ENDA KENNY stated the blindingly obvious yesterday when he said it was not acceptable that banks do not pass on low interest rates to their customers.

Talks aimed at averting a two-day strike at Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus broke down at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday which means that hundreds of thousands of commuters face travel chaos this weekend.

LIKE the curate’s egg, the ruling of the European Court of Justice on the contentious question of the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood donations is likely to be seen by Health Minister Leo Varadkar as ‘good and bad’ in parts. 

THE high moral ground can be a cold and lonely place, especially when occupied by so-called liberals who prove to be hypocrites. 

POLITICIANS are generally accused of having necks as tough as certain unmentionable parts of a jockey’s anatomy. 

IN a country that can’t agree on marriage equality it may seem recklessly premature to suggest that we might have to reconsider how we manage fatal illnesses, end-of-life decisions, and basic human dignity and sensitivity when the path to an imminent death is marked with nothing more uplifting than personality collapse and drug-induced detachment. 

AS THE Siteserv furore shows, the point where public and business interests meet is often a deep, murky bog, one pretty difficult to negotiate unless you’ve crossed it before.

KERRY County Council told a meeting of councillors yesterday that the local authority has endured a 54% drop in funding for regional or local roads over the last seven years. The Kingdom is not alone on this basic issue.

A COMMON theme running through nearly all evidence given to the banking inquiry is that our light-touch regulation facilitated poor practice. However, it seems we have not learnt the core lesson. We are to replace light-touch regulation with light-touch school examinations.

WHEN he was asked about leadership options in Fianna Fáil late last year, the venerable Willie O’Dea declared: “And I say this with the greatest respect to my colleagues — I respect each and every one of them — I look around the [parliamentary party] table in my mind’s eye, and I don’t see the messiah and when I look in the mirror I don’t see him either.”