Education Minister Ruairi Quinn was derided at Easter when he suggested that the depth of the economic crisis had not yet been understood by some people in the education sector.

Two reports today remind us our justice system is neither working for criminals or their victims.

Some months ago the Department of Health accepted that the smoking ban has not had any real impact in reducing the number of people who smoke in Ireland.

Though it’s been five years it’s hard to forget the earnest individual manning the protest line at Croke Park when the English rugby team played there in what has become to be recognised as one of the great milestones in our recent history.

Besides indulging in semantics, Fine Gael is defending the indefensible in the latest row over six-figure pay cheques for experts.

It is outrageous that County Cork VEC should risk splurging public money in a possible defamation action against this newspaper over a probe into its finances.

The advances made in medicine over the past century and a half have been phenomenal.

The president of the Garda Representative Association, has questioned why, in the midst of the struggle against crime in this country, the Government has a ban on the recruitment of gardaí, while 600 extra personnel were being recruited by the Defence Forces.

The Government is, by its own hand, mired in a communications disaster approaching something like Cowenesque darkness.

Anyone involved in our court system listening to early-morning radio reports on Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik’s trial might be forgiven it they pulled up mid-stride, aghast at what they heard from Oslo.