Fianna Fáil may have embraced new marketing ideas and purged some grandees whose policies and neglect cost the country its economic independence, but as the weekend ard fheis proved, sugar-coated cynicism remains the stock in trade for the party that has always regarded itself as the party of government — and was prepared to promise more or less anything to anyone that would tighten their grip on power.

The announcement by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that legislation for an inquiry into the banking guarantee will be brought forward over the next two weeks is very welcome.

Speaking in Dublin yesterday at the launch of the latest review of the action plan for jobs, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that the “legacy of devastation” left by Fianna Fáil policies should never be forgotten.

Sport often affords a morale boost in difficult times.

“I call it balancing the budget. Everyone else is using this term ‘austerity’. That makes it sound like something truly evil.”

It is wonderful that the European Court of Justice has found in favour of former Waterford Crystal workers in a case taken to recover pensions feared lost when their employer collapsed.

There can hardly be an Irish person, certainly not an Irish Catholic, whose perception of the institution of the Catholic Church has not been shaped by the child sexual abuse scandals and all of the shabby, criminal efforts made to cover them up.

The haughtiness, the hubris, the sense of entitlement shown by executives at yesterday’s Bank of Ireland AGM was offensive.

Siptu chief Jack O’Connor, one of the union leaders who supported the Croke Park II deal, yesterday returned to the idea of increasing income tax for those earning over €100,000.

The suggestion that Institute of Technology Tralee president Dr Oliver Murphy will initiate an investigation into how an internal complaint over plagiarism was leaked to the press and, possibly, discipline those involved, underlines the urgency around introducing legislation to protect whistleblowers.