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Sinn Fein’s motion calling for immediate legislation to allow for an abortion where the mother’s life is at risk is being debated in the Dail while the Government parties’ counter motion supports the Minister for Health's recommendation that the expert group report should be published immediately after it is brought to Cabinet next Tuesday. I am joined on the line from Dail Eireann by Mary Lou McDonald Deputy Leader of Sinn Fein and by Ciara Conway of Labour.
Valerie Cox has been speaking to people who work in the public sector and who are concerned about what the budget will bring. Pat then spoke with Kevin Callanan, Deputy General Secretary of IMPACT and Sean Murphy, Deputy Chief Executive of Chambers Ireland.
It could be said that Irish sport is experiencing a bit of a slump at the moment. Boxers aside, the Irish Olympic team came home with precious little. Our soccer team have seen brighter days to see the least. Our rugby team is more competitive, but we’ve lost the last five test matches in a row.
Could non Irish born talent be the solution to our woes? Are we missing a trick? 25 per cent of the German soccer squad for example, come from migrant backgrounds...
Pat was joined by Ken McCue of Sport Against Racism Ireland and by former Irish rugby international Victor Costello.
After much anticipation that a ceasefire would be reached between Israel and Hammas no deal was struck. So, it was a night of renewed Israeli air strikes on Palestinian militants in Gaza and return rocket attacks from Hamas.
Meanwhile, International efforts to finalise a ceasefire are being stepped up as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton continues her diplomacy and is due to meet Egypt's President, Mohammed Morsi this morning, following talks with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Joining Pat were Shashank Joshi, Assoc. Fellow, Royal United Institute in London, Ruadhan McCormaic, Irish Times and Richard Crowley, RTE.
By Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum’s new book, "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe," focuses on how the Soviet Union turned Poland, East Germany and Hungary into totalitarian states after World War II. Her research took her into former secret police archives, as well as the archives of government ministries, German art academies, the Hungarian Film Institute and East German and Polish radio.
She also conducted interviews with people in those countries who lived through the period she writes about, 1944 to 1956. Anne Applebaum won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for her book "Gulag” and she joined Pat this morning.
Pat was also joined by Paul McNamara, is an Irish Research Council PhD scholar at NUI Galway, living in Poland, studying the Polish settlement of the former German lands along the Baltic Sea which came to Poland after the Second World War.
