AS European justice ministers meet in Brussels today to sign off on the number of refugees each country will take, the sheer scale of coping with the enormity of this appalling crisis is finally dawning on even the most welcoming of nations. That became clear over the weekend when a huge influx of migrants into southern Germany threatened to swamp the city of Munich.

IRELAND’S Rugby Football Union has just appointed a team of advisers it believes can orchestrate a successful all-island bid to host the Rugby World Cup in 2023.

AS we have said many times we have an enthusiasm for enacting laws that is not supported by our enthusiasm for ensuring those laws are obeyed.

ONE of the biggest arms fairs in the world is about to open in London; 30,000 visitors are expected.

FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan and a former IMF deputy director Ajai Chopra yesterday confirmed what has been widely believed for many years — that “advice” offered by the European Central Bank to Ireland as our banks stumbled towards collapse was a thinly-disguised, take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum.

EARLIER this week the Smiddy report was published and — unsurprisingly — it supported the expressed views of Environment Minister Alan Kelly by recommending, by the narrowest possible margin, that Cork City and County Councils be amalgamated.

THE scale of Europe’s refugee crisis appears immense but it could attain biblical proportions in the not too distant future because of the failure of EU nations to agree a common strategy, the lethargy of the United Nations and, notably, climate change.

TRANSPORT Minister Paschal Donohoe has ruled out intervention to prevent further rises in the cost of motor insurance.

OUR unionist neighbours in Northern Ireland and the overwhelming population of the UK as a whole yesterday celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s milestone in becoming Britain’s longest serving monarch.

THAT the report from a five-person committee asked to consider the amalgamation of Cork city and county councils submitted to Environment Minister Alan Kelly last week was adopted by the narrowest possible margin is not at all surprising. Indeed, any other outcome would have been entirely unexpected.