In these depressing times, good news is as scarce as hen’s teeth.

In these depressing times, good news is as scarce as hen’s teeth.

For 17 years after its approval as a cholesterol-lowering drug, Lipitor was the best-selling branded medicine in the history of the pharmaceutical industry and a goldmine for Pfizer.

The latest employment figures released by the Central Statistics Office are encouraging. The number of people signing on has fallen for the 16th month in a row.

Deciding to shut down town councils and centralise local government within county council structures is one thing, but implementing the decision is a very different matter. What is going to happen to the buildings now housing the local council offices, and what is going to happen to the people working in them?

It will come as no surprise to those working at the coalface of poverty that elderly people are travelling up and down country by train simply to keep warm.

Two starkly contrasting faces of Ireland — one impressively hi-tech and the other depressingly reminiscent of a third-world country — were highlighted as Enda Kenny rang a bell in Dublin to open yesterday’s trading session on the New York-based Nasdaq stock exchange.

The publication this week of a report recommending an overhaul of Ireland’s copyright laws is to be welcomed. However, less welcome is the response of Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton.

Just as we breathed a sigh of relief two years ago to see Queen Elizabeth safely leave our shores, the exit of Ireland’s economic babysitters will bring a certain amount of contentment to those charged with managing our economic crisis.

Are we about to have another property bubble? The signs are ominous. The rising cost of houses and offices and the shortage of sites is pushing prices up to a level unimaginable even a few months ago. It is mostly centred on Dublin, but not entirely.