Although we are less than three years into the recession, some 18,000 people have been unemployed for over five years, according to the Department of Social Protection. The figure has doubled since 2003.

AS anyone who has tried to sell a house or a business recently will confirm, you need to be very lucky or very patient to realise the price you expect for your property.

ANYONE who heard Christina Donnelly speak during the week about how her life changed when her son Brendan and his friend Lee Salkeld were killed by a drunken driver will agree with more or less any measure designed to make our roads safer.

IF asked to choose between supporting a family unable to repay a mortgage that was once manageable or foreclosing bankers the vast majority of Irish people will, without hesitation and maybe even with a degree of satisfaction, support the embattled family or individual.

LAST Saturday the Irish rugby team returned to its home stadium to host world champions South Africa. Amazingly fewer than 40,000 people turned up for what should have been a wonderful occasion.

FOLLOWING the reckless behaviour of the cabal who ran Anglo Irish Bank into the ground, dragging the country’s economy down with them, taxpayers will be incensed by today’s revelation concerning the healthy state of the bank’s pension fund.

HUNDREDS of ex-workers from Greencore’s sugar plant in Mallow can be forgiven for feeling aggrieved by the European Court of Auditors finding that closing the factory in 2006 may not have been necessary.

ANYONE dependent on a rogue landlord for accommodation is not in ideal position.

DESPITE the great optimism and relief that greeted Brian Cowen’s appointment as Taoiseach opinion poll after opinion poll has recorded a relentless collapse in his support.

THE basic, non-contributory pension should not be cut other than in the most exceptional circumstances.