Independent thinking - Restoring a balance

Thankfully President Michael D Higgins is, like his two immediate predecessors, redefining how the office might contribute to our public life.

Speaking at his enrolment yesterday as a member of the Royal Irish Academy he suggested that a new wave of “independent thought” and “emancipatory scholarship” is needed to deliver Ireland’s recovery.

These remarks are a welcome counterbalance to proposals based purely on economic activity and realigning our third-level colleges to better serve business.

We are in our present difficulties because commerce too often became a vehicle for satisfying greed. Anything that might undo that destructive mind-set is welcome.