The Frontline Blog

Jobs, jobs, jobs...

Monday, 18 Oct 2010

After last week's show on entrepreneurship a number of viewers contacted us looking for information on the jobs some audience members said they had available at their companies.

The list below is a number of the responses we received when we put these enquiries to our audience. They include vacancies for roles as diverse as operating theatre nurses and paddywagon bus drivers.

We hope they're some benefit. Many thanks to those who got in touch....

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Our future

Monday, 18 Oct 2010
David Nally
Editor

Tonight The Frontline is about Ireland's Future - when (hopefully) the anger has subsided, the banks have been rescued, the deficit has been reduced and the unemployment lines have shrunk what will be the lessons from this crisis?  Is it a question of putting the petrol back in the engine and enjoying the ride once more? Or do we need to become a fundamentally different type of country and if so, how?

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Entrepreneurship and Ireland

Monday, 11 Oct 2010
Dave Nally
Editor

Tonight we're on earlier than usual with a special edition about entrepeneurs, the challenges they face and how we can use their energy to get us out of this mess.  We'll be joined by Ray Nolan, who is often cited as Ireland's number one dotcom entrepeneur. When his "hostelworld.com"  business was sold in 2009 it had generated more than $500m return for shareholders on just $150k invested. 

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Finances and fares

Monday, 04 Oct 2010

On tonight's show we'll be discussing economic matters once again.

Various Sunday newspapers speculated about the government looking to find €4bn of cuts, we ask where that may be found.

In studio we'll have Dan Boyle of the Green Party, Dan O'Brien, economics editor of The Irish Times and Blair Horan of the CPSU, amongst others.

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Tonight's show

Monday, 27 Sep 2010

On the show tonight we'll have Government Chief Whip, John Curran, Fine Gael's James Reilly, former Green Party TD Trevor Sargent and Labour's Pat Rabitte. They'll be discussing the current political, financial and social situation in the country and talking about what their party is doing to improve things.

Undoubtedly the on-going issue regarding Dáil pairings and the Tánaiste's planned trip to the US will arise.

Tune in at the usual time, 1035pm RTÉ One.

The people that matter most in all of this are the hundreds of thousands of unemployed, many of whom are desperate for some signs of hope.  And tonight we've decided to devote our studio audience exclusively to those people - the unemployed and those who are stuck on training courses and schemes that offer little prospect of a job.  David McWilliams will be joining us to argue that we've been getting it all horribly wrong, Government will be on hand to defend their policies and two of Ireland's most thoughtful employers will be telling us what they think needs to change.
 
You can get involved by posting a comment below or by emailing thefrontlineaudience@rte.ie
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Tonight is the last edition of "The Frontline" for this season and what a momentous 10 months it's been in the life of the nation. What should we make of it all? Has the tens of billions poured into the banks, record unemployment and unprecedented cuts in social welfare and public sector pay amounted to tough medicine that's already showing signs of curing the economy? Or has it been a case of making ordinary citizens pay for the recklessness of bankers and developers? Do you believe the recession has ended or is the worst still to come?[Read More]

Tonight: The Family

Monday, 05 Jul 2010
David Nally
Editor

The vast majority of us have grown up in a family, but what exactly does "family" mean these days? Is a child better off with two parents? Does it matter if the parents are of the same sex? And what if those parents are drug addicts, alcoholics or just bad, neglectful parents - should the state have the right to take the children into care or is a child's best interests always served by being with its "natural" family

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Since Pat Kenny invited people to take part in a special programme on travellers we've been inundated with callers and emailers wanting to be in studio tonight.

We've heard from travellers themselves who talk about the discrimination and poverty they experience but also about problems that need to be faced within the traveller community. We've heard from people who live in areas where they say they experience anti social behaviour and intimidation due to the presence of travellers but also from settled people who say relations between themselves and locally-based travellers is good and that there's no need for such a chasm to exist between the two communities.

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Taoiseach and tourism...

Monday, 21 Jun 2010
David Nally
Editor
 
What a week it's been in Irish politics! At the end of it we appear to have - for the first time - three clear choices for Taoiseach. So should we go for Brian Cowen, Enda Kenny or Eamon Gilmore? Tonight, journalist Diarmaid McDermott, DCU's Marie Louise O'Donnell and law lecturer Donncha O'Connell will be on our panel and each one will be championing the man they consider the best choice for the Top Job. Our audience will get in on the act too with their own reactions to what the panel has to say.
 
Also...
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We've heard lots of stories of victims of the property crash but maybe the most direct victims are the bricklayers, plumbers, electricians etc. who've seen their businesses fold because the property developers they worked for have gone bust. Those subcontractors are usually among the last in line to get paid when a property developer goes into liquidation and their anger is fuelled by a belief that many of the property developers in question still drive fancy cars and live luxury lifestyles.[Read More]

Tonight; Alzheimers services...

Monday, 24 May 2010
David Nally
Editor
Of all the cruel blows that life can deal, Alzheimers has to be one of the cruellest.  Tonight's Prime Time Investigates exposes the reality of life for families who are trying desperately to look after an elderly parent who can no longer fend for themselves and in many cases can't recognise their own children.  So inadequate are state services that one woman was advised by her GP that her only way of forcing the state to care for her mother was to simply abandon her in A&E.
 
In Ireland, Alzheimers care is mainly delivered through a home care/home help service which is described by one expert as "so negligible, it's like there isn't one..it's a sham of a community service."   What service there is is entirely discretionary according to how much money the local HSE has at any given time - needless to say the service is currently in the process of being cut.
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Squeaky bum time...

Monday, 17 May 2010
David Nally
Editor

Alex Ferguson once described the last few weeks of the football season as "squeaky bum time" and that elegant phrase can be applied to what' s going on in Government right now. Brian Lenihan wants to hear by the end of this month from each Minister what cuts they're offering him for 2011 - he's putting on the pressure much earlier than usual which reflects the fact that he wants to know that these savings will really be delivered for the whole of next year.

The Minister has been clear that he's going to reduce the deficit by a further 3bn euro this year with 1bn of that coming from cuts in capital spending and 2bn from current spending cuts and/or tax increases. He has not been a fan of straightforward income tax rises so the 2bn is likely to come from measures to "broaden the tax base" - ie getting something from lower paid people who currently escape income tax and possibly from things like water charges or a new property tax.

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Aftershock

Monday, 10 May 2010
David Nally
Editor
Tonight we're linking up with RTE's special "Aftershock" week which aims to draw lessons from the crisis and point a way forward.  At 9.30pm, in a documentary entitled "Where To Now?" four commentators advocate a specific action or approach we need to take to deal with the effects and guard against this kind of economic calamity happening again.
 
Dan O'Brien of the Economist Intelligence Unit argues that this crisis and previous economic crises are linked to the failings of our political system and that we need to change the way we choose our politicans and our ministers.
 
Richard Curran of the Sunday Business Post questions whether "The Smart Economy" can really provide the number and kind of jobs that we need and urges more realism about our employment future.
 
Justine McCarthy of the Sunday Times argues that ethics and standards should play a far more central role in Irish public life
 
Matt Cooper, presenter of "The Last Word" on Today FM, argues that radical action is needed to remove the millstone of enormous mortgage debt around the necks of Irish households.
 
After that documentary all four authors will appear live on The Frontline to debate these proposals with Government, opposition, Colm McCarthy (best known in recent times as Chairman of "An Bord Snip Nua") and a number of interested experts with strong views to advocate for and against the proposals.  It should be very informative and, we hope, a valuable contribution to the debate on where we go next as a nation. 
Let us know what you think by emailing thefrontline@rte.ie or posting a comment below

Ireland's energy needs...

Monday, 26 Apr 2010

Tonight we look at the energy and power needs of the country, and how the Government should plan to accommodate them. Should we be considering nuclear power? Wind energy? Continued reliance on oil? And how do we shape policy correctly around those aims?

In the most recent budget plans were put in place to introduce carbon taxes, some of which will come into force this coming Saturday. Minister Eamon Ryan will be in studio with Eddie Hobbs, author of Energise; How to Survive and Prosper in an Age of Scarcity, to discuss the merits and reasons for these policy decisions. We'll also have representatives of the Spirit of Ireland group, and wind-energy advocates in the audience.

Tune in, 2235, RTÉ One.

Comments can be sent to thefrontline@rte.ie or by tweeting us at @RTEFrontline and using the hashtag #Rtefl, while we're on air. Do get in touch.

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