He had to go, but not for some silly and inconsequential letter – he and others colluded to harm public welfare.

Trevor Sargent deserved to be driven from office and from public life.

He, in collusion with others, has done great harm to the public welfare. He has joined with others in mortgaging the country’s future and the welfare of citizens.

He, in association with others, supported measures that are palpably unjust and has condoned such conduct by false claims to be acting in the public interest.

The Willie O’Dea controversy underlines the infantile nature of our politics.

For the first time in years, a minister has been forced from office because of an absence of contrition over a sordid smear he perpetrated against a political opponent.

There were questions about perjury underlying that smear, but the available evidence suggested that there had been no perjury.

This essentially was a matter of style and decorum, of ‘letting down politics’ and of ‘damaging the political system’.

Green Party compliance has allowed Fianna Fáil to get away with doing whatever it likes.

Willie O'Dea has nothing to fear over that perjury matter. If Fianna Fáil were in partnership with, say, the late, unlamented PDs or the Labour Party, maybe even Sinn Féin, yes, problems.

But since Fianna Fáil is in government on its own, pas de problème. Nobody will be asking for heads, not even for an apology. If Willie doesn’t want to explain himself, that’s okay too.

The biggest ever speculative raid on any currency was launched against the euro last Wednesday, according to the Financial Times.

It was the kind of raid that George Soros undertook in 1992 against sterling, which precipitated the devaluation of that currency and its exit from the EU exchange rate mechanism.

Massive gains will be made by a few hedge fund operators in the next few months as the global financial crisis worsens. Huge profits will be made on loans to Greece, for instance, as the country will be forced to pay 2 or 3 percentage points above Germany for loans.

George Lee’s problem was not the lack of a platform or a role – it was the absence of a political philosophy. By Vincent Browne.

Video: The engaging exchange between Vincent and George Lee on Monday's 'Tonight' programme

There were four gardaí outside the examination hall at Trinity College last Tuesday evening. I asked them who was attending an event (on electoral systems) in the hall and was worth assaulting. They thought about the question, and acknowledged that they had no idea.

The event was both a seminar and a sitting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, chaired by the admirable Sean Ardagh TD. The event was boring - not quite excruciatingly so, but very much so. More than that, it was entirely pointless.

When Kathleen O’Toole goes back to Boston on her holidays, her former colleagues in the Boston Police Department will get great entertainment from her stories about our police force.

At times, they might feel she is winding them up, they will surely find it hard to believe that the Garda Síochána is as chaotic and dilapidated as she has found it to be.

As Haiti lies in ruins it’s business as usual for luxury cruise liners, which continue to arrive at the stricken island.

At 6.05pm last Tuesday in Dáil Éireann , Arthur Morgan of Sinn Féin was speaking on the motion to hold an inquiry into the banking crisis.

Brian Lenihan, the Minister for Finance, was on the government front bench talking to Frank Fahey, and they were having great gas. Beside Lenihan was Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who was standing talking to Áine Brady and Peter Power in the second row of the government benches, and they were having great gas.