I’M NOT sure what the second-hand value of a US Navy C-40A military aircraft is, but there’s one down at Shannon airport at the moment which the Government might be interested in acquiring.

THE assurance from US Secretary of State Colin Powell must come as a major relief to the people of Iraq.

THE NEW plan which Health Minister Micheál Martin has apparently presented to his cabinet colleagues will, reportedly, have as revolutionary an effect on our health service as the invention of the trolley did.

THE gardaí weren’t the only ones to have upset people

AT this stage the turkey looks rather like the economy — skimpy and pared to the bone. But despite the fact that we are heading into 12 months of stringency and hairshirts, it is comforting to know that some of our former ministers are well able to lead the good life and will continue to do so, courtesy of the taxpayers.

THE prospect of another long and expensive tribunal loomed this week after it appeared that Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne was allegedly to blame for the dramatic rise in crime last year.

YOU would imagine that the Church of England has enough to contend with than trying to knock Santa off his sleigh.

YOU may remember that when the Minister for Finance announced in the Estimates that the grant for first-time house buyers was going to be abolished, a group of Fianna Fáil backbenchers were muttering about a revolt.

IT MUST be the longest hang-over in history, but whatever the outcome of the brandy and cigars episode, if there is one, there is a very important point which should not be lost on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and about which there is absolutely no doubt.

ONE of the deficiencies in our Constitution is that there is no mechanism for dumping a government which has stolen power by perpetrating a massive fraud on the people.