WHETHER the reduction in the number of junior ministers will lead to more effective government only time will tell.

WITH the country bracing itself for the harshest hair-shirt budget in the history of the state tomorrow, it behoves Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to remember that if his second budget in five months fails to be both credible and effective, Ireland will be in jeopardy.

THE first reverberations of anger over the clampdown on pay, promotion and recruitment in the gardaí will be heard this week as middle-ranking officers hold their annual conference in Athlone.

The tone of the briefing document circulated to members of the Seanad before their recent appearance on The Late Late Show raises many questions.

An inquiry commissioned by the Mental Health Commission into St Luke’s psychiatric hospital in Clonmel and St Michael’s psychiatric unit in South Tipperary General Hospital is highly critical of the standard of care provided for 180 intellectually disabled residents.

WITH less than a week to go before Finance Minister Brian Lenihan throws the dice one more time to try to turn the tide threatening to swamp us all, the pot is beginning to simmer nicely.

IT seems that the questions that may be used to define modern Ireland when the next census is taken may actually reflect the reality we see every day.

A YOUNG Clareman, John McGovern, yesterday began a six-year jail sentence for the manslaughter of Michael Doherty who, at 14 years of age, was little more than a child when he was stabbed to death outside a chip shop on a June evening in 2007.

LAST week we had a glimpse of what is possible when powerful interests move to control the public agenda.

AS the countdown to what will be the defining budget of the next decade continues apace, as we waver between the hope that a better-late-than-never dose of reality might save us from bankruptcy and the fear that the cure might be too much to bear, we may have not noticed how very violent and crime-ridden our society has become in a relatively short time.