IN light of the safety report conducted on behalf of the Government, it is in the national interest that development of the Corrib gas field should immediately go ahead.

WITH the problems regarding displacement of workers by lower paid migrants practically disposed of, talks about a new national wage agreement finally commenced yesterday.

AS an urgent priority, Noel O’Flynn, the chairman of the Oireachtas Communications Committee, is quite right when he asserts that this country needs an individual minister with special responsibility for the national provision of the broadband service.

ANYBODY looking forward to a windfall from the maturing SSIA schemes should take warnings from the gardaí very seriously.

WHILE it may seem ironic that Europe proved divided on the question of labour market access on the same day as millions of immigrant workers were expected to protest in the United States, it is important that Ireland has already taken a very unambiguous position in its attitude to immigrant workers.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell contends that our legislative provisions for the granting of bail are very stringent. Our system of justice assumes that people charged with crimes are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

IT seems there are as many as 100,000 uninsured drivers on our roads.

Housing Minister Noel Ahern really could not have been more blunt when he clearly blamed the financial institutions for deliberately driving up the price of houses by hyping up the market.

The pronouncement by the cross-party Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the abandoned e-voting system is a “dead duck” was very apposite, but too late to prevent the wanton waste it was, and still is, even posthumously.

THE trade union decision to finally enter talks on a new pay deal is to be welcomed.