INADVERTENTLY, Senator Ivor Callely may have done the state a massive favour. By his selfish actions, in what some would describe as giving a false address to maximise the amount of expenses he could claim from the state, he has emphasised the expensive uselessness of Seanad Éireann.

ANDREW WAKEFIELD, now struck off the medical register in Britain because of his dangerous campaign falsely to link the MMR vaccine to autism, is a lucky man that being disbarred from practice is all that has happened to him. Why are there no laws in Britain to prosecute charlatans like him when their lies damage the public health and become common currency worldwide?

THE argument that the country needs 166 Dáil members is diminished somewhat by the tardiness of the Government’s approach to holding the three by-elections to fill vacant seats.

LAST Monday RTÉ 1 broadcast a documentary called Aftershock: Where to Now? in which four contributors were asked to offer suggestions as to what needs to be done to help this country out of the economic morass in which it finds itself.

WHAT time was it when you heard about Gerry Ryan’s death? It doesn’t really matter, does it, whether it was 2.30pm or 5pm last Friday, or even the following day?

WE’RE finding out just what Germany thinks of Greece and lest you think that such foreign stuff is of little interest to us, it is hugely relevant in so many very important ways, most especially to our standard of living.

DISSENTING voices can be very useful in a parliamentary democracy, shaking cosy consensus and provoking debate that might not otherwise take place.

THERE’S a saying in sport that goes along the lines “show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser”. This was the type of comment fans of Tiger Woods made in his defence last Sunday evening after he completed his fourth place finish in the US Masters at Augusta.

THE 5,500 employees of the Quinn Group are right to be fearful for the security of their jobs. Their demand for protection is entirely understandable and rational. Sympathy for them is plentiful.

IN an unpopular government, Brian Lenihan remains a relatively popular minister, so much so that the opposition seems to have decided he is not worth attacking personally, even over NAMA or Anglo Irish Bank, issues where he has not covered himself in glory, or the public sector pay cuts which he has forced through to much divided opinion.