When the former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan described statements made during the whistleblower controversy as “disgusting”, it brought an episode of the comedy show Fawlty Towers to mind.

Minister Simon Coveney was certainly a busy man over the Christmas break.

Some 70% of the health budget is spent on pay and pensions, with the remaining 30% going on frontline services and community care.

The recent CSO report which showed that older people prospered most during the boom, and have suffered least during the recession, is a welcome rebuff to the cottage industry that has built up in recent years which dedicates itself to scaremongering about the plight of the elderly.

I AM in receipt of a small but, significant, amount of rental income which I must declare to the Revenue Commissioners.