Any Irish person who once believed unquestioningly in the pillar institutions of this society is entitled to feel disappointed, if not betrayed.

People old enough to remember that it sometimes took more than a year to get a telephone installed in a home will have considerable empathy with the primary schools unable to use computer equipment they have paid for because they do not have an adequate internet signal.

We are it seems on the cusp of another destructive round of soaring and bizarre house prices in Dublin. There are hints that this fevered process might spread outside the Pale but it is, for the moment at least, at its most apparent in the capital.

The terrible plight of animals, especially horses, whose owners can no longer afford to, or care to, look after them has been well documented and provoked calls for intervention to end what is sometimes neglect bordering on cruelty.

For decades, the whistleblower within Irish society has been vital in uncovering misbehaviour in institutions as varied as the Catholic Church, the Oireachtas, the banks and the Garda Siochána.

The resignation of Rehab chief executive Angela Kerins once again highlights the need for transparency in so many sectors of Irish society.

Those who oppose the Government will support proceedings in the Dáil today and tomorrow, where a motion of no confidence in Justice Minister Alan Shatter will dominate business.

We assured ourselves, maybe for too long, that our education system is world-class and that those who used it to the full could compete with the very best on the world stage.

It is hard to reconcile Irish conservatism, our political, professional and social inertia, our never-say-die devotion to processes or principles that have failed repeatedly, with today’s received wisdom that man has seen more change in the last century than in all of humanity’s existence.

That five people died in weekend road accidents underlines the disheartening news from the European Commission yesterday that road fatalities in Ireland increased by 19% between 2012 and 2013, compared to an average EU decline of 8%.