And you can’t defend something that, when you boil it all down, really makes no contribution at all. As a body, despite costing tens of millions a year, it adds nothing to public discourse or debate, and hasn’t done so for years. It has no role whatever in terms of providing checks and balances.

DO you have any idea how much a Harley-Davidson motorcycle costs? I wanted to find out, because there was a time when you simply wouldn’t see one on Ireland’s roads.

I JUST lost an entire week out of my life, and all I have to say is thank God for Padraig Harrington. And, I suppose, thank God for the BBC and its wire-to-wire coverage of the British Open.

THE Garda Vetting Unit in Thurles is a small, discreet office.

Every party into which cocaine is introduced helps to fuel a market that depends utterly on addiction and ruined lives.

We live in a world where suicide is as big a threat to young people as a road accident, where underage drinking is out of control, where the range of mental health problems is growing as our response to them shrinks. And that’s only a tiny part of the story.

The predator who knows someone’s innermost thoughts — the kind that might be guessed at from knowing the websites they go to, or reading their emails — is in a strong position to begin the process of manipulation that can end in abuse.

I have no doubt the Greens decided to go into government for good and honourable reasons, but they will achieve no real goals.

ANNA Karin Kingston once locked her son in the boot of the car. He had gone wild in the supermarket, damaging the trolleys and threatening mayhem throughout the shop. But the shopping had to be done, so she dragged him, kicking and screaming, out to the car park.

What is making Mary Harney keep her powder dry, and effectively leaving a cloud over whether a government will be formed on June 14? Is she looking for certainty there is nothing going on behind the scenes that would destabilise a government almost as soon as it is formed?