There has been great angst in some circles over the implications of the Personal Insolvency Bill, due to be published tomorrow.

The year 2011 was the busiest so far for the Office of the Ombudsman with some 3,600 complaints, according to the annual report presented to the Oireachtas yesterday.

The Government has approved the Personal Insolvency Bill, but it will not be published until next Friday.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has suggested that pay increments should be deferred, especially when public services are being cut.

Speaking in Cork last week, former US president Bill Clinton noted that Ireland was the only country in Europe that had a younger workforce than the United States.

In recent years people have been encouraged to do their banking electronically.

The DPP, Claire Loftus, called last May for reform of pre-trial procedures.

Co-operation Ireland, a charitable organisation involved in reconciliation activities on both sides of the border, has among its patrons both President Michael D Higgins and Queen Elizabeth II.

The annual report of the Pensions Board has raised serious concerns about a significant drop of over 38,000 in the number of people with occupational pension schemes during the last two years.

Ireland may not be corrupt in the way Mugabe’s Zimbabwe or Putin’s Russia is — citizens don’t disappear if they challenge the incumbent autocrat, the majority don’t starve while a kleptomaniac dictator drains the public coffers — but that legislation as obvious and basic as that advanced this week suggests we have some considerable catching up to do if we are to at least confront corruption in Irish life.