DEATH, whenever its comes, is a shocking and painful experience of loss which is often hard to comprehend and takes much time to heal, if ever.

THE news that the chaotic and botched PPARS health computerised payment system has cost nearly a quarter of a billion euro is galling for hard-working taxpayers who are being asked to foot the bill with nothing at all in return.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern has admitted, in effect, that the target date for achieving the UN goal of giving 0.7% of GNP to overseas aid won’t be met.

I AM confused by the Government decision to scrap plans to install a toll on the M2 motorway which will run alongside the present N2 route in Co Meath and will be the main Monaghan road to Dublin.

ROAD improvement costs were estimated at €1.7 billion last year, but the income from motor taxation was more than twice that, at €3.8 billion.

THE number of medical cards issued in counties Cavan and Monaghan has decreased dramatically over the last seven years, despite population surges in both counties, and stagnant income levels.

IT’S time lenders gave some of their profits to support those experiencing financial hardship.

SINN Féin has indeed made a historic breakthrough in having two members elected to two members to the European Parliament last month.

EDUCATION is the guarantor of our future success as both a nation and an economy. To alleviate our deficit of infrastructure within education we must empower local communities to avail of local funding and building expertise to enable them to build their own schools or extensions/refurbishments.

I WAS aghast to read (Irish Examiner, July 7) of yet more price hikes requested

I CALL on Minister for Education Noel Dempsey to publish his review of the third-level fees issue for public debate, before any decision is made on it.

I AM deeply concerned

I WAS saddened when I heard the news of the loss of 50 jobs in Wellmans of Mullagh, Co Cavan.

I AM concerned

THE motor tax hike announced so sneakily after the budget is a stealth tax pure and simple.

THE Flood Tribunal interim report is an appalling reflection on a culture of greed, corruption and one law for the rich in Fianna Fáil circles in Co Dublin during the 1980s and ’90s.