Pandemic threat - Carelessness will cost Irish lives

WE seem to have developed an addiction to disconcerting news and dire predictions – our day now seems incomplete without a calamity to chew over or fretting about the one looming just below the horizon. Either that or we have been forced, kicking and screaming, to confront the realities of our time.

Last week, An Bord Snip Nua sent shock waves through this country by suggesting that everyone can expect a lower standard of living if we are, by the very skin of our teeth, to avoid national bankruptcy.

Just as the fear provoked by McCarthy faded ever so slightly, just as some cynics took comfort in the entirely justifiable prospect of some of our politicians losing their nerve and dodging hard decisions, we were reminded of the possibility of yet another crisis.