The Dáil resumes after the summer today and, as Gerard Howlin puts it so succinctly elsewhere on this page, it does so “serene in the knowledge that alone of the five main legislative assemblies on these islands, it is impervious to the possibility of effective change”.

Any country, especially one as rich as this, where the capital’s city council is “seriously looking” at building prefabs on derelict sites to house homeless families probably does not need an outside agency to warn it that destructive and dangerous social inequity is growing.

Yesterday, as asylum seekers protested over the very difficult conditions and the inordinate delays they face in direct provision centres right across the country, reports, as yet unconfirmed, that about 500 migrants fleeing from North Africa had been murdered by human traffickers who sank their boat following a dispute, emerged. Two survivors were the source of the story published by Maltese media.

Musician Paul Brady’s criticism of U2’s $100m (€77.3m) — reputedly — deal with Apple to release their new album free to iTunes users will resonate with anyone whose work can be accessed through the internet without payment.

If weekend reports that gardaí are still cancelling penalty points for law-breaking  drivers are true, and there is absolutely no reason to imagine that they are not, then our police force has become a sorry, dysfunctional and, though it is tragic and frightening to have to use these descriptions, a corrupt and out-of-control force.

In a week that will culminate, in Scotland at least, with the most profound and far-reaching  expression  of democracy,  it is disheartening to learn that nearly one-in-three - 30% - of   Irish people aged between 18 and  25 are not registered to vote.

The exceptional summer weather stretching into autumn has brought unusual visitors to our shores.

Nearly every culture clings to the idea of redemption, because without that prospect, whether it is real or not, it would almost be too hard to be human.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s insistence that the real focus of his rebuke to recently-appointed Health Minister Leo Varadkar was the negativity — or objectivity if you prefer — that shaped the briefing report given to the new minister by civil servants is not credible.

Nama announced yesterday that it has identified sites linked to its debtors where 25,000 housing units might be built.