HOW can and how does the Pope even countenance saying what he has said about sexual abuse of children by priests?

THERE is substantial research in the US and Canada around the effects of alcohol consumption in pregnancy, many of which will manifest only when the child has any combination of attention deficit, autistic, learning and behavioural problems.

THE banks of our own lovely Lee need urgent action to prevent possible further flooding, and the Banks of the Pontchartrain need rescuing from the Taoiseach.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan said in his Béal na mBláth address he understands the public “incomprehension and anger” at the vast sums being poured into the banking sector.

YOUR editorial and article, (August 4), focus on Ireland’s Child Protection Services, which are currently under the control of the HSE.

THE HSE only lately started to release data on deaths of children in care as “a public confidence issue”.

JOHN Herriott (‘Three wise women aid destruction of church’, Letters, April 27) cannot but be aware that the Catholic Church is its own worst enemy.

WELFARE was once the bane of capitalism, but now that it is being given to one particularly reckless sector, it is called “supporting the economy”.

BRITISH prime minister Gordon Brown apologised in parliament recently for the deportation of more than 130,000 children from the 1920s to the 1960s, mostly without parental knowledge and consent.

IF St Patrick isn’t too busy on March 17, could he please sort out the church, the HSE, the education system, the banks, etc, because those we elected to do so will have stepped out of the office for a couple of days to charm everyone around the world into believing in this wonderful little country.

IT is both interesting and ironic that the entrepreneurs behind the proposed wind farm on Slieve Callan in Co Clare say the venture might become a tourist attraction (Irish Examiner, February 16).

IS the extra week’s winter leave for TDs a dummy run (no pun intended) for the aborted public sector unpaid leave plan or simply a measure to address global warming by reducing greenhouse gases?

THE pledge by Minister for Children Barry Andrews (July 29) to fill 270 vacant social work posts in child protection services indicates that, on average, each local health office is down 8.5 posts.

THE Taoiseach says the Moriarty Tribunal has cost €36.25m to date.

THE terrible irony is that when state provision for education was first being introduced in Ireland a few of decades after the Act of Union, the Catholic Church opposed the system as it would be “interfering with the family”, even though this was only for daily attendance at primary level and children would continue to live at home, returning there after classes every day.

SEAN Brady, the head of the Roman Catholic church in Ireland is reported as having said that “Our (sic) children were sent to institutions either for poverty, or for petty larceny, or for simply absence from schools.”

LET June 5 next be remembered as the Day of the Sharp Pencils.

WILL the minimalist version of the Fianna Fáil logo on election posters be matched by whispered utterances of the party name when, or indeed if, FF candidates are asked which party they represent when or if they are brave (or silly) enough actually to appear on people’s doorsteps?

THE Casby caricatures are an exception to the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

I WAS out of the jurisdiction for only two days, but thought I’d somehow managed to overstay for a few days as a result of unconsciousness or abduction by aliens because when I got back it was already April 1 in the National Gallery.

THE brave and patriotic army helicopter door took a stance by blowing unnecessary, unwarranted and unaffordable ministerial spending wide open, an example of military intelligence displaying more insight than those who voted for so many Fianna Fáil candidates in the last election.

HAS the title of Cork’s anthem been sullied for posterity by the actions of certain people in financial institutions?

IS it that some Catholic bishops are so institutionalised in canon law and protecting the church from litigation they can’t see the people for the rules?

IT would appear that the HSE can only provide a robot to answer the very serious human questions which you put to them about the Cloyne diocese child abuse investigation (December 18).

YET another think-tank on alcohol issues — this time led by the justice minister with the aim of addressing the alcohol and criminality issue. The expert Special Task Force on Alcohol (STFA) has, once again, been left hanging in mid-air, supplanted by the specially-concocted Working Group on Alcohol.