Whether or not the quality of accountability from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern relating to payments from businessmen more than a decade ago is enough to meet the criteria of the Progressive Democrats remains to be seen today.

Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly was damning, to say the least, in her remarks yesterday about the “thoughtless, insensitive and penny-pinching” attitude towards the elderly by civil servants.

ISSUES revolving around Bertie Ahern’s acceptance of money from business friends are not likely to be resolved by a mere five-minute statement by the Taoiseach and short debate in which party leaders are confined to speak within a similar timeframe.

MEMBERS of the new Garda Reserve began their training at the Garda College in Templemore last week, amid untimely controversy.

The implications of his satisfactory mature recollection over this weekend will be critical to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his survival, possibly, and maybe that of the coalition government which he currently leads.

Much was made of the introduction of random breath-testing and its positive effects in cutting the level of drink driving on our roads.

Coming from a position of stonewalling any debate on the Taoiseach’s financial affairs in the Dáil yesterday, Tánaiste Michael McDowell came to the realisation quickly that there are fundamental questions that Bertie Ahern must answer.

The latest survey on road safety makes for depressing reading with the attitudes of drivers displaying a laissez faire attitude towards the question of safety.

In his RTÉ interview on Tuesday evening, Bertie Ahern raised the Pied Piper analogy of up to 50 journalists pursing him in recent days. This amounted to a subliminal suggestion that those reporters doing their jobs were akin to rats. It was one of a number of aspects of his interview that provoked further questions.

The annual report of Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell was published yesterday with the results of his examination of the 2005 accounts of Government departments and offices.