Minister Jimmy Deenihan’s decision to refuse to consent to development within the protected boundary of the 1916 National Monument, Moore Street/Moore Lane raises serious planning issues that need to be addressed in the public interest before consideration is given to any new application to develop this historic area.

The economics profession has lost its way. The traditional way to solve our economic problems has always been growth. But despite the best efforts of all concerned, the Irish economy refuses to grow. Lower interest rates, quantitative easing, and strict austerity are failing. GDP is now lower than when the crisis began.

It is amazing how time flies and so do the opportunities that may have occurred. It is nearly five years since it was discovered how broke the country was and the big rush to the panic stations — to do what?

Minister Hayes made the best possible case recently for the retention of the Seanad, despite it being deeply flawed.

Pope Francis covered a wide range of subjects in the course of his recent trip to Brazil.

We have had austerity for the last five years, which has caused huge financial distress to a lot of innocent Irish people.

I very much enjoyed Michael Moynihan’s recent piece (Monday Sport, Jul 29) regarding the all-pervasiveness of Sky Sports and the English Premiership.

In response to the letter by Patrick L O’Brien (Jul 29), I’ve had a few ideas.

In his piece on Gaelic football (Jul 29), Tony McEntee invokes ‘Einstein’s Razor’.

Matt Cooper’s article (Opinion, Jul 26) articulates the eternal ambivalence of Irish attitudes to British royalty and now the royal birth in particular.