ON RTÉ radio news a few weeks ago, Dr Chris Luke correctly highlighted the crisis in staffing our A&E departments but also took the opportunity to agree with his interviewer that the closure of smaller hospital A&E services may be no bad thing and would bring about economies of scale and improved quality of care.

THE historic hand-over of more than 130 schools run by the Christian Brothers is in progress and could be formally completed within two years.

ON the RTÉ radio news at 9pm on Tuesday night it was reported that Education Minister Noel Dempsey, when addressing the ASTI convention in Limerick, stated that “there was no scope for further pay rises outside the current national agreement”.