YESTERDAY was a good day for press freedom and for democracy.

THE Government’s failure to match the promise of a new era for psychiatric patients with better services for the most vulnerable in society illustrates the cynical reality that politicians see no votes in mental health.

THERE will be little public sympathy for ESB staff, counted among the highest paid workers, if they stage nationwide blackouts in their dispute with Government over the company’s future.

AS the pressures of life intensify in Ireland today, growing numbers of people are turning to tranquillisers, sedatives and anti-depressant drugs for stress relief.

IT is alarming that toddlers and a staff member have tested positive under TB screening at a Cork crèche.

The British Government, with the full backing of the Irish Government, promised to dissolve the Assembly in Northern Ireland, if it was not up and running by midnight last night. But this decision has now been postponed for a further six weeks.

Liam Doran, general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), stated categorically yesterday that his members’ refusal to staff the new Cork University Maternity Hospital is not about money. Once the required staff is hired, he stated that the hospital would open immediately.

DEADLINES, like rules, are made to be broken. Especially in Northern Ireland, where every deadline imposed by the Irish and British governments down the years has been brushed aside by loyalists or nationalist, or both.

PRUDENCE went out the window at the Fianna Fáil Árd Fhéis on Saturday as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern embarked on an auction spree.

THE High Court ruling against a family seeking a better education for their autistic child represents a major blow for hundreds of other parents in a similar predicament.