_{^{This article presents the findings of a case study which explored how English language competency may impact on the academic achievement of migrant students in higher education in Ireland. The research was conducted on a group of first year Social Studies students at an Institute of Technology. A qualitative approach was used as data was analysed from questionnaires completed by lecturers, and interviews with non-native speakers of English on the impact of language competency on their performance. The emerging issues in the context of language impacting on equality of opportunity for students from migrant backgrounds include firstly the higher likelihood of gaining access to institutes of technology rather than universities; secondly, English language deficits become particularly apparent in the area of academic writing and engagement does not always translate into successful outcomes in the examination process; thirdly, underperformance at third level will also impact on opportunities to pursue postgraduate studies and accessing the labour market. The main inequality identified in this article is one of outcomes rather than of opportunities.}}

Social justice demands that we seek to create the conditions for people to flourish. Yet, our elder care services often treat older people as passive and incapable. Services for older people have traditionally adopted a care and health focus and there has been little emphasis on adult learning especially for people in the 'fourth' age. The findings suggest that the café provides an important forum for learning in a convivial environment with positive impacts for participants and benefits for the organisation itself. The café succeeded in integrating and linking participants with wider communities and promoting further learning opportunities. Located at the intersection of social care work and adult education, the paper argues that the Socrates café helps the participants to be self-advocates and to create the conditions for their own social inclusion. Drawing on the experiences of participants at the Socrates café the paper considers the potential of Community Philosophy to promote greater social engagement in an elder care setting.

This paper employs parents’ own accounts of everyday battles to make ends meet, illustrating how cuts to public expenditure added to the financial adversity and material deprivation that they were already experiencing. An impact of austerity was parents’ approach to SVP for assistance with basic needs such as fuel and food. The parents described feelings of stigma and shame at having to seek charitable support.

During austerity the Irish Government also implemented reform to ‘activate’ lone parents in receipt of the One-parent Family Payment (OFP), a means-tested social assistance payment that does not require jobseeking for qualification, into jobseekers payments when their youngest child reaches 7 years of age. Lone parents (primarily mothers) assisted by SVP are the target cohort of the reform. The reform classifies lone parents as adult full-time workers, rather than being designed to take both caring and working roles into account. The explicit policy aim is reducing poverty and deprivation. The research explored the parents’ reactions to reform and their positive motivations about paid employment, but also their desire for pathways to quality employment that allowed them to be good parents.

The paper concludes that cumulative budgetary austerity in Ireland tightened the rubber band of low-income for families whose incomes were already inadequate to meet a minimum standard of living. With its current design, the reform may discourage working lone parents from employment. Public policy recommendations include developing an incomes policy for lone parent families; reforming the jobs market to ensure that employment betters families’ living standards and is family friendly; and broadening Irish policy to faciliate lone parents in their roles as parents and workers.