Justice Minister Alan Shatter has agreed to attend an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday to discuss the GSOC bugging controversy. This may seem a concession, but Mr Shatter’s incomplete Dáil statement last week makes any other response impossible. Had he decided not to attend, that would have been unacceptable and thrown more fuel on a blazing fire.

Over the weekend, British Labour party leader Ed Miliband warned that climate change is now “an issue of national security that has the potential not only to destabilise and cause conflict between regions of the world, but to destroy the homes, livelihoods, and businesses of millions of British people”.

CONFUSION and spin. That’s what we have now. Confusion over whether the Garda ombudsman was bugged or not. And spin. Spin against the ombudsman on one hand and spin against the gardaí and Justice Minister Alan Shatter on the other.

The constancy and speed of change, its relentless advance and undeniable force, have become a motif of our times.

The momentum to challenge the destructive role of poor, sugary foods in our diet and lives, especially in our children’s development, is at last gathering momentum. Even at this late hour, this is to be welcomed and encouraged to the point where policymakers are emboldened to become far more assertive, less timorous, than they are today. It is, after all, a matter of life or death, primarily the lives of the poorest, least educated in society.

This has been a very bad week for Taoiseach Enda Kenny, possibly the worst since he assumed that office.

It is extremely troubling that confusion and obfuscation continue to surround the suspected bugging at the office of the Garda Siochána Ombudsman Commission.

Further proof, if it were needed, that global warming is upon us, has been delivered by mother nature with a resounding wallop felt from one end of the country to the other.

Anorexia nervosa is a bewildering mental illness that can have profound, occasionally lethal, consequences for those unfortunate enough to suffer from the condition.

That Minister for Justice Alan Shatter was able to tell the Dáil last evening that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission had informed him there was no evidence that its offices had been under technical or electronic surveillance is a very welcome development.