Read the Survey on Income and Living Conditions, published yesterday by the CSO, below. {jathumbnailoff}

Referring to “considerable public and political unease” about the fact that Denis O’Brien “has continued to pop up at various public events, most recently at the New York Stock Exchange” (alongside Taoiseach Enda Kenny), Minster for Social Protection Joan Burton told the Dáil today that “It is perhaps time for the Government to reflect on how it should in future interact with people against whom adverse findings have been made by tribunals.”

The report of the Mahon Tribunal is extremely serious for all who care about public life in Ireland.  The report has wide implications for different parties, groups and individuals.  I am very clear about those implications which relate to Fianna Fáil and those members of the party who betrayed the privilege and responsibility of holding public office

Below, Bertie Ahern's statement on the Mahon Report, released this evening.

I note the publication today of the Mahon Tribunal Final Report which are not the findings of a court of law.

At the outset, I want to make clear that I have had the great honour and privilege to serve as an elected politician for over 30 years.

I have dedicated my life to politics and serving the interest of the Irish people in politics. I have never accepted a bribe or a corrupt payment.

The Anglo: Not Our Debt campaign group has described the proposed deal on deferral of the €3.1 billion ‘promissory note’ payment due on 31 March as likely to create bigger debt problems for people in Ireland in the long run. The group describes the deal as “a political blunder by a government that has wasted a chance for an immediate write down of Anglo debt.”

To mark International Women’s Day 2012, the European Women’s Lobby has put together a briefing on gender equality in the EU. The briefing covers politics, pay, employment, violence against women, women's representation in the media and the multiple discrimination many women face. Highlights from the briefing are below, and the full paper is embedded at the bottom of this piece.

A campaign group calling for the write down of Irish debt has labelled the link being drawn between the debt and the Fiscal Treaty as “obscene and tantamount to blackmail”. Community worker and Anglo: Not Our Debt spokesperson John Bissett said he “utterly rejected any spurious quid pro quo between voting Yes in the forthcoming referendum on the Fiscal Treaty and the suspension or cancellation of the Anglo and Irish Nationwide debt.”

Andy Storey of the Not Our Debt campaign was on RTÉ’s Late Debate last night with, amongst others, barrister Paul Anthony McDermott and Labour TD Joanna Tuffy. He explained what the campaign was about, what the consequences of suspending payment of the debts incurred by Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide would be, and why the Irish people do not have a moral obligation to pay for the excesses of individuals such as Seán Fitzpatrick and Michael Fingleton.

A new campaigning network of local and global justice organisations, Debt Justice Action, has today called on the Government to stop paying the debts of the former Anglo Irish Bank/Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS).  The campaign group – encompassing a coalition of representatives from the trade union, community, faith-based, global justice, environmental and academic sectors – argues that the debts of these now state-owned institutions are not the responsibility of people in Ireland.

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