PEOPLE go to hospital hoping to be cured — not to be put at risk of infection from life-threatening bugs like MRSA which thrive in dirty environments.

WHILE crime remains a major problem for Irish society, the small reduction recorded in the latest statistics is to be welcomed.

THERE is a distinct sense of the little boy who cried wolf about the oft-repeated Central Bank warning on the danger of the bottom falling out of the Irish housing market.

CONSIDERING Ireland’s love affair with the mobile phone, the excessively high charges imposed on users are a constant and justifiable cause of complaint.

THERE is no simple answer to the appalling carnage on Ireland’s roads but it is patently clear that Government measures are not working.

IT is mind boggling that 30,000 families are missing out on social welfare payments to which they are entitled because of failure to alert them.

YESTERDAY’S landmark ruling of the Supreme Court, outlining the reasons for the re-arrest and continued detention of the sex offender known as Mr A, will be welcomed by a worried public.

IT would be easy to gloss over worrying aspects of the upbeat report putting Ireland into second place in the global wealth league. One might get the distinct impression that we are a nation of millionaires.

THE importance which the Irish Government places on consumer rights can be very simply measured by its representation at a recent conference in Brussels dealing with those same rights.

SHOULD Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his cohort of ministers not be returned to government at the next election, they will collectively have the comfort of €20 million to cushion their disappointment.