Here we go again. After six weeks of playing ducks and drakes with a genuine matter of public interest, the Government has reached for the red button of a commission of inquiry.

Successive governements have shown themseleves indifferent, if not hostile, to the difficulties faced by the media in fulfulling its role as the fouth estate. So caution was understandable surrounding the reporting of Denis O’Brien’s banking arrangements, writes Michael Clifford.

Alice Leahy has spent 40 years bringing comfort to Ireland’s homeless population, writes Michael Clifford

The reaction to the constituency polls on Saturday resembled the overthrow of an old, despotic regime, writes Special Correspondent Michael Clifford

The bankrupt Sean Dunne and his family still live like globe-trotting millionaires

The evidence points to the fact that stringent building controls are needed to protect the interests of citizens, but the current controls appear to be more about optics than anything else more substantial, and a review of these is unlikely to change anything, writes Michael Clifford

Alan Shatter is gone from frontline politics, but he appears determined not to be forgotten, writes Michael Clifford

LEO Varadkar is ashamed, and well he might be. On Thursday, following the publication of a report into the deaths of five babies at Portlaoise hospital, the health minister proclaimed himself ashamed of the treatment of patients there.

Fear is a powerful emotion...but another feature of this society is its compassion writes Michael Clifford

Michael Clifford examines some of the issues surrounding the O’Higgins Inquiry into claims of garda malpractice as its cental figure, the whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, undertakes a judicial review to reduce the financial burden on him.