TODAY’S survey from the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) suggesting that workers in the services sector might be encouraged to establish pensions, or enhance existing packages, if the process was made simpler deserves thoughtful consideration.

THE chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, Dr Des Corrigan, yesterday highlighted the cocaine-related deaths of five young people.

THE 83 blue flags awarded to 80 bathing areas and three marinas scattered around our 1,448 kilometres of coastline should be welcomed.

SPECIALIST medical services outside Dublin are so thinly spread that the retirement of one consultant can bring the system to a halt, forcing infants to go to the capital for surgery.

THE latest strike threat by ESB workers must be taken seriously. Since the usual issues of pay or conditions are not involved in this case, it is difficult to see how it can be easily resolved.

AFTER an agonising wait of 26 years, the families of five unidentified victims of the 1981 Stardust disaster have at long last laid them to rest, bringing closure of a kind to one of the most harrowing tragedies ever to occur in Ireland.

SERIOUS negotiations or a smokescreen? This burning question is prompted by the “cordial” exploratory talks now going on between Fianna Fáil and Greens on the colour of the next coalition arrangement.

ANYONE who ever suffered the traumatic experience of queuing at an overcrowded accident and emergency department is painfully aware of just how bad hospital facilities can be in Ireland.

THE bombshell news of job cuts in Dell, the jewel in the crown of Ireland’s computer industry, has ominous implications for the information technology sector.

THE regrettable tendency of governments to steamroll over the opinions of experts for political ends is under the spotlight in today’s Irish Examiner exposé of serious concerns over plans to relocate the Central Mental Hospital alongside a new super prison.