Society

The reports on what to do about our parlous state are coming thick and fast. Economist Colm McCarthy's advice on sales of state assets was released today. This covers the ESB, CIE, the Dublin Airport Authority, An Post, RTE and a number of other organisations. McCarthy and his colleagues recommend 'a planned programme of asset sales' to make money for the beleaguered Exchequer, and say the haul could be up to €5 billion. But, they are not arguing for any hasty action. Here are some key recommendations:

The report of the Commission of Investigation into the Banking Sector in Ireland (Nyberg Report) was published on Tuesday 19 April. Headline excerpts from the report's Executive Summary are below, and the full report is embedded at the bottom of this piece.

Think-tank TASC has released a report by economist Tom McDonnell which seeks to address two claims: first, that Ireland's competitiveness has declined in the past decade; and second, that high labour costs in low-wage sectors are contributing to the employment crisis. The paper, published on April 14, concludes that neither argument is supported by available data. In a statement published on the TASC website, its director, Nat O'Connor, said:

Labour Party members Joe Costello, TD, and Nessa Childers, MEP, have condemned the closure of the Light House cinema in Dublin's Smithfield. Said Childers: "If action isn't taken on behalf on the Arts Council and the Government, the only cinemas that exist in Ireland will be those housing big budget American blockbusters. This would represent an enormous cultural deficit for Ireland. This could in turn have a serious economic impact, and arguably already is.

Wicklow County Council is facing four criminal charges relating to the deaths of two Bray firemen in 2007. Mark O'Shaughnessy and Brian Murray died while fighting a fire at a disused factory in September 2007. The men were killed when the roof of the factory collapsed on them.

In a letter to the Council's law agent David Sweetman, Wicklow County councillors were informed that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had made a decision to prosecute the 'principals' of Wicklow County Council. The letter continued to say that "summonses would follow in due course".

Yesterday, IBEC, the Irish Exporters Association and Chambers Ireland all warned that reversing the minimum wage cut and restoring the rate to €8.65 an hour would be 'unwise'. IBEC said that the government's decision to raise the minimum wage back to €8.65 is "at odds with the economic needs of the country".

Joseph Mahon reviews Henning Mankell's final Wallander novel, The Troubled Man.

Simone de Beauvoir's mother, though dying of stomach cancer, had "a very easy death."

By contrast, Kurt Wallander, the introspective police detective in Henning Mankell's The Troubled Man, has a horrible, protracted death. The abrupt, penultimate paragraph of the novel informs us that "The shadow grew more intense. And Kurt Wallander slowly descended into a darkness that some years later transported him into the empty universe known as Alzheimer's disease."

Figures from an unpublished survey carried out by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) show that over a quarter of consultants are thinking of leaving the public health system, and that many of them are upset about cuts to services and their own pay. By Sara Burke

The survey of consultants carried out by the IMO - the biggest representative body for doctors in Ireland - got 407 responses, about one sixth of the entire consultant workforce (of 2,400).

Give me your name and address and I'll rape you. [All laugh] - Unidentified Garda Sergeant

The kids may be leaving – but Ireland isn’t derelict, says Shaun Dunne, who has watched his friends all leave in the last year, and, most recently, his twin sister. This is an excerpt from his play I Am A Homebird (It’s Very Hard).