There is an important and pressing public interest in the Morris Tribunal investigating allegations made by an unnamed Garda concerning two very senior gardaí, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty and Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey (now retired). The allegations were contained in a document sent to two TDs, Brendan Howlin and Jim Higgins – the document was attached to a Supreme Court judgment on 20 December, concerning the claim by the two parliamentarians of parliamentary privilege.

The Government continues to misrepresent the extraordinary indemnity deal done with the religious orders on residential child abuse.

Two of the most senior and respected members of An Garda Síochána of recent times, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty and Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey (now retired) are the subject of the most serious allegations by an unnamed Garda source who communicated information to two TDs on 25 June 2000.

Evidence that the British sabotaged Irish constitutional settlement. By Vincent Browne

Figures on poverty released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on 12 December are almost unbelievable. They show that last year (2004) almost one fifth of the population (19.4 per cent) were at risk of poverty, by which they mean one fifth of the population were living on household incomes of €9,680 or less (that is, €186 per week or less).

A TASC publication suggests the number of people in Ireland in need of housing may be a quarter of a million

The United Nations expert on housing was shocked by the extent of homelessness in Dublin and warned against property speculation driving the Irish economy.

Had Sean Doherty, while Minister for Justice in 1982, used the contents of a Garda file to have a journalist driven from his employment, he and the government he served would have been driven from office in what would have been regarded as one of the worst scandals of that era. Doherty's fate and that of the then government, led by Charles Haughey, would have been even more reviled had it emerged that Doherty had leaked a document from that Garda file to a journalist and then claimed he did so to protect the institutions of the State against subversion.

Michael Mills, one of the most influential political commentators for decades, later the first Ombudsman, has published a revealing memoir. By Vincent Browne.

Payments of €500,000 to councillors coincided with the rezoning of lands that have now become the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. As a direct consequence, an already disadvantaged community has been further disadvantaged. The Planning Tribunal has commenced public hearings that will involve 88 witnesses and tens of thousands of documents – unless prevented by the Courts. By Vincent Browne