It is tragic to hear of a housing estate in Tullow, Co Carlow, which took millions if not billions of working class Irish savings and pensions, all held in banks in credit union bonds, deposit, and savings accounts, being sold for €150,000, the price of a small house in the country.

During the Pat Kenny radio show on Jul 6, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney made an impressive case for farmers to be compensated for the impact that the wet summer is having on their livelihoods’ by bringing forward their EU payments.

Rejection of recent challenges to the fiscal treaty strengthens the autocracy conferred on our puppet Government.

Earlier this week, at the London Summit on Family Planning organised jointly by the British Government’s Department for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it was announced that the UK was doubling its efforts on family planning in the developing world to £180m per year, through direct and indirect support.

The fact that Dr James Reilly is in breach of a High Court judgment is, unquestionably, a serious issue.

Try as Emily O' Sullivan (letters, Jul 10) might to smear the Israeli Deputy Ambassador in Dublin, one thing is for certain, the Israeli government and people have officially recognised the Palestinians' right to have their own state.

It’s comforting to know that in the aftermath of the recent drunken behaviour at the concert in the Phoenix Park our leaders are tackling the problem head on with all the expertise and experience at their disposal.

The proposed children’s rights referendum will mark a turning point in the treatment of children in this country.

Dermot Meleady (Letters, Jul 12) tells us that the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 was not marked by ‘ethnic cleansing’, and that the flight of the Palestinians was instigated by Arab radio stations, not by war crimes.

On the glorious 12th of July Ministers Noonan and Howlin merrilly anounced that the troika found that we had met all our fiscal targets to date.