IF Ireland was not broke we would not consider closing the Seanad, but because we are the €50,000 an hour this ineffective, indulgent — as well as indulged — institution costs when it sits has made its future, all of a sudden, a pressing issue.

THE tens of thousands of people using Cork’s Kinsale Road roundabout every day will not, unless they are of a certain age, remember when one of the region’s great eyesores dominated that corner of the city.

IT’S not as if we needed to be told again, especially on what promises to be a sunny bank holiday weekend, but several times this week we were reminded of the great challenges facing us all.

IT has become standard practice to mark the arrival of a holiday weekend with all sorts of dire warnings about what might befall us.

WHEN he introduced the Criminal Justice 2011 Bill to the Dáil some weeks ago Justice Minister Alan Shatter promised that the legislation would “put an end to any hint of a culture that suggests the white collar criminal is a protected species”.

WE’VE had more food scares than you could wave a turkey nugget and smoked soft cream cheese baguette at. Some have been based on the changing tastes of fashion, others demand our attention in a more powerful, threatening way.

TIME was that inheriting a pub was nearly as good as inheriting a farm — though neither was as enviable as inheriting a Dáil seat.

SOME long-overdue reforms designed to restore faith in our political institutions were announced yesterday.