THE budget will be soon upon us and one of the more progressive ideas I have seen put forward is the sugar tax.

ONE of the most thought-provoking items recently printed in an Irish newspaper was that of Sean McCarthaigh, in the Irish Examiner on October 11, 2011.

USING children to make a political bank protest is very unfair to them (Irish Examiner November 4).

HOW dare Brendan O’Connor insult Michael D Higgins on his RTÉ show.

WATCHING the destruction of the two pedestrian bridges over the south link over the weekend was another ‘concrete’ example, as if one was required, of the on-going and wanton waste of public monies.

WEDNESDAY, November 2, 2011 was a bleak day for Ireland, the crystallisation of the punitive price for this tiny nation’s stumbling from colony to theocracy to plutocracy.

I AM a Leaving Certificate student in Loreto Secondary School, Fermoy, Co Cork.

WELL, sure isn’t it just a fine result? Michael in the Áras.

I WOULD like to comment on an ongoing discussion about the participation of women in electoral politics. It is of course true that women have been under-represented in politics compared to men and much has been written about how to increase their representation.

HAVE the powers that be considered the possibility of devaluing the euro? Wouldn’t this be one of the ways to share the pain right across Europe?