MOST of us are lucky enough to have the luxury of being blase about the latest gangland atrocity or drug smuggling operation uncovered by the gardaí.

YESTERDAY’S decision by Minister of State for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Conor Lenihan to reopen a commercial salmon fishery in Kerry’s Castlemaine Harbour is a disgrace.

MINISTER Eamon Ryan cannot have been the only one surprised by the passions stirred by his suggestion that Six Nations and Heineken Cup rugby might be designated free-to-air events for television.

THERE are few events as heart-rending as watching a loved one slowly disappear into the suffocating embrace of a fatal, degenerative disease.

IF the one million plus people who rely on Dublin Fire Brigade to come to their help in their moment of crisis have their confidence in the service undermined by a report that has uncovered poor management and training, then we would be foolish not to wonder if similar problems exist in the country’s 36 other fire services.

THE suggestion, as yet unconfirmed by the Minister for Children Barry Andrews or the Health Services Executive, that up to 200 children have died while in the care of the state over that last decade is astounding.

THE appalling inadequacy of facilities for troubled teenagers in this benighted country is starkly underlined by today’s disturbing revelation that no service has yet been provided to fill the void left by the closure of the state’s main secure unit.

WHETHER mankind is on the verge of playing God, following claims of a major breakthrough by US scientists, is already the subject of the kind of heated debate that has accompanied every advance in the history of science. The dispute is focused on whether the claimed test-tube discovery is genuine or merely a public relations stunt.

Were it not for their dedication and commitment to children, matched only by the anger and frustration of the voluntary organisations at the coalface of child protection in Ireland, the Ryan report might well be consigned to a convenient shelf where it would quietly gather dust.

IF ever there was a wake-up call for a Fianna Fáil party languishing in the doldrums and increasingly unpopular in the popular mind, it is in the pages of a confidential internal report containing more than 100 recommendations published in detail for the first time today.