THE Government is to be congratulated on convincing the European Commission to delay Israel’s access to private data on European citizens.

EARLIER this week new, mandatory measures for learner drivers were announced in an effort to convince younger people to drive more safely.

THE far-too-frequent road tragedies involving young people made it inevitable that the measures announced by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) yesterday would include stiffer sanctions than those imposed heretofore.

THE animal welfare debate has raged for generations and it has often been hijacked to give vent to resentments that have nothing to do with animals.

BEFORE the end of next year we will elect a new president. This presents an opportunity we should take full advantage of. It gives us a chance to express in the clearest terms how we expect to be represented.

THOUGH he would want most of his work to be remembered Mick Lally will live on in the nation’s imagination as Miley Byrne, a pivotal character in the loved classic of Irish television, Glenroe.

NO MATTER how thick-skinned politicians are there must be the more perceptive and caring ones, sick to the teeth of virulent criticism.

OUR summer has been punctuated by road tragedies that suggest there is a core of young people who disregard all safety advice even if it is accompanied by the starkest evidence.

WILL the banks ever learn?

WITH the death toll on the country’s roads mounting by the day, any initiative that may succeed in reducing the carnage has to be welcomed.