Even the most vivid champions of this still-evolving Republic, even those Teflon-cloaked bankers who so disastrously “wore the green jersey” to try to pull the wool over investors’ eyes — your pension providers possibly — cannot but feel a sense of embarrassment, a sense of betrayal, that at least 42 schools must be reassessed, years after they were built, to establish whether they are safe places for our children.

A man accused of vandalising one of Dublin’s best known gay bars with homophobic graffiti has been given four weeks to decide how he will plead.

A judge has adjourned the case of a man accused of damaging one of Dublin’s best known gay bars with homophobic graffiti pending possible further charges.