Transport Minister Leo Varadkar’s audacity seems to know no bounds.

There is a depressing sense of closing the stable door after the horse bolted about the new child protection standards drawn up by Hiqa, the health and social services watchdog.

At a time when people find it hard to put bread on the table, or can’t meet mortgage payments, the high cost of school uniforms will impose a further burden on weary parents.

THE unlikely prospect of TDs voting to axe the number of their own kind in Dáil Éireann smacks of turkeys voting for Christmas.

THE proposal to enable people who believe that a child’s welfare is at risk to seek state intervention in the courts is a particularly welcome development.

Since the demise of the Celtic Tiger economy, the number of people being committed to jail for non-payment of court-ordered fines has been growing precipitately, from 2,520 in 2008 to 4,470 in the first six months of 2012.

Increments and work bonuses, costing more than €40.8m, are to be paid to 29,032 health workers this year.

In the interview published in today’s Irish Examiner, it is hardly surprising that Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin says he “remains to be convinced” that the Oireachtas should legislate for the X case.

Religious orders profess to be sorry for the child abuse that took place in their institutions over the decades, but they have been very slow in paying their share of the €1.3m redress bill.

Art imitates life, but in Colorado early yesterday morning they had a gruesome example of life imitating art.