THE second national water summit opens in Croke Park this morning and though all of us could do with some cheering news it is unlikely to be found there.

IN THE past week Fianna Fáil, the leading party within the Government, has become divided, distrusted and exposed — all because of ineptitude.

SOARING energy costs are putting more and more home budgets into the red.

FLOUNDERING in a crisis of its own making, and having lost one TD, the Government risks losing the support of an independent deputy and is facing revolt among grassroots members of Fianna Fáil, a party whose leadership seem increasingly out of touch with public opinion.

BULLYING in the schoolyard has long been a cancer at the heart of the Irish education system and it now affects more than 200,000 children.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen, already facing challenges his recent predecessors only read about in history books, needs a Fianna Fáil revolt like a hole in the head.

LIKE a First World War soldier, cold and wet, huddled in a stinking trench, dreading the moment that the incessant, creeping barrage pounding enemy lines ends and he will be ordered across fields covered in barbed wire to face scything machine guns, we know we are in a very difficult situation, but fear worse may yet come.

KOFI ANNAN reminded us of our responsibilities to those less fortunate than ourselves yesterday when he warned that the financial crisis cannot be an excuse to ignore the world food crisis.

Parents of young children are being bombarded on all sides in the current economic difficulties.

Ireland will have a nuclear power plant within 25 years, according to Pádraig McManus, chief executive of the Electricity Supply Board.