Prior to the last general election Taoiseach Enda Kenny made a commitment to the Irish people that if Fine Gael was returned to power they would dispense with parish-pump politics, sleaze, cronyism and political nepotism, so long associated with the body politic in this state.

The banking crisis of the last few years should alert us that there is something wrong with aspects of our economic theory.

Over the Easter holiday weekend, the Irish Examiner reported that an alleged stolen vehicle was used in a burglary and driven at high speed through the streets of Cork.

I wish to respond to a recent article in the Irish Examiner (April 17) about ‘Catholics for Choice’. As a practicing Catholic, I accept the teachings of the Church. One does not choose what to accept and what to reject.

We are not sufficiently alarmed by the recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports on climate change. Perhaps we are hopeless and feel there is nothing to be done.

What we have not been told is that the €240 per year water household charge will rapidly rise to €600/700 per annum when the Government stops providing €537m to Irish Water.

What qualifications are needed to be a civil servant or to be on a government advisory body, such as the ESRI?

Kathleen Lynch doesn’t get it. If the psychiatric nurses and psychiatrists say that “early discharge” from hospital has a bearing on the increase in suicide rates, then they are correct.

The Irish Examiner does the nation some truly decent service. Your editorial and comment columns (John Walsh and& Michael Clifford inter-alia) give something of a wholesome and measured comprehension to the incomprehensible.

From politics to religion and business, the names and faces may have changed, but the mindsets, have, if anything, become even more entrenched in dogma and group-think.