IN the early stages of this recession, politicians assured us we were not returning to the 1980s. Now we are facing something much, much worse. How bad will it get? How long will it last?

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese is donating a number of ball gowns to a charity auction. This alerted me to the prospect of life after her presidency when it ends in 2011.

Brian Cowen’s government is predicated on the primacy of partnership. We have delayed taking the sharp correctional measures required because the pillars of partnership were in denial about economic reality. What a costly delay. Our national debt is set to pole-vault from €30bn to €70bn in the space of two years.

THREE weeks into the new year, we are faced with a deluge of disastrous news. Dell, Waterford Wedgwood, Chartbusters and Kostal have all rationalised.

BECAUSE I am not a Catholic, I was reluctant to wade into the Bishop Magee controversy. The Ferns diocese in Co Wexford went through a decade of turmoil, which Cloyne is now experiencing. We discovered more than 100 individual allegations of clerical sexual abuse between 1962 and 2002. These involved 21 priests.

THE festive Christmas break prevented proper analysis of one of the most shocking and infamous scandals ever to arise in corporate Ireland.

BEING asked by the editor to set out what I would do if I was taoiseach in 2009 is like a fantasy football competition.

THE EU Council has given its response to the Irish no vote in last June’s referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. We have been so engrossed in the Irish perspective of how our negative vote should be interpreted that we have not stopped to listen.

TWO fundamental factors allow any business to survive: profits and capital. Throughout the year, faced with a drop in revenue, businesses have responded by battening down the hatches.