THE latest national public opinion poll, published in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post, indicates a further drop of 1% in support for Fianna Fáil.

THE path towards gender equality has been a long and tortuous one.

IF there is anything consistent on the political landscape of Northern Ireland, it is the incidence of deadlines and their passing without achieving their objective.

IT is a matter of serious concern that some of the preliminary findings into the untimely and premature death of Patrick Walsh, because of serious process failures at several levels, were made public before his family was apprised of its contents.

THE Department of Finance’s analysis of pay and pensions from 2001 to 2006 has some startling findings, especially in the detail. The net cost of pay and pensions is projected to increase by 58.9% between 2001 and 2006.

THE Taoiseach admitted in the Dáil yesterday that there are 19 people in jail, while 42 other people have been charged under the statutory rape legislation that was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

IT appears to be an elementary contradiction that, in one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, with its second-best economy, one-fifth of the population are at risk from poverty.

APART from the €22 million paid in settlement by the Bailey brothers company Bovale, which has been well-documented, the Revenue Commissioners netted a considerable €23.5 million in the quarterly tax defaulters list published yesterday.

IT may be of undoubted comfort to the lending institutions that the value of peoples’ homes and deposit accounts exceed borrowings by €440 billion, but for anybody put to the pin of their collar through borrowing it affords little or no succour.

HISTORY, so it is said, is defined by the songs of the victors. And that is one reason why, as we approach the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme next Saturday, more attention is given to a republican hymn in the shape of a film produced by an Englishman about the War of Independence than to a conflict in which immeasurably more Irishmen fought and died.