AT least, for a change, the Government can’t be blamed for the disappearance of the €5.7 million in a scam that left some people without their life savings.

IT dawned on me this week why the Comptroller and Auditor General publishes a report on the overspending by various Government departments every year.

SO anxious were the people for the return of their beloved politicians that many of them made the journey to our national parliament to welcome them back, and some even slept outside the Dáil the previous night.

IF Irish Ferries manages to jettison its workforce and replace it with cheaper labour, as it is so desperately trying to do, there will be widespread repercussions for workers in this country.

KOFI ANNAN must have had a feeling of déja vu in the UN building on Wednesday night when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern pledged to meet the target for overseas aid.

THE decision to avoid holding the murder trial of Christopher Newman in this country is puzzling, to say the least. It needs to be explained.

WHETHER or not the Groceries Order is responsible for the high cost of living here, the fact remains that Ireland is a leader in the rip-off stakes.

I DON’T know what the penalty is for travelling into this country on a false passport, but it must be considerably better than 17 years in a Colombian jail.

IT was probably a huge understatement when Northern Secretary Peter Hain said after his meeting on Wednesday with Ian Paisley that the DUP had put its views of recent developments in the North "extremely strongly and critically".

THERE comes a time in Disney films when you have to suspend disbelief. That moment arrived yesterday for Northern Ireland, and this island as a whole, with the declaration by the IRA that it has ended its armed campaign and all that it implies.