The Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services - Ireland (AIMSI) is a national non-profit organisation which offers support services and lobbies for changes in the Irish Maternity System.

AIMSI's regional chapters of AIMSI Northeast , AIMSI Mid-Leinster , and AIMSI West have publicly called for Consumer Groups to be implemented in the 3 Dublin Maternity Hospitals and Galway's UCHG in order to better assist communications between hospital management, staff, and consumers. read full story / add a comment

RSF have called for new Irish language mobile phones to be made available throughout the country. read full story / add a comment

Shell announced second quarter profits of $8,000,000,000 today. The company is currently exploiting Irish Natural gas off the west coast for which it is liable for zero royalties. While tax may be charged at some point in the future on Shell Ireland's profits, the Anglo-Dutch company has shown itself to be skilled in avoiding tax when it can.

Irish gas bills for domestic users are set to raise by 20% in September, with another 20% rise expected in the new year.
The Irish state owns no stake in the Corrib field.
New licences on the same giveaway terms are currently being issued for Irish offshore blocks in the Rockall Basin. http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Natural/Petroleum+Affairs+Divis...d.htm read full story / add a comment

Irish women are often starved in labour despite there being significant benefits to eating - and significant risks to being starved.

Why hasn't Irish medical care caught up with the 21st Century?

Should women eat and drink freely in labour ?

Read on..... read full story / add a comment

There is great trepidation among farmers that their stranglehold on the price of basic foodstuffs within the EEU is under threat from Peter Mandelson read full story / add a comment

ACRA had today stated that it will be opposed to any attempt to bring back Rates by a property Tax. They reiterated their demand for no taxes on a prinicipal family residence read full story / add a comment

The ongoing debate about how school pupils should transfer from primary to post-primary school in Northern Ireland raises fundamental questions about the type of society we want to live in. read full story / add a comment

Ref: Greenore Port Consultation: 1st and 2nd July 2008 in Greenore Assembley Room in respect of claiming the foreshore for 300 metre pier etc. read full story / add a comment

Includes text no longer available on the Oireachtas timeline for this issue. read full story / add a comment

Further information including who to contact (in regards to http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87991 ) read full story / add a comment

It's amazing that an active politician, albeit of the right, has found himself in the privileged
position of both funding and financing a hate crime movie. The man know the laws of
his country and is an elected official thus we can all presume that the only reason that
he made it was for ego-indulgence. Lots of politicos do that- its called abuse of office.

How far we have come from being privileged to study the word and poetry of Islam?
Sufism provided many international writers with an area of study and cross-cultural
pollination that has benefited Western art and literature in the poetry of Hughes and
the writing of Lessing , to name two. Westergaard got an injunction to have his
image removed- it was opposed to fanaticism, not Islam.

http://www.nrc.nl/international/article1032015.ece/Wild...ction
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7310439.stm read full story / add a comment

Below is a letter that I recently sent to about 120 newspapers. A small number have got back to me to say they are featurising the story. Others are publishing it as a letter. The Sunday Business Post got in contact to see if it was sent to anyone else (I haven't heard from them since I said it was; my personal thought it that if it's not their scoop, they're not interested). It has also been sent to Tesco (without a reply, yet!).

Feel free to copy/distribute/send to Tesco. read full story / add a comment

Tokophobia is a debilitating fear of childbirth which in many cases is so profound that it can lead to a complete avoidance of pregnancy or a pregnancy filled with terror and anxiety. read full story / add a comment

The Irish language name for Smithfield Square in Dublin is Margadh na Feirme, which reflects the fact that the area has been a market for a very long time. Cattle were once driven in from Meath and sold on the square, as well as poultry and other livestock. Horses have always been traded here.
read full story / add a comment

RSF have described the Aer Lingus' move to Aldergrove from Shannon as a cynical attempt to increase their own profits. read full story / add a comment

Aer Lingus have only self-interest at heart. read full story / add a comment

More and more Irish women are being offered early inductions to avoid labour on Christmas day. Is this ethical ? Is this safe? read full story / add a comment

AIMS Ireland (Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services) would like to release the web-link to our most recent online survey concerning the availability of information and consent within the Irish Maternity System.
Please see a brief summary below of the aims and objectives of this survey.
read full story / add a comment

A protest of Sligo and Letrim women converged on the Dail this early afternoon, with
Balloons, a pipe-band and attendant politicians (from all parties except PD's).
The Junior Minister for Health (FF) came out and addressed the crowd, some of who
were tired and upset. After a battery of 'political suits' someone had the bright idea to
put the women on the platform and the stories came out. They have said that they will
no longer travel to access treatment which they have worked and paid for.
They said they do not require a two tier health system and that indeed they have
a centre of excellence already. They spoke of leaving home and family with query
breast cancer and having to access bus, train or taxi to be there for their kids.
Largely they said 'enough'. read full story / add a comment

This morning the DOHC [Department of Health and Children] press released on the OECD
report on Healthcare. The report is set in a time period that ends at 2005. The DOHC decided
not to add the link onto their website so I am publishing it here.

Apparently we are doing quite well on Health, a bit of critical underspend and the necessity for
the department to juggle the figures. Of course the 2007 Breast Cancer Crisis is not mentioned
on this file,but directly under the link there can be found the statement by Ms Harney on
the issue (dated last week- the scandal broke on the 4th of September). read full story / add a comment