Last week I and my fellow researchers on the recent Minimum Income Standards work spoke at an Irish Social Policy Association (ISPA) event on the topic of using minimum incomes for policy analysis and policy planning. In my section of the seminar I highlighted six areas where this research is useful...

On November 12th the NERI hosted a conference focused on Ireland's unemployment crisis. Over a series of papers the nature of the current crisis and the possible solutions to the problem were examined. The papers and presentations for the conference are now available on the NERI website. In my own...

Over one quarter of Irish workers are under-employed. Under-employment includes both those who are unemployed and part-time workers who wish to work more hours. It also includes 'marginally attached' workers such as those who have become discouraged and have given up searching for work, and those...

How do the incomes of men and women compare? How have they changed in recent years and whose income is highest? These are questions that are often asked and speculated upon in the context of male/female earnings and income divisions. Using data from the CSO's Survey on Income and Living Conditions...

The Society of Saint Vincent DePaul launched their pre-Budget document entitled 'The Human Face of Austerity' on Thursday October 25th. At the launch I spoke about the choices government have as they compile Budget 2013 and reflected on some of the context and consequences of these choices for...

The International Monetary Fund recently admitted that they have, since the beginning of the crisis, grossly underestimated the damage that austerity policies have been doing to the economy. The admission was made in the latest edition of the World Economic Outlook released at their bi-annual...