When I bought my house my solicitor advised me to employ an engineer to check it out first.

The RTÉ report on the standard of care (or the lack of) in creches raises a stark and pertinent question, given that créches which repeatedly breached regulations received clean bills of health (and funding) from the HSE.

The RTÉ report on the standard of care (or the lack of) in creches raises a stark and pertinent question, given that créches which repeatedly breached regulations received clean bills of health (and funding) from the HSE.

Now that the public-service unions are doing individual deals with the Troika ‘government’, let’s hope this is the end of the truly ruinous benchmarking, which was so beloved by the unions and politicians.

When should a bust bank be liquidated? Answer: when it is Cypriot, but not when it is Anglo Irish.

News that Tesco own brand burgers contain horsemeat is riding high on the airwaves.

Now that Germany and France have ruled out a debt deal for Ireland similar to that doled out to Greece, it is time to act.

What is not appreciated is that this €3.5bn of cuts and tax hikes are permanent and that the €2.5bn cuts next year and minimum €1bn of cuts and taxes the following year are also permanent until and unless there is growth in the domestic market.

It seems clear that signing up to the fiscal treaty following the referendum and the European Stability Mechanism funds when we already have too much debt and a broken economy is just rolling this snowball down the hill, collecting more unsustainable debt as we go.

Greece did not honour the terms of its first bailout, yet the Troika gave it funding.

There is common agreement that whichever way the referendum goes, we are in for austerity.

Twenty-five of the 27 euro countries have signed up to the Fiscal Compact Treaty, with Ireland subject to a Referendum.

In the absence of a further income stream austerity is the only alternative to debt restructuring.

Eamon Ó Cuív has got it exactly right. We are not looking for a bail out or a dig out for the Anglo promissory loan; rather we are looking for what is fair and equitable.

We squeeze our tea bag not once, but thrice, and we rinse our milk bottle into the jug, not the sink, while you throw billions at belligerent bondholders.

AS one who is not yet decided on the candidate of my choice in the forthcoming Presidential election, I would undoubtedly feel deprived if my choice were limited by the absence of a candidate as gregarious, thought-provoking and vulnerable as Senator Norris, especially when this choice is limited by what appears to be a covert orchestrated campaign against him.

WITH the new Greek rescue the EU should take heed that it is now heading where Greece has gone.

IRELAND will not be going back to borrow from the markets until 2013 at the earliest, at which time the principle that both debtor and creditor (bondholder) will be obliged to share bank losses will be firmly established.

JAMES McGRATH’S letter (March 10) on Queen Elizabeth’s visit is hugely misplaced.

PROFESSOR Patrick Honohan became Central Bank Governor a little over a year ago.

IF I was British, undoubtedly I would be a royalist.

GUNTER the German saved his money and lodged it with his German bank and pension fund.

THIS year parents realised that they had far less money for presents for their children and some had none at all — the banks had stolen it.

One wonders what considerations President McAleese took into account in deciding not to refer the Banking Stabilisation Bill to the Supreme Court amid its probable unconstitutional provisions?

AIB bank, once considered of systemic importance by this discredited government is now effectively on lifeline ransom for €40 million.

BRIAN Cowen and his ministers are now so delusional and out of touch with reality they do not even know when they are using pure fiction, misrepresentation and obfuscation in place of a modicum of the plain unbridled truth.

UP to October 29 last, German chancellor Angela Merkel and the EU maintained the right thing for Ireland to do was to pay all debts to bondholders and we duly followed that advice.

THE nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank will result in a millstone of bad debt around the country’s neck if it is maintained and NAMA proceeds.

WHY are Bertie and his gang getting so worked up over accusations of dishonesty, or worse? Haven't they been accused of that for years and it hasn't knocked a feather out of them?

I REFER to your recent coverage of the Dairygold shake-up and the vision for its future set out by new chief executive Jerry Henchy.

A ROGUE builder operating in the North Cork/ south Tipperary/ south Limerick area is bleeding hard-earned monies from unsuspecting members of the public who wish to have an extension built or some renovations done to their home.

THE US claimed that their war on Iraq was done to bring democracy to the people of Iraq. Now they say that they do not want (read ‘will not allow’) a fundamentalist Shi’ite regime in Iraq. So much for their promise of a free democratic Iraq, as the US rejects and arrests various representatives of the Iraqi people.

THE US claimed theirs was not a war about oil, yet they had plenty of resources to secure the oil fields; it was their first priority. They claimed their war went always according to plan. They said looting was entirely predictable, yet they had no plan much less resources to control it.

WHERE is the moral case for an immediate war on Iraq, when thousands, nay millions, may die?