The Department of Education saved up to €13m last year by not hiring almost 300 special needs assistants for whom budget provision had been made.

Irish and European history offer far too many examples of atrocities inflicted in the name of a god, imagined interpretations of a god’s wishes, or evolving social and political beliefs.

Even without allegations that he paid for sex with an under-age prostitute and tried to cover it up, issues under consideration by a Milanese court, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi cut a sinister if preposterous figure.

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s colourful description of the Department of Health as “Angola”, because administrative “landmines” could explode without warning, is so very memorable because it had, unfortunately, more than a sting of truth in it.

Yesterday’s decision by the Government to push through the Oireachtas budget of €112m for 2013 was entirely inappropriate, especially as every other institution or business in the country must review, if not cut, its expenditure.

The protest rally by about 2,000 teachers outside Leinster House yesterday raises many issues. The three main teacher unions — the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland, and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland — were remonstrating against educational cuts.

The closure of the analogue TV network yesterday marks a significant milestone in the country’s development.

Four stories came together in recent weeks and highlighted the disastrous consequences of silence in the face of blatant public dishonesty and immorality.

That the Government has had to ban hunting of red deer hinds in Co Kerry to protect a remnant population says more about our attitude to wildlife than is comfortable.

As a morality play for our times the Lance Armstrong saga has a pretty hackneyed and distasteful plot.