WE all know how disappointing it can be when someone prematurely points to what they believe, or want us to believe, are the “first green shoots of recovery”.

NOT so very long ago, marking, much less celebrating, the achievements of the British army was almost a taboo subject in Ireland.

EVERY year around this time, the Health and Safety Authority publishes Ireland’s annual toll of death in the workplace.

WHILE no health insurance company has so far moved to pass the latest Government levy onto customers, it would be unwise to hold one’s breath. Sooner or later, in one form or another, you can be sure they will attempt to slip it in to the mounting bills confronting beleaguered customers.

YESTERDAY’S announcement that the Government has set a two-and-a-half year deadline to clean up the toxic dump at Haulbowline in Cork Harbour must be welcomed.

THIS will be a good year for sports fans.

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny’s Government was elected with a stronger mandate for reform than any of its predecessors and though no one expected anything much to change overnight the pace of change, or more accurately the lack of it, is becoming dispiriting.

THE 32 former Vita Cortex workers protesting at what was the company’s Cork headquarters are in a dreadful position.

With the start of the new year the honeymoon period for the Government is clearly over.

There was a time as a new young nation when our membership of international bodies, like the League of Nations, was important to our sense of national self-esteem.