THURSDAY’S emergency summit of eurozone leaders needs to be decisive and effective.

THERE is no suggestion that HSE board chairman Dr Frank Dolphin did anything wrong to secure an HSE contract worth almost €300,000 but it still stinks to high heaven.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald announced yesterday that the Government plans to make it mandatory for everybody, including priests, to pass on details of suspected child abuse to the authorities.

Fine Gael promised to abolish the Seanad during the last general election campaign. That was always easier promised than done, because only the electorate can abolish the Seanad in a constitutional referendum.

An elderly nun who was interviewed by RTÉ news in Cobh in the aftermath of the publication of the Cloyne report expressed disappointment that even though only a small percentage of religious were involved in any form of abuse, the issue received such a tremendous amount of publicity.

If people do not wish to be gratuitously insulting, they need to be aware of how their behaviour may be perceived. Where interactions between people are involved, perception is reality.

The Irish Bishops Conference in 1996 lay out the procedures for handling allegations and suspicions of clerical child sex abuse in a document entitled “Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response.”

The findings of a report on trends of alcohol-related deaths in Ireland for the years 2004 to 2008, published yesterday by the Health Research Board, throws much needed light on what remains a serious issue in Irish society.

The Gaelic Athletic Association is the most successful sporting organisation on this island. It has provided state-of-the-art sporting facilities for generations, especially in areas where no other facilities were available.

The Killarney Racing Festival began yesterday in beautiful summer weather.