I WISH someone would explain exactly what the Corrib gas pipeline protest is about.

SO Foreign Minister Micheál Martin is on record as one of the numerous objectors to the building of a co-located hospital in the grounds of Cork University Hospital at Wilton while at the same time voting for its implementation at the cabinet table.

The Travellers are a perfect example of the political powerlessness of minorities, with the exception of the super-rich, and their plight illustrates the shortcomings of our political system.

CONCENTRATING the popular mind in a way no politician could ever hope to achieve, the soaring cost of waste disposal is poised to hit Ireland’s householders where it will hurt most, namely their pockets.

THE day before 9/11, a satellite photograph of the United States showed the country covered by a white grid. Straight lines going up. Straight lines going across.

AS yesterday’s inquiry into one of the most emotive issues facing modern society degenerated into something of a shambles, the cliche ‘it could only happen in Ireland’ became reality.

NOBODY wants to live beside an incinerator or a dump. Yet, there is growing pressure on local authorities to provide such controversial facilities as Ireland struggles to cope with a mountain of toxic, commercial and domestic waste.

EVIDENCE showing inconclusive links between cancer and incinerators is unlikely to assuage fears of people living in areas where waste will be disposed.

IT is a damning indictment of Ireland’s failure to manage its growing mountain of waste that it required a name-and-shame seminar to elicit news that a three-year-old Brussels directive aimed at cleaning up landfill sites has at long last been signed