THE admission by Finance Minister Michael Noonan that he intends to increase the VAT rate to 23% in the run up to Christmas will surely be the final nail in the coffin to the retailers of this bankrupt state.

MR EAMON GILMORE’S justification for closing our embassy to the Vatican — i.e. that it yields no economic return — reminds me of Stalin’s famous rhetorical question at the Yalta Conference: “How many divisions has the Pope?”

AS a teacher/principal for the last 33 years I have witnessed what’s excellent in our primary school system. We survived the savage cuts of the 80s to build a top-class education system.

THERE has been much comment in recent days regarding the importance of closer European integration, but European fiscal union is about as likely as Elvis and Lady Gaga appearing at the Kinsale Arts Week next year.

HERE we go again: another round of angry vociferous student union protests on the issue of fees.

RTÉ’s ham-fisted debacle in wrongly accusing Fr Reynolds of serious crime begs the question how many more similar programmes by RTÉ castigating religious orders were properly researched and indeed in their presentation of said programmes were they just and fair in their treatment of alleged crimes?

WE should really just be discussing two things right now as a collective society, since it is now blindingly obvious that an “elite” bunch of bankers want to take over the whole world.

IF alcohol is as serious a problem in Ireland as many suggest, then surely there is only one proper solution. Slash public sector pay.

THE end of decentralisation has been heralded by many as an end to a manifestation of Irish parochialism.

THE Taoiseach has attempted to justify a 23% VAT rate on the basis that it applies to discretionary spending, ie only things we choose to buy.