Donegal Senator Pearse Doherty said this week that the resignation of former Fine Gael TD George Lee must not be used as an excuse to put the bye-election in Donegal South West on the back burner. Free article

Sinn Féin MLA for Lagan Valley Paul Butler has welcomed Edwin Poots' decision to retain the listed building status of Long Kesh following a review ordered by the DUP minister. Free article