THE huge increase in the number of people seeking the help of debt management or support agencies is testament to our rapidly changing circumstances.

CONSTRUCTION authorities confirm that there are currently 35,000 new homes unoccupied at a value of about €9 billion. But is that the total extent of the problem, or are there also many more houses as well?

IF — as Ciarán Cuffe, the Green party’s spokesman on justice, suggests — it is a “sea change” in policy for the Government to examine existing laws to ensure the gardaí have sufficient legal powers to search US military aircraft suspected of using Shannon Airport for flights of extraordinary rendition, then the Government has some serious questions to answer.

ANYONE who read this morning’s deeply disturbing report about how a naive, young Lithuanian woman was targeted by compatriots who planned to sell her as a sex slave will recognise that the very darkest forces were at work on this island.

IT IS a considerable relief that the toxic materials dumped at the former Irish Steel plant in Cork Harbour do not pose an immediate risk to people living or working in the area.

IT SEEMS that a return to bigger class sizes may not be the only instance where we may have to be prepared to walk over familiar ground.

NOBODY who saw the savagery of Rwanda’s genocide 14 years ago, in which half a million Tutsis were slaughtered, will forget the dreadful scenes.

The tax take the state enjoyed as a result of the property boom has largely vanished. The Government is clearly going to have to cut back on expenditure, or people will have to pay much more for services.

EVERY parent who entrusts an innocent, energetic and vulnerable infant to the care of a stranger in a creche makes a leap of faith each and every working day.

THE Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) was opened last year to great fanfare. Though there were teething problems the €75 million facility was described as state of the art.