PEOPLE should not be very surprised that the Government is spending over €150 million annually on renting property from private landlords and developers.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has stated that Sinn Féin deserves credit for totally renouncing violence. Hence, Fianna Fáil would accept the backing of Sinn Féin.

The very notion that some schools are engaged in a form of apartheid towards children with special needs is so contemptible as to be intolerable.

IN granting permission for the ESB to build a new power station at Aghada, near Midleton, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey may be doing the consumer a favour, even though some of the conditions he attached may be commercially controversial.

IF 150,000 Poles can get jobs in Ireland — there should be no reason why 150,000 Irish people categorised as long-term unemployed cannot find work.

ANY lingering doubts about the gravity of the North’s latest impasse were dispelled when British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cut short his Miami holiday in an attempt to salvage what remains of the St Andrews agreement.

WITH the country’s prisons jammed with criminals, the proposal for a restorative justice programme as an alternative to putting people behind bars is sure to attract broad political and public support.

WHILE drink driving, speeding and unqualified drivers are key factors behind the carnage on our roads, the quality of road design can also be major cause of fatal accidents.

RTÉ’S New Year schedule augurs well for the quality of TV viewing during 2007.

THE State’s systematic shaving of resources intended for people on the margins of society is graphically illustrated by news that the country’s biggest charity is propping up a vital arm of the education system.