IF there is even a grain of possibility in the suggestion in the report to Government on the Clerys closure by Minister for Business and Employment Ged Nash that, in economic terms, the State may well turn out to be the biggest loser as it might have to pay entitlements to former employees of the company then new legislation is required urgently.

AMERICAN billionaire Donald Trump does not seem a natural eco warrior but yesterday’s An Bord Pleanála ruling that brought a four-year battle over a proposed windfarm near his Doonbeg golf resort to an end may cause the Republican presidential hopeful a moment’s pause for thought.

IT must be terribly disheartening for those involved in trying to reform our health services to have to acknowledge that overcrowding in hospital emergency departments and wards has increased by 51%, when compared with the same month last year.

DESPITE the Athens euphoria that followed Sunday’s “No” vote, and despite the resignation of the unclubbable Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in a flurry of self-righteous claptrap, the weary, battered and bruised people of Greece are, more or less, in the exact same postion they were this day last week — except they have even less cash.

IF the Greek crisis shows international capitalism in its very worst light then the scandalous treatment of Clerys workers by that company’s new owners is a perfect example of the abuse of financial power at a domestic level. Yesterday the High Court confirmed the appointment of joint liquidators to the company which once operated Clerys.

NEARLY every parish in Ireland has a version of Independent TD Mick Wallace’s startling Dáil revelations about the sale in 2014 to Cerberus Capital Management of Nama’s Northern Ireland loan book. 

IN a country as susceptible to brainwashing as any — after all, we had a notorious Republican described as a political prisoner just last week — we should listen carefully to the words of Radhia Manai.

AS any court functionary will confirm, the lower levels of our justice system would have far less to do if, like those socially peculiar countries Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, we banned alcohol.

THE people of Greece arrive at a crossroads tomorrow, even if it seems that all roads lead to more or less the same unattractive, unavoidable destination.

THERE can hardly be a country in the world better placed than this one to understand the need, the absolute obligation, to have robust and effective child protection services and policies in place.