NEWS that the EU mandarins have again circumvented EU treaties in order to allow the ECB lend to EU governments does not come as any surprise.

WITH the implementation of the VAT increase and the household tax from Jan 1, along with other increases, this is the final death knell for any chance of recovery in the economy.

AT THE start of 2011 and in the run-up to the general election, Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer for Cork South Central assured me that we would not have property taxes and even pointed to the Fine Gael manifesto that stated we would have water tax and not property tax.

WIDESPREAD threats about non-payment of the household tax are of course just a symptom of a much deeper and far-reaching malaise in Irish society.

CONTRARY to the waggish boast, the banning or marginalisation of a language does not lead to increased use of that language.

IT appears to be Dr Michael Murphy’s view that money spent on access students is money wasted.

HAVING given the issue of a new name for the soon-to-be-defunct HSE some thought, I have arrived at the conclusion that an appropriate moniker might be HYDRA, in honour of the mythological nine-headed monster.

YOUR editorial claiming that “the Road Safety Authority has had remarkable success” (Dec 24) is an unprovable theory; the reduction might have happened anyway, and simply follows the same trend in other countries as societies learn to adapt to mass motorisation.

COMPARED with Copenhagen 2009 and other weather conferences — the recent 2011 UN Climate Change Summit, with representatives from 140 countries, and held in Durban South Africa — craved no more media coverage here than a “falling star”.

THE public voted for politicians, and not for their advisers.