Declan Ganley was effusive in his praise of Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s handling of the second Lisbon referendum.

In the run up to the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the opposition parties obviously had little stomach for a political confrontation over the extravagant expenses of John O’Donoghue as Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism.

DANISH researchers have predicted that more than half of the children born into comfortable circumstances today will live well into the next century.

THE nurture versus nature debate has bubbled away for centuries. There are those who believe that a person, a character can be formed by either positive or negative influences. There are others who believe that each of us is born with the character that will shape our lives. One view is humanist and optimistic, the other fatalistic and less than inspiring.

INFORMATION technology was one of the centre planks of Ireland’s recent economic expansion and it will be central to any recovery.

BUILDING a new city street at any time would be an achievement but in the midst of a crippling recession it represents a spectacular landmark.

The unemployment rate has risen to a 13-year high of over 12% and, despite some more promising figures released yesterday, economists predict unemployment will exceed 13% next year. In the past year the numbers have soared by 78%, to over 440,000.

“I’m as frustrated as every other citizen in this country that we’re not seeing bankers in jail yet,” Finance Minister Brian Lenihan told RTÉ’s Prime Time on the eve of the anniversary of the Government’s €400 billion bank guarantee scheme.

In its annual report issued yesterday, Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) stated that serious problems relating to heroin use are no longer confined to cities but are now prevalent in regional towns. The heroin problem has become a national crisis.

Not so many years ago people in Limerick were annoyed over the way the number of stabbings in the city were being highlighted, but these days there have been stabbings in just about anywhere in the country. There were fatal stabbings in Dublin and Blarney over the weekend, as well as two separate stabbings in Tralee.