The Dublin port tunnel cost three times its original estimate and was three years behind schedule when it finally opened last December. The port tunnel was first mooted as far back as 1991 when it was proposed to the Department of the Environment. It was originally one of four options put forward to solve the problem of port traffic in Dublin city centre. When the port tunnel route was announced in 1993 the estimated cost was put at £100 million. It was approved by government in 1999 and already the cost had doubled to £204 million.

According to the SAVI report: Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland one in five women (20.4 per cent) reported experiencing contact sexual abuse in childhood. One in six men reported experiencing contact sexual abuse in childhood. The government has done little to address this problem of child sexual abuse.

The payroll computer system for the health service was originally estimated to cost €9.1 million and was meant to be implemented in a two year time frame. Eight years on from that the project has cost €220 million so far. The system was plagued by technical faults during the roll-out phase. Famously one health service employee was paid €1 million in error by the system. As well as this, the computer system cannot handle sick pay, annual leave, bank holidays or sick leave for 70,000 Health Service staff. The system's roll-out was halted in October 2005 as of escalating costs.

The government is failing to protect children from sexual predators by not having a comprehensive vetting system or a proper sex offender's register. By Emma Browne

Previously known only for her television work, Claire Byrne has emerged in the last few months as a formidable radio presenter. Emma Browne speaks to her about leaving TV3, the pressures of live radio and going head-to-head with Morning Ireland. Portrait by Eoghan Moylan

Redmond O'Hanlon on Are You Somebody?, the memoirs of Nuala O'Faolain, an unheld child who wrenched an inspirational story from her pain

In November 2000 the then Minister for Environment, and Local Government, Noel Dempsey brought in the Planning and Development Act 2000. It Part V of the act a provision was brought in which said that all residential housing developments in zoned land would have to provide 20 per cent social and affordable housing.

This measure was meant to tackle some of the social housing problems in Ireland.

IBEC claims the heavy truck ban in Dublin city centre may contravene EU internal market rules. By Emma Browne

A collaborative project between IMMA's department of education and community and Focus Ireland, a charity fighting homelessness. Together, they have selected 16 works from the museum's collection to mark the 21st anniversary of Focus Ireland. With the historical experience of Ireland as a place of mass emigration and, more recently, its experience as a country of migration, the exhibition examines our shifting concept of the ‘home' as not only a place of shelter, but as a sense of belonging to a community and a culture.

The mother of a brain-damaged man who died after being moved to a nursing home against the wishes of his family speaks to Emma Browne