IT is unlikely that we would face water or property taxes if not for the insistence of the EU and the IMF.

DISCORD among Government ministers on the thorny question of whether the country will need another financial bailout package next year to survive its fiscal crisis is particularly worrying at a time when Cabinet members ought to be singing loudly and convincingly from the same hymn sheet.

EXPECTANT mothers have a right to be disturbed over the wide variations in the rate of Caesarean sections, induced births and other surgical procedures in maternity units.

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny and his Government are enjoying the afterglow of two very successful international visits and the poll published yesterday, as the Government approaches 100 days in office, will do nothing to dent its confidence.

THE decision that will allow the Educate Together group to open its first two secondary schools in the next two years is very welcome.

FOR a society that likes to present its country as a green and beautiful land we leave a lot to be desired in the area of environmental protection.

TODAY we mark this week’s 70th birthday of one of the most consistently provocative and insightful artists of our time.

ABOUT half of the population is covered by private health insurance but the proportion is falling.

RATKO MLADIC’S arrest is welcome but it comes more than a decade too late.

SEVERAL thousand farmers protested in Dublin yesterday on two issues that should be of concern to all consumers.