THE Dáil returned from its spring break yesterday and if most of us were to be honest we’d far prefer to try clean up the scandalous mess left by Michael Fingleton at Irish Nationwide — a loss of €2.9bn for 2009 — rather than take on the huge challenges facing our Government.

MRSA infection in Irish hospitals costs over €23m a year, the bones of €500,000 a week.

MINISTER for the Environment John Gormley’s announcement yesterday that the Government is to undertake a multi-billion euro investment programme to upgrade water services is as welcome as it is overdue.

IT is unfortunate that workers who were unable to return to work after holidays because their flights were grounded may have to forgo further holidays to cover the lost days.

LIVING in a temperate climate we can easily forget how powerless we are in the face of destructive nature.

THERE are few enough events in life as traumatic has feeling obliged to give up a newborn child for adoption.

A NUMBER of events conspired this week to suggest the future just might be different, in very important ways, to the past. It is not overstating the case to suggest they might even be a cause for minor celebration.

IT may seem incongruous to criticise those who start illegal gorse fires as Europe’s airlines are greatly curtailed by a volcano but there is not much we can do about one and we are responsible for the other.

FIVE years ago today — it was a Saturday — a depressed and rejected 28-year-old Sharon Grace, and her daughters, four-year-old Abby and three-year-old Mikahla, left this world because Sharon could neither cope with life nor get the kind of help from the State that might have got her through the terrible dark hours that led to three needless deaths.

YESTERDAY’S appointment of a permanent administrator to Quinn Insurance may, in time to come, be seen as a turning point on our road to recovery.