Quite suddenly, the optimism of the Celtic Tiger era has given way to despair and the new government of Brian Cowen has been seen to mirror that despair. The performance of the leading trio — Brian Cowen, Mary Coghlan and Brian Lenihan — has been unsure and floundering. They have failed to communicate the underlying strengths of the economy and, in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty rejection, the secure place Ireland continues to enjoy within the EU.

Vincent Browne visited Brussels over the weekend of 11 July and spoke to several EU officials. On the basis of those off-the-record conversations, he gives the following insight into the Brussels response to the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

The Sunday Tribune publishing company, Tribune Newspapers plc, has lost a total of €49.5 million to date, according to the chairman of the company, Gordon Colleary. Almost all of these loses have occurred since Independent News and Media (IN&M), controlled by Tony O'Reilly, has been in control of the company (ie since 1991).

Every morning at 6am, two of the largest sea ferries in the world disgorge, onto Dublin Port, thousands of tons of imports, for sale a few hours later on supermarket shelves throughout Ireland. Within two hours these same ferries leave with thousands more tonnes of exports. Vincent Browne spent a very early morning watching the Irish economy on the move.

The hills, the parks, the two superb museums, Guernica, Goya, the metro, the weather and the bernabau were the highlights of Madrid in April. A city in the middle of the vast expanse of the Iberian Peninsula, the capital not because of any evident geographic advantages but because it is at the centre, between the autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha. Later the Moors were here and it was Philip II, who moved the capital from Seville to Madrid in 1561.

The mental health organisation, Sli Eile, that was prevented from opening its first transition residence in an estate in Charleville, Co Cork, by locals supported by a government minister, has been invited to open a second residence in Ennis, Co Clare. Sli Eile opened its first house at an alternative address in Charleville.

John Moloney, the new Minister for State with responsibility for Mental Health, has a genuine commitment to improving mental health facilities and to reducing the stigma associated with mental health problems. In private therefore he must be concerned by the insistence of the government on going ahead with the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum to the site of the new prison at Thornton Hall in North County Dublin.

We posed the following questions to Batt O'Keeffe, the new Minister for Education and Science:
What assistance and/or information did you give the protestors at Pike Farm, Charleville in their blockade of a residential home being opened for people recently discharged from mental hospitals;

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The last hours of Nuala O'Faolain were anguished as she choked and begged for help, while still at home. She had wanted to die at home rather than to be taken to a hospice. She needed morphine but her friends could not access this for her, as general practitioners were either not available or could not supply morphine in the form of a liquid drip. Eventually, she was moved to a hospice, where she died peacefully a few hours later.

Even at a stage when the nation is depleted by Tribunal fatigue, there is a strong case for instituting a Tribunal of Enquiry into what happened in this DCC/Fyffes case and how the regulatory authorities failed to take any action or at least not sufficient action to respond to evidence of a fraud the likes of which the State has never seen before, perhaps with the exception of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes scam.