WHILE it's some consolation to the public that Ray Burke won't be admiring the north Dublin trees for a few months, the fact remains that he'll make more money than most of us during his sojourn in Arbour Hill prison for tax offences.

IT'S just as well that Dubya's attention was focused on blowing up balloons for his inauguration party yesterday, or he might have noticed that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was trying to slip a fast one by him.

NORTHERN Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde has been put on a par with the Pope. Like His Holiness speaking ex cathedra when he addresses matters of faith and morals, Mr Orde has been vested with the quality of infallibility since pronouncing that the IRA was responsible for beggaring the Northern Bank in Belfast.

THE £22 million Belfast heist raises the very apt question of whether it was civilian criminality, or paramilitary criminality.

AS that poor old “Dáil pensioner”, Ray Burke, ponders what the New Year holds in store for him - whether he’ll be a free man or in a cell - he can take a modicum of consolation from a presumption that exists for Irish tax evaders.

IT looks doubtful at this stage that even Santa could deliver what Taoiseach Bertie Ahern wished for yesterday - that the deal on Northern Ireland could still be delivered by Christmas. This Christmas.

TO put Brian Cowen’s first budget in context, millionaires like U2 will continue to pay no tax. Neither will horse breeders.

HAD St Francis of Assisi been engaged in animal welfare in this country, it’s more than likely he would have been done for it, despite his good intentions.

YESTERDAY’s Book of Estimates, as an indicator of what could eventually emerge from this neo-socialist Government’s Budget, must come as a great relief to the Progressive Democrats.

IT’S remarkable that when there’s a threat that the State might have to spend money on something other than a minister’s extravagance - like somebody’s rights - there are colossal implications for the exchequer.