AS WITH so many other socially desirable and entirely justified schemes the cost of providing free legal aid snowballed in recent years.

MEMORIAL services were held around the country yesterday to remember the 22,646 people killed on Irish roads since 1959 when record keeping began.

AS the bleakness of our situation becomes more apparent and, as the grim-reaper December budget creeps upon us, dangerous social polarisation gathers pace.

WHEN a court, on behalf of society, imposes a sentence on someone convicted of a crime several objectives are in play. One is to remove a threat from society; another is to punish the individual and a third is to warn others of the consequences of the behaviour that led to the conviction. It is hard to see how these needs were served in the David Ivers case.

A HUGE cultural change on the consumption of are source once regarded as plentiful, healthy and a cheering part of everyday life is on the way. And it isn’t about how we use oil, it’s about our addiction to meat.

IF someone in any company of consequence signed off on a €3 million contract for machinery without ensuring that it was fit for purpose only to discover that it was not they would be fired.

The Carers’ Association invited ministers, Dáil deputies and senators on the new “Care Bus” to visit the home of family carer Alison McKim, a single mother who provides full-time care for her son Zack in Terenure. Seventeen-year-old Zack has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, asthma and is blind.

In the present depressed state of the economy many business people are probably hoping that the traditional Christmas business boom will provide a much-needed boost. Irish shoppers normally spent over double the EU average around Christmas.

This week much of Europe has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In time it could well be considered as one of greatest seminal moments in world history, akin to the impact of the French Revolution, which began with the fall of the Bastille in 1789.

Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin has indicated that three different levels of child benefit could be introduced in the December budget. Obviously there are going to be some cuts.