THE Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report on Portlaoise Hospital that found that managers at all levels in the HSE — local, regional, and national — were aware of patient safety risks at the hospital but failed to act on them is not unexpected.

EUROPE’S policy — our policy — on asylum seekers is a moral and political failure. It may, in time, become the catalyst for terrible social division. In time it will certainly be ranked among the great inhumanities the rich and secure inflicted on the destitute and powerless.

IT is hard to argue with the call from the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation for at least an extra 1,000 public hospital beds to deal with lengthening waiting lists. Today there are more than 412,400 people waiting to see a consultant at an outpatient clinic for an initial consultation, this is the highest figure on record.

ON the face of it it seems at least unsatisfactory that Kildare County Council has refused to publish a report outlining major fire concerns discovered in an estate where six homes were turned into a smouldering ruins in minutes.

BRITAIN goes to the polls today to elect a new government and if political punditry is worthy of even passing attention the result will map an utterly novel but challenging political landscape for our nearest neighbours. 

IT is entirely appropriate, but overdue, that the Government has decided to end the farce of jailing people for a few hours because they have not paid fines imposed for relatively minor offences.

TODAY, May 7, marks another significant World War I centenary, especially for the communities dotted along the south coast of Ireland.

THREE developments yesterday suggested that we should be very cautious about allowing expectations around the idea of significant pay increases gather a momentum that cannot be satisfied. 

ALARM bells have been ringing so loudly and for so very long about the escalating obesity epidemic that it is difficult to make the kind of impression that might help avert the crisis.

THE assurance given yesterday by Dublin Airport Authority chief executive Kevin Toland that Cork Airport’s €200m debt is not a factor in its current difficulties is a welcome clarification but it does not change the impression that the facility seems caught in a spiral of decline. His assertion was echoed by Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy.