At the USI conference, outgoing president Garry Redmond claimed that “a lecturer starting in Ireland would earn many multiples of what a lecturer starting in the UK would”.

Fine Gael ministers have robustly defended the principle of meeting Deputy Michael Lowry after the publication of adverse findings against him by the Moriarty Tribunal on the grounds that he has a mandate to represent the voters of Tipperary North (Irish Examiner, Apr 6).

Eamon Reilly laments the fact of religion having evolved to irrelevance in Europe and general and Ireland in particular.

With reference to the information published in your newspaper (Apr 4) in the Time Warp section, I wish to inform you that there are three national days of Hungary: March 15 (commemorating the revolution of 1848), August 20 (commemorating St. Stephen, our first king), and Oct 3 (in memory of the revolution of 1956).

If you were in dispute with your bank over a large sum of money, with considerable merit to your arguments for having that debt greatly reduced or even written off completely, would you go off and borrow from another source — at interest rates even higher than your bank was going to charge — the entire amount to make the first massive instalment payment?

One of the most surprising aspects of the Mahon report was the silence of ministers and TDs throughout the Celtic Tiger years.

So, Mr Shatter wants fewer Garda stations. When I got mugged outside our local bank three years ago, some terrific passers-by chased and got hold of the armed robber.

With reference to Stephen Rogers’s report headed “We must have respect for wild animals” (Irish Examiner, Apr) it seems almost trite to point out that habitat loss is the only concern we should have.

It is an absolute certainty that if a Mahon Tribunal-like report were published in any self-respecting, functional democracy there would have been immediate arrests and police investigations.

Two weeks ago my 94-year-old mother fell and broke her hip.