In the industrial age, 80% of people were hired for their skills from the neck down, but in today’s information age, 80% are hired for their attributes from the neck up.

The Carers’ Association have expressed outrage at the decision of the Department of the Environment to cut the senior alert scheme budget by over half, from €2.24m in 2012 to €1.15m this year.

It is a characteristic of despots whose time as a supreme leader, unquestioned and all-powerful, nears an inevitable and bloody end that they grow ever more careless of the welfare of the people they once imagined loyal, happy citizens of their autocracy.

The difficulties surrounding new arrangements for sanctioning and delivering a third of student grants suggests once again that our public service finds change more difficult than they should.

Last week, Enterprise Ireland were able to report that exporters created more jobs last year than in any year since 2006.

It would be wrong to hope that we might escape from our past but surely it is not asking too much to be able to put it aside and concentrate on building a better future for everyone on this island?

The flag protests in Belfast have moved from being disheartening and, let’s be honest, slightly embarrassing to being deeply worrying. If the current trend continues decades of work to build peace, hopefully a lasting, island-wide peace, will be threatened, if not undone.

The holidays are remote enough now to allow great numbers of people to begin the hard slog of turning their New Year resolutions into real achievement.

At this time of the year, many people renew insurance policies.

Though a hardy annual, dog attacks on sheep never fail to shock because of the wanton cruelty and carelessness — and loss of income — involved. The attack on a flock in Roscommon over the Christmas holidays, which left 46 ewes dead, highlighted the issue again.