AT its most basic the notion of high-rise apartments as a solution to urban housing pressures always has, and always will be, an uncomfortable or opportunistic compromise rather than an endeavour to maximise the potential for human happiness.

THE Banteer families who have settled actions against windfarm companies will go down in history as the recipients of a landmark judgment which links the noise pollution caused by turbines to the requirement for sustainable energy.

THOUGH little more than a closing footnote in a long career — he joined the Dáil in 1981— Finance Minister Michael Noonan will take some satisfaction in the fact that, on his last day as a minister, his warnings that AIB shares were overvalued have been vindicated.

IT is not so long ago that a milestone was passed in the rural/urban divide. In the last decade, for the first time, more people lived in cities than outside them. 

ONE of the noble but Sisyphean tasks the heroic among us undertake is breaking the cycle of poverty. Various agencies are dedicated to this high ideal, one determined to celebrate our humanity by sharing life-changing opportunity with all.

ENDA KENNY will resign as Taoiseach today, bringing to an end a journey that began in 1975 when he was elected to Dáil Éireann to succeed his father, Henry. 

IT is entirely appropriate that security measures be updated to neutralise those who would destroy our way of life. The legislation to allow security agencies wider access to email and internet communications, already in place for phone communications, is being prepared.

THE capacity of social media to influence events, as the need for strengthened telecommunications legislation discussed above shows, seems almost limitless. 

AT a valedictory dinner organised by cabinet colleagues for Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Finance Minister Michael Noonan at Farmleigh, last week, Mr Kenny made a farewell speech. 

THERE was more than enough farce and ill-conceived opportunism in last week’s British election to justify a rejuvenation of Yes Minister, that wonderfully sharp foil to the faux pomp and vainglory driving some political ambition.