THE recent debate about a “truth recovery process” in Northern Ireland to address the perceived need for a calling to account of the events of the Troubles is to be welcomed as part of the advance of reconciliation on this island.

THE announcement by Social and Family Affairs Minister Martin Cullen of efforts to help lone parents get into the workforce is a welcome attempt to break the cycle of poverty that affects thousands of children.

THE action by the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) in declining methadone cover to addicts is yet another example of an impoverishment of attitudes towards those in need of help.

THE announcement by the British government that it is to examine unsolved murders that occurred during the Troubles in the North yet again throws into sharp relief the lack of a thorough response from the Government to issues that have yet to be addressed here in the South.