In the wake of a massive raid on a Wicklow puppy farm, Fine Gael Wicklow Deputy Andrew Doyle released a statement Sunday calling on Minister for the Environment John Gormley to introduce dog breeding regulations first promised by the department in 2006.
The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) has accused the Gardaí of harassing the Roma families encamped on the M50 roundabout near Ballymun. The families have been camped on the roundabout for approximately two months.
Peter Charlton was appointed to the High Court earlier this year. Immediately prior to his appointment he had been the lead counsel at the Morris Tribunal and before that one of the leading criminal barristers in the State – he appeared in most of the celebrated murder trials of the last decade, including the Catherine Nevin trial.
He is author of several criminal law text books, author of a recent book on evil, member of a choir and father of young children.
The Monica Leech case against the Irish Independent may turn out to be a landmark case in the law of libel.
Had she not sued RTÉ, Beverley Flynn would probably be a cabinet minister by now. Her involvement in the NIB tax fraud would have been brushed off. By Vincent Browne
The failure to appoint an ombudsman for prisoner complaints in the 26 Counties is a measure of how people in prison are treated here.
Fianna Fail's election promises for the state pension overlook the real pensions issues. By Jim Stewart
The Comptroller and Auditor General has concluded that the state paid “at least twice the market price” when they purchased land in North County Dublin for a new super prison containing the relocated Mountjoy and Central Mental Hospital. In the report, published in September 2006, it said that agricultural land in the area was selling at between €20,000 and €30,000 per acre, at the time of purchase in 2005. But the government bought 150 acres at €200,000 an acre for the prison complex site, a total purchase price of €29.9 million.
Jesus of Nazareth, a new book on Jesus by the Pope, written in his personal capacity, has just been published in Italy. Benedict writes on how the message of Jesus was radically mediated by “Hellinisation” – the infusion of the message by Greek philosophy. By John Allen
• VAT brings in more revenue that income tax, four times more than the capital gains tax levied on profits from trading shares or property, and twice as much as was paid by all the companies in the country
• It is paid by everyone and impacts disproportionately on the poor
• Our VAT rates are among the highest in the EU
• None of the political parties are proposing to cut VAT
By Sheila Killian