Details published earlier this week about a settlement reached between a mortgage holder and the Bank of Ireland give a good indication of how people struggling under the burden of unsustainable mortgages might see a future with possibilities rather than one of relentless pressure and debt.

So many of today’s pressing issues are brought together in the story of Limerick man Jason Casey and his family.

There has been no satisfactory response from Government about suggestions that the referendum on the EU fiscal pact be deferred.

By increasing its audit activity by 20%, the Revenue Commissioners collected an extra €520m in tax and penalties last year.

Among vulnerable sections of Irish society, many people can justly claim to be victimised by the failure of politicians to legislate.

Artists, writers, and people of culture have long been afforded a special place in the hearts and minds of the Irish people.

Once upon a time a man’s home, or a woman’s, was their castle. It was as inviolable and secure a place as most people knew. Today it seems that, in too many instances, internet access has made a person’s home a branch office of whatever business feeds off the individual’s addiction.

The adage that there is no such thing as a bad dog, only bad dog owners, is still largely true, although not as accurate as it once might have been. Recent attacks on children by large dogs underline the threat posed in what may seem the most innocuous of circumstances.

Politics is, as we have been assured so very often, the art of the possible.

Bill Clinton, though he may have occasionally misused it, has it in spades.