THE annual report from the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) has, over the years, exposed such terrible waste of public resources that we are all in debt to those who prepared it.

IN one of the more positive responses to the recession, Dunnes Stores opened a new flagship store in Cork’s St Patrick’s Street yesterday.

‘A small reality is this country is bust. There is no shortage of compassion; there is a shortage of money.’

TODAY is World Suicide Prevention Day, the objective of which is to promote global commitment and action to prevent suicides.

THERE is a far, far better chance of Kilkenny making it five-in-a-row next September than there is of even half — anyone for a quarter? — of the 230-plus recommendations made by the Commission on Taxation being implemented by this Government. This is not how it should be or, how we wish it to be, but we know in our hearts of hearts that that is what will happen.

IN Ireland we have a long and honoured tradition of novelists recalling dreadful childhoods dominated by poverty, alcoholic fathers and depressed mothers.

THE Commission on Taxation report and Colm McCarthy’s An Bord Snip Nua report are expected to be the predominant influences on the December budget.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) complains that the country out-of-hours emergency services for vulnerable children is “shambolic”.

The story about Albert Reynolds believing that Bertie Ahern shafted him in relation to the Fianna Fáil nominations for the presidency has long been doing the rounds in political circles, but Mr Reynolds has now confirmed it in his memoirs.

MOST of us treat September suggestions from Kilkenny and Kerry hurling and football supporters that they are terribly worried that this might not be their year with an equal degree of scepticism and amusement.