Fintan Dunne:

R ight To Water campaigners secured vital victory today as the EU citizens initiative (ECI) on water was steered by Sinn Féin MEP, Lynn Boylan to a clear 38 to 22 vote victory at a meeting of the EU Environment Committee. Around 1.9 million citizens across Europe had signed up to back the EU's first ECI initiative, which aims to assert the ordinary citizen's right of to access to water - and thus counters an international trend towards neoliberal privatization in law and trade agreements. “I am especially pleased to see that my amendments excluding water services from internal market rules and trade agreements such as TTIP were successful," said Lynn Boylan - an Irish MEP for Dublin. The two-thirds margin of victory strengthens the hand of campaigners, and though the vote is not binding on the European Commission, the outcome makes it far harder to ignore opposition to the inclusion of water in international trade agreements such as TTIP. [Source Links] ht...

An online poll has found that 63% of younger Greeks do not fear an exit from the Euro currency. Just over 1,800 people aged 22-45 took part in the survey, which was conducted by think tank ' Bridging Europe ', from 16-19th June, 2015. The poll also found that 80% regarded unemployment as the greatest negative consequence of economic austerity policies,and 69% believed that the financial institutions were responsible for the talks deadlock.

This is yet more evidence of just how comprehensively Irish people were royally screwed . From its inception in the IFSC to its implosion via ANGLO, NAMA and IBRC - all has been fraud, built on more fraud, built on dubiously legal fraud. At least it's on the parliamentary record. Though that makes no difference right now, because nobody is actually reporting or discussing it.   Except for us conspiracy theorists.     p.s. you know who you are <wink> Deputy Peter Mathews:       The House and the people of Ireland owe a "Thank You" to Deputy Catherine Murphy for persistently bringing this matter to the attention of the people of Ireland and the Dáil. We must have openness and light on the biggest banking collapse in the civilised world to date. As an outcome Anglo Irish Bank, now IBRC, and NAMA have a combined written down value of assets in the order of some €60 billion to €65 billion. Around one million people in Ireland toda...