Siptu members in a number of Section 39 employments have voted for industrial action. The long-running dispute brings ourselves, the INMO and Siptu back to the WRC on Monday.

The Irish Times reports this morning that a Department of Finance official has questioned Government plans to ban goods from illegal Israeli settlements, as officials in the Department of Defence have been asked to cost a massive expansion of the Irish military, including the purchase of a squadron of jet fighters. 

Deportations are now (performatively) included on the Government's agenda, and new research shows graduates with PhD qualifications benefit from a significant earnings premium in the years after they graduate from college compared to those with masters and honours degrees. 

Finally, let's extend a warm welcome to former senator Paul Gavan, who will take up the role of campaigning and advocacy officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on Monday. 

Zen 

Following the publication of the latest CSO earnings figures this week, the arts remains one of the lowest paid sectors in the country. There are around 55,000 people employed in the arts in Ireland, but the sector continues to earn significantly less than the national average wage, despite our global reputation as a hotbed of creative genius. 

Morale must be difficult to maintain at the best of times, and survival can too often depend on working for nothing, and this raises the issues of class, affluence and access, which Brianna Parkins writes very well about here. It's why music artists now have to spend so much time engineering their socials to get our attention, and why we cannot allow emerging technologies to take over the act of creation through the medium of theft.

Have a lovely weekend.

Niall Shanahan