Has Irish failed? Are dole payments too high? The Dáil school's out for summer and Mountjoy gets some new residents. A look back at the past week on Politics.ie

This Week in Politics.ie features some of the most popular news and current affairs stories as discussed by the community on Politics.ie in the past 7 days.

Has state provision of Irish failed?

The most popular debate on Politics.ie in the past week was one centred around the idea of state provision for Gaelscoils and whether or not state policy around the compulsory education of Irish has failed. The ranged from those who though the state was doing too much, to those who argued the state wasn't doing enough around Irish. The debate in particular drew upon a range of ages and experience and is certainly worth looking in on.

IMF calls for cut in dole payments

The debate which got the most views, and second after the Gaelscoil debate (above) in terms of comments was a result of an IMF report which revealed proposals for dole payments to be reduced. Some of the replies sought to query an attitude that reducing the payment would encourage people to go and find a job...

... whilst others pointed out that it might be a bit more worthwhile to get an interest rate cut in payments to the IMF ...

... many members of the Politics.ie community share their experiences of jobseeking in Ireland at present, and the costs of applying for jobs, both financial as well as emotional.

School's out for summer, and Dáil's out for a little longer...

The Dáil rose on Thursday for two months, and normally on the last day of school the Dáil debates whether or not the House needs to take such a long break. Things were a little different this year, you could hear a pin drop when the Ceann Comhairle asked who was against the Dáil taking a two month recess, you can hear the silence right before the Dáil erupts in howls of laughter.



... but not before a planned march-out

The last day of school brings with it the usual rowdyness before the summer holidays, and the Dáil was no different on Thursday, despite nobody doing the usual-grandstanding protest about the Dáil's holidays, the Ceann Comhairle did at some points how to tell the TDs that sixth-class school children would be better behaved. It came to a head during the Gaeltacht Bill, where the entire opposition benches marched out en masse in protest at the Government pushing for the Gaeltacht Bill to be passed before the Dáil recess.



Mountjoy gets some new residents

Mounthoy got itself some new residents in the past week. Éirígí councillor Louise Minihan was arrested on Wednesday and taken to Mountjoy for non-payment of a €1500 fine related to a pain attack on then-Minister for Health Mary Harney, whilst Sean Quinn junior and Peter Quinn found themselves being sentenced to at least three months for contempt. The Quinn discussion has evolved since June when the High Court ruled on the Quinn's contempt of court for putting assets beyond the reach of Anglo Irish Bank.

You can comment on these (or any other discussions!) within the articles themselves from the links above.