After twice denying that Frank Dunlop had informed him in 1993 that the late Tom Hand, a Fine Gael councillor, had demanded £250,000 to support the Quarryvale development, it is extraordinary that former taoiseach John Bruton told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday that he now remembers that Frank Dunlop did indeed tell him.

THE Government has consistently misled the country about Shannon and the ending of the airport’s service to Heathrow.

THE only remarkable thing about the announcement that all drivers involved in road accidents will face a mandatory breath test is that it has taken so long to introduce such a potentially effective measure.

IT HAS been suggested that there are about 200 languages spoken in Ireland today.

CRUDE OIL is at a record $88 a barrel, bringing the psychologically significant $100 a barrel milestone all the closer.

IT IS unimaginable that in Ireland a mother of two might die at 41 because of she did not have private healthcare insurance, yet that is what happened to Susie Long, who was buried yesterday.

ANY person trying to shake off the chains of an addiction is involved in a life or death challenge.

THERE is an energising honesty and absence of cant in the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin’s weekend remarks, which do no more than state the obvious with absolute clarity and conviction.

IT IS inevitable that we will have reliable electronic voting at some stage.

IT IS becoming evermore difficult to reconcile the great prominence and lip service given to environmental matters — especially all of the worrying predictions surrounding global warming, peak oil and the diminishing quality of our water supplies — and the reality of our day-to-day lives.