Kevin “Boxer” Moran, who is now the Minister of State for the Office of Public Works (OPW), tabled a Bill based on the proposal before he took up his ministerial position last month.

A briefing document prepared by the Department of Finance for its new Minister, Paschal Donohoe, outlines a number of concerns with Mr Moran’s plans.

The document indicated that the department and the Central Bank both agreed that the Bill could have a “negative impact on the availability of credit, with possible knock-on effects such as higher interest rates”.

Mr Moran’s Keeping People in their Homes Bill, 2017, would create a statutory base for courts to take into account a range of new factors when deciding on repossession cases.

Courts would be able to consider the effect home loss would have on all members of the household, particularly in terms of their physical and mental health.

Courts would also be able to examine alternative arrangements to repossession, such as mortgage-to-rent schemes, and whether there is alternative accommodation available that would allow the family to stay together.

Programme for government

The Bill aims to follow through on commitments in the programme for government to avoid repossessions “insofar as is possible”.

Mr Moran pressed for the Bill’s progression in meetings with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar after Mr Varadkar took over as Fine Gael leader.

A spokesman for Mr Moran said the proposed legislation had recently been slightly amended and would likely be transposed into the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act, 2013.

The briefing document for Mr Donohoe noted: “This Bill seeks to facilitate the courts in effectively examining the ‘proportionality’ of granting, adjourning, varying, postponing, suspending or executing possession orders.”

It said the Department of Justice also had concerns about the Bill, and that Frances Fitzgerald, the former minister for justice, had met Mr Moran on the issue.

A spokesman for Mr Moran said the junior minister had also met the new Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, and expected that the main proposals in the Bill would proceed.

Senior figures suggested on Tuesday night that spending constraints will loosen before October’s budget, but as it stands the fiscal space, or the scope for new spending and tax reductions, will be set at €1.2 billion.

When the cost of changes announced in last year’s budget but not fully implemented is taken into account, that figure reduces to just in excess of €500 million.

However, the cost of public sector pay increases under the recently-agreed extension to the Lansdowne Road Agreement is €200 million a year - meaning that the amount remaining for tax cuts and spending increases is actually only €300 million.

Few Ministers believe this figure is politically sustainable and they expect the money to work with in the budget to rise before October.

The statement will maintain the upbeat projections for the Irish economy and say that it will grow by 4.3 per cent this year, with 55,000 new jobs added. It will forecast a slower growth rate of some 3.75 per cent for next year.

The statement will include a commitment to balance the Government books next year, ending borrowing for current spending.

This would mean the Government would achieve the European benchmark known as the Medium-Term Budgetary Objective (MTO), with the budget deficit coming in at less than half of a per cent of GDP.

The Government believes that once this is achieved, continued economic growth will create greater space for tax cuts and public spending.

Capital spending

Plans for increased capital spending - a theme focused on by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during the Fine Gael leadership election - are also likely to be elaborated on in the statement.

The Government is likely to divert resources previously intended for a “rainy-day fund” into a capital spending plan over the coming years, though the idea of the fund will not be completely abandoned.

The fund was announced last year by former minister for finance Michael Noonan to guard against future economic shocks, such as Brexit.

However, Mr Varadkar and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe believe there is a pressing need for an injection of capital spending in the near future.

The summer economic statement will be the first of a number of declarations on the subject ahead of the scheduled announcement in the winter of a 10-year capital-investment programme.

Wednesday’s statement will also set out the five key themes of the Government’s economic strategy.

These are “sound and sustainable public finances”;“managing public expenditure to ensure maximum return on taxpayer resources”;“targeted increases in public capital investment”; “reforming the taxation system to ensure it is growth-friendly”, and “ensuring balanced regional growth and facilitating access to finance, especially for SMEs”.

The 69-year-old from south Dublin said he took what he called “collective responsibility” for all of the IRA’s actions in England, including the Birmingham pub bombings.

Last year in a newspaper interview, Hayes claimed to have planted the bomb that blew up at the Conservative Party conference in the Grand Hotel, Brighton, in 1984.

He claimed to have planted the bomb with Patrick Magee, the man jailed for life for the attack. Magee was released in 1999 under the Belfast Agreement, after having spent 14 years in prison.

Hayes said he believed Margaret Thatcher had been killed by the bomb, only to realise the following morning that he and Magee had “missed” her. The explosion killed five people.

In 1990, Hayes was named in a Granada TV documentary as one of the men behind the 1974 Birmingham pub bombs. He had denied any role in the Birmingham attacks until this week.

It has also been alleged at different times over the last 25 years that he was behind other IRA bombs, including the attacks at the Harrods luxury department store, Hyde Park and Regent’s Park - all in London - at the height of the IRA’s bombing campaign in Britain in the early 1980s.

Paramilitary procession

Hayes first came to the attention of British police in 1974 for a relatively minor matter. He was charged as one of eight men who formed a paramilitary procession to mark the death of hunger striker Michael Gaughan.

Then aged 27 and living in Birmingham, Hayes and his co-accused were found to have accompanied the remains of Gaughan from the Isle of Wight to London. They were wearing berets, sunglasses and dark clothing during the procession, which the Crown Prosecution Service said constituted a uniform associated with a political organisation. They were each fined £60.

Two years later, in September 1976, he appeared with two other men before the State’s non-jury Special Criminal Court, which was established to deal with terrorists.

Hayes was charged with IRA membership and the possession of two Armalite rifles, a Magnum revolver, 94 rounds of ammunition, two electric detonators, five hand grenades and seven pounds of explosive mixture.

One of his co-accused on that occasion was Patrick Stagg, a relative of Frank Stagg, who had died in the IRA hunger strikes.

A melee broke out in court when their supporters chanted and cheered as Hayes and his co-accused appeared.

The men had been arrested on a farm in Portlaoise, Co Laois, after a haul of weapons was discovered in a car and in outhouses on the farm.

The car, which had false registration plates and was registered under a fake identity, was also seized.

Gardaí went to the location after reports of gun fire. When they arrived, they recognised one of the men present as Eamonn O’Sullivan.

He was an IRA man from Drimnagh, Dublin, who was on the run after having escaped from the Curragh military prison in Co Kildare.

Hayes, O’Sullivan and Stagg, then aged 21 and from Palmerstown, Dublin, were jailed. Hayes was imprisoned for three years.

The Irish Times called to Hayes’s house in south inner city Dublin on Tuesday, but nobody was home.

His immediate neighbours declined to make any comment, though others from the general area said he lived there alone.

“He’s been there for years, I think it was his parents’ home going back over the years,” said one man.

Along the horizon, figures will sporadically emerge from the vegetation: a lone boy, a young girl or two, a mother cradling a baby.

In a war where the majority of suicide bombers are women and children, those on guard can’t be too careful. “Stop!” a soldier will shout as soon as anyone comes within earshot. “Raise your hands up. Empty your bag. Lift up your dress.”

They’ll fire into the air to give early warnings, and continue to bellow until those approaching comply. Some – starving, and desperate to reach safety – follow orders without hesitation. Others, strapped with explosives, might not. They’ll be shot, the soldiers say.

A few months ago, those on guard watched as a teenage girl and another – even younger – abandoned hope even before the military made a move. “They got scared and blew themselves up,” one soldier recalls.

Gained notoriety

On the other side of the military checkpoint is Gwoza, a town that has gained notoriety because of its value to Boko Haram, one of the world’s deadliest terror groups, which has been waging war in Nigeria’s northeast for the past eight years.

Boko Haram captured the town of 275,000 in August 2014 and declared it the headquarters of its “caliphate”. Former captives describe militants marching through the town waving black flags, performing brutal executions and celebrating in the streets after suicide bombings.

One woman who was sold as a slave within the group tells me Gwoza’s fighters would exchange videos with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, each boasting about their conquests and brutality. From Gwoza, orders would be pushed out to fighters across the region. Before a large military offensive against it in early 2015, Boko Haram’s territory extended to about 20,000 square miles.

Two years after it was recaptured by Nigerian forces, the land surrounding Gwoza is still highly insecure, with frequent attacks, kidnappings and ambushes along roads. But the town itself is now a guarded oasis, the safest spot for miles, and the displaced are trickling back in.

The Nigerian Army’s 192 Battalion is in charge of defences in Gwoza, and its headquarters are at an old government lodge. On one side are the Mandara Mountains, where thousands of Gwoza’s residents fled and hid, some living in caves for years. The area is unusually green and lush. When we arrive by helicopter, an officer is sitting behind a mound of sandbags, while others mill around.

Camps for displaced

Though residents are returning, many haven’t gone near their homes, instead heading straight to camps for the displaced.

Sheltering from the sun in an abandoned school building, the walls pockmarked with bullet holes, 42-year-old Bintus describes the day Boko Haram arrived in Gwoza. “They came in with guns blazing. I was indoors and didn’t know how many there were,” she recalls.

She fled with her children, moving to the next safe place, and then on again once the militants launched a fresh attack. “We had no food, no drinking water. I was afraid my children would die of starvation. They were constantly fainting.”

The family ate plants to survive. Eventually, they returned to Gwoza, arriving just 11 days before we meet. Sitting on the mat beside Bintus is Uwani Musa Dure (25). She also recently came home, but her thoughts are elsewhere.

She lists the names of her missing relatives: her teenage brother and a sister who was forced to marry a Boko Haram fighter; her mother Haziza; and her own children, Umar (10) and Hadiza (8). Her husband was killed during the assault on Gwoza.

Dure has spent the last 14 months traversing the northeast, trying to find out what happened to her family. She has visited the cites and towns of Yola, Mubi, Maiduguri and Kano, but to no avail.

Mobile phone masts

When Boko Haram attacks an area, one of the first things it does is knock down mobile phone masts, with the result that reports of its atrocities are slow to circulate. In Gwoza, communications are still down, meaning the only way to get a message out is to send it with someone by road or helicopter. Returnees use a network of old neighbours and family to try to get news of missing relatives, but often their searches are fruitless.

“I get nostalgic when I see people with their parents or husbands,” Dure says. “I think too much and cannot sleep at night.”

Maximising chaos

Civilian life has come back to Gwoza. Young girls walk arm-in-arm down the street. Someone is blasting music, a cover version of Michael Jackson’s We Are the World.

Yet burned-out cars lie beside burned-out buildings. Saeed Salisu Sambo, elected chairman – the equivalent of mayor – of Gwoza last August, says 30 per cent of residents have returned. Many rushed to repaint their houses to hide the markings the militants left behind, he says. “Even the house I live in [had] ‘Allah’ painted all over it,” he says.

Just as the Islamic State terror group has done in Iraq, Boko Haram systematically destroys properties before they are recaptured, maximising the chaos and seeking to prevent civilians from returning to their regular lives.

A former medical centre in the town has clearly been set on fire, all its records incinerated. On the walls, drawings by the militants are visible. All were pictures of weapons, cars or tanks. There is also evidence of Boko Haram’s use of technology. Outside one building at the centre, a laptop had been smashed on the cement and then burned, the memory cards rendered unreadable.

The area is now a healthcare facility run by Unicef, whish has set up its own tents in the front of the grounds. In one corner is a mass grave. “That’s where Boko Haram buried their own,” one medical worker tells me. Staff are careful of where they stand – besides the hidden bodies, there’s still a risk of explosives.

Scant information

Landmines, booby-traps, and other improvised explosive devices are a problem across the northeast of Nigeria, says Sinead McGrath, country director for Mines Advisory Group International, which began carrying out assessments in May. However, the ongoing conflict means verified information on the scale of the threat is scant.

“The number of victims and the exact type and extent of contamination across the region is not known,” she says. “Furthermore, the most conflict-affected state, Borno, is mostly inaccessible to humanitarian actors, so little comprehensive information is available.”

Simple lives

Back at the military base, Sambo struggled to explain the impact of the war on what was a rural farming community, where education was prized but most residents lived simple lives. “There are a lot of traumatised people. More than 10,000,” he says. “We were affected quite immensely, but now we’re moving beyond it.”

The politician’s younger brother was killed by Boko Haram in 2014, aged 26. His niece and nephew were abducted the same year.

At times Sambo dismisses the significance of Gwoza’s place in the war, while at other times he emphasises it. “Anywhere can be declared the caliphate. It doesn’t mean anything,” he says, dismissively, before changing his mind.

“I have to feel fear. My home was declared as a caliphate.”

The Department of Justice said on Tuesday the Cabinet had agreed that a three-person committee would consider candidates for the role, which becomes vacant next month when Chief Justice Susan Denham retires.

The committee will consist of Mr Justice Sean Ryan, president of the Court of Appeal; Attorney General Séamus Woulfe SC and Jane Williams, chairperson of the Top Level Appointments Committee, which selects candidate for senior public service jobs.

The Government spokesman said it would be up to the committee how many names it wished to pass on to the Government, but Opposition legal figures warned that any curtailing of the Government’s choice – should the committee only forward one name, for instance – would be unconstitutional.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said it would be a matter for the committee.

Delayed

Cabinet sources said the process was agreed after Mr Ross expressed his disappointment that the new judicial appointments legislation was delayed and would not be in place before Ms Justice Denham retires. The move to set up the process is likely to be seen in political circles as a sop to Mr Ross after his disappointment at the slow progress of the Judicial Appointments Bill.

But senior Government figures stressed that the decision on a new chief justice would be made by the Cabinet as a whole, following discussions among Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Attorney General.

Retires

However, it was unlikely that the process would conclude before Ms Justice Denham retires, the Government’s spokesman said last night.

The current chief justice will retire in August after six years in the role, and 25 years as a judge of the Supreme Court.

New legislation governing judicial appointments, which has been vigorously promoted Mr Ross, passed its second stage in the Dáil last week but will not become law until the autumn at the earliest.

Under the Constitution, it is the Government that nominates any judge for appointment by the President. However, there is no legal bar to the Government taking advice from any outside body on the nomination.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan said: “The Government needs to clarify if it is asking the committee to nominate one candidate or three candidates as is envisaged by the Bill. If the Government is seeking only one name from the committee and has agreed to accept that name, then it is in danger of undermining the constitutional responsibility that rests on government to nominate a person to the office of Chief Justice.”

Briefing papers from the Department of Justice indicate the Coalition has started to explore alternative solutions as a means of getting around the commitment, which was included in the programme for government.

In April, a special committee chaired by then taoiseach Enda Kenny considered a proposal to have the Circuit Court hold special sittings on certain days to find solutions for householders in mortgage arrears.

Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance, when forming a minority Government last year, said they would “establish a dedicated new court to sensitively and expeditiously handle mortgage arrears and other personal insolvency cases”. However, no steps have yet been taken to do so amid suggestions that it would be costly and complex.

Alternative

The briefing notes prepared for Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan on taking the role last month show that the Government has looked at using the existing courts as an alternative.

The briefing says the mortgage court, as promised, would be a dedicated court, would impose solutions to a person’s mortgage difficulties and could sit in private if requested by the debtor.

Another programme promise – which undertook to consolidate into one national service all the supports available for those in arrears – has been fulfilled.

The Abhaile service was launched in October and, according to the briefing, appears to have reduced the volume of arrears cases coming before the courts.

“It provides for in-house dedicated mortgage arrears advisers in Money Advice and Budget Service offices across the country specifically to assist and negotiate with financial institutions on the borrowers behalf including access to free independent financial and legal advice.”

The briefing also points to a growth in new applications for personal insolvency solutions, with the numbers almost doubling from 570 in the first quarter of 2016 to 1,302 in the first quarter of this year.

When it comes to Europe, he has tended to exceed expectations but perhaps a part of his success involves dampening them beforehand and the visitors, he has read somewhere, have made the group stages of one European competition or other in 15 of the last 22 seasons.

“It’s an incredible record,” he says before adding with an exasperated laugh. “We’ve only been in it once and people are expecting us to get back in.”

The extent to which the home side’s fans really expect his side to beat one that includes so many internationals is debatable but last year’s heroics have given them license to dream again while a significant recent improvement in form has provided some basis for believing the players might just might be capable of delivering for a second successive season.

The importance of it all, Kenny suggests, is as much about the kudos as the cash with the manager suggesting it is only when a team from the league is going well in Europe that the latent levels of support and interest really become apparent.

Asked whether that assessment ties in with his experience, Chris Shields grins suddenly and says he only came to appreciate just how many people last year’s run had registered with when “yer man who works in the Chinese, my local in Clondalkin, said ‘well done on the European campaign’”.

Their wider fame will be fleeting, the players all know, if losing to Rosenborg leaves people with the sense that it is back to business as usual.

Kenny insists, though, that despite the scale of challenge, last year’s success can serve as the foundation on which his players can build something great again.

“Listen,” he says, “they’re a very good team; they’ve a very experienced group of players. We respect that. We respect that their expectations are to get through to the group stage but from our point of view, that’s nothing new to us.

“We’ve faced some great European clubs so that’s not really anything new to us. It doesn’t mean we feel we don’t have a chance. We trust ourselves, trust the players.”

Dominating games

Dundalk’s outstanding success last season was that they posed genuine problems for almost every team they played and always aspired to dominating games even if they did not always succeed.

Even when they did not play well it seemed as though they might have another goal in them. They were made to pay, though, for the defensive mistakes they made and Kenny knows they will have to be a little stronger, both mentally and physically, this time out.

“They are a tall team,” he says, “[Tore] Reginiussen and [Yohan Laedre] Bjordal, the centre backs obviously [Matthias] Vilhjalmsson’s very strong in the air and then there’s [Nicklas] Bendtner who I think is 6ft 4in so they’ve got a lot of height in the team when it comes to set plays. We’re not the tallest of teams so we have a bit of work to do in that regard; it will be an important part of the game for us.”

 Even from play, though, the visitors will be quite the handful. Five points clear at the top of the Norwegian league table and still firmly on course for a third straight title, Rosenborg are not where they are just because they convert a lot of corners.

They arrive off the back of a 5-1 win and Kenny is impressed that they are still employing much the same system they did more than a decade ago when they easily beat his Bohemians side. They were Champions League group stage regulars back then but have not made to the club game’s top table in a decade.

 In 2003, the Dublin club’s downfall was a goal in the first leg that resulted from a well rehearsed pattern of play around their goalmouth. Kenny had warned his defence about it beforehand, he recently recalled but, he said yesterday: “even though you know what’s coming, it’s difficult to stop”.

Dundalk are generally regarded as a better side than that Bohemians one but containing opponents that coach Kåre Ingebrigtsen insists have come here with the intention of scoring an away goal or two while trying to establish an advantage of their own to bring to Trondheim next week still represents quite a challenge.

Kenny insists he would not take a 0-0 draw and it is not his way either but nobody will need to remind him that he could most definitely do worse.

The Labour Party is due to table a private member’s motion in the Seanad rejecting any move to implement an income-contingent loan scheme and calling for a fully publicly-funded scheme.

Government sources say a counter-motion will be proposed which will say that all parties have a responsibility to help develop “sustainable funding sources” for the sector.

The motion will also recognise the importance of building political consensus on a future funding model for higher education and will support the Government’s intention to await the outcome of Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education before a policy decision is taken.

This committee is currently examining the Cassells report on the future funding of higher education, which put forward an income-contingent student loan scheme as as one of a number of options.

Labour Party Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said the party favoured a publicly-funded third level system and estimated that the cost of abolishing fees would be in the region of €222 million.

Payroll levy

He said this could be funded through modest increases to a payroll levy for employers.

“If we look at the English experience, we see students who are saddled with debt through their 20s and 30s. There is no logical reason why we should accept that model.

“It costs about €16,000 a year to fund a second-level student’s education. No one is asking students to pay that back, so why should it be any different for third-level students?”

Mr Ó Ríordáin acknowledged that a Labour minister in government had increased the student registration charge despite earlier pledges not to do so. He said this was a mistake that “should not dog us forever” and had been done so to prevent a Fine Gael plan to introduce a student loan or graduate tax proposal.

A Government source pointed out that it was a Labour minister for education that commissioned the Cassells report which made its recommendations to government last year.

The source also said the cost of abolishing the student registration charge, and providing for an expanded this level sector over the coming years, was in the region of €1.3 billion extra per annum.

“It is easy to find fault with one proposal or another. If different political parties agree with the ambitions set out in the Cassells report for the higher education sector, but disagree with the options put forward to fund those ambitions, then they must outline where we will find the money to pay for the extra investment that everyone agrees is needed,” the source said.

The Government counter-motion will note that the an additional €160 million has been pledged over the next three years for higher education.

It will also highlight an initiative to explore the possibility of an employer-exchequer funding mechanism which could realise up to €200million in additional annual funding.

Niall Kelly is being duly prosaic about Kildare’s first Leinster football final in eight years, until he’s politely reminded Dublin are the opposition.

The team that has won every game in the province by a double-figure margin since 2013; that has beaten Kildare by an aggregate score of 35 points in their last two meetings; going for a record seventh successive Leinster title.

And the team Kildare haven’t beaten in the championship since the turn of the last century – the 2000 Leinster final replay.

“Well, maybe that is in the back of the minds a bit,” admits Flynn, and who could blame him. “And going in, after the four-week break, you can tend to think about the match a lot, and delve into things a bit more than you should, like.

“But it’s not something we can really dwell on at all. Naturally enough you do look ahead to what might be coming down the line, but something that Cian O’Neill [the Kildare manager] would have driven into us all year is to focus on the next game. We’ve been doing it throughout the league and it’s been kind of the same thing in the championship.”

Kelly has reason to be humbly optimistic. At 23, he’s of the new generation of Kildare footballers, who have beaten Dublin on occasion coming up through the minor and under-21 ranks.

Sunday’s final in Croke Park will also mark his first championship start against Dublin, although he did appear as a sub in the 2015 Leinster final, scoring a late point (Dublin won that game 5-18 to 0-14).

He’s also been in brilliant form this season, the axis to Kildare’s attacking game along with Daniel Flynn; their nine-point semi-final win over Meath, coupled with promotion back to Division One, has also added layers to their confidence.

“Before the Meath game, I don’t think anybody was looking ahead to the Leinster final, because we hadn’t got by that stage in eight years. It’s just important for us to keep our feet on the ground, but at the same time it’s massive for everyone here and really would mean the world to Kildare. It’s up to us to put in a massive shift.

Leinster final

“We’re under no illusions about what Dublin can bring, what they will bring. We know their performance is going to be up to a level that we haven’t faced this year, and probably in the last few years.

“We have full confidence in Cian and the lads to have us in a place that we’re ready mentally and physically to deal with what they’re going to bring. We don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion by any means. People outside the group may feel us losing by a few points would be a good result, but to us we may never get back to a Leinster final again. Who knows, it could be another eight years before we get back, and a lot of our team would be gone.”

The county’s own rising expectation is doused in reality too – particularly after watching Dublin beat Westmeath in their semi-final by 31 points. Kelly only watched “bits” of the game, but again reckons the Leinster final has to be taken on Kildare’s merits firstly.

“There might be a few more nerves coming into a Leinster final, and I’m sure if we were playing Meath, Westmeath or anyone in a Leinster final, those nerves would be there.

“And I think the Westmeath game was a wake-up call. We had a week after the Meath game where we were happy with our performance for the most part, and then the Dublin game [against Westmeath] brought us right back down to earth again. The Meath performance won’t be enough on the day against Dublin.

“They were very impressive, as all of us would have seen. About the fear factor, there probably is a reassurance that we have previously beaten them at minor and under-21. It will help a little bit in lads’ minds and our panel would be the core of those teams. It’s nice to know that those Dublin lads aren’t untouchable altogether.

“It’s different at senior, and we haven’t been there yet, as they have been over the last few months and years. We’ve a lot of work to do to get up to their level. It’s going to be a massive test so we’re under no illusions about what they’re going to bring and it’s up to us to match it and try and better it.

“At the same time, in any championship game, you feel you’re in a good place, but it’s not until you get there and perform on the day that you really know where you’re at.” 

The Ballymun Local Area Plan sets out a strategy for the development of almost 34 hectares of land which remains vacant in the former high-rise suburb following its 20-year regeneration.

In addition to more homes, the plan aims to provide better infrastructure, shopping and employment opportunities to work towards the creation of an economically viable “new town” with an eventual population of up to 30,000.

In 1997, following decades of neglect and increasing social deprivation, a government decision was made to regenerate Ballymun.

Over the past two decades 36 blocks of 2,820 flats built in the 1960s, including seven 15-storey towers, have been demolished. Almost 2,000 replacement social homes, as well as 1,350 private sector homes, mostly apartments serving a rental market, have been built.

Social housing

When regeneration began 80 per cent of residents lived in social housing, with just 20 per cent owning their homes.The construction of private housing was seen as key to achieving social and economic regeneration. However, the majority of households still live in social housing. Owner occupancy has risen to just over 28 per cent, with private rented at 12.6 per cent.

The plan seeks to correct what is says is a “skewed tenure mix” through the development of more private housing, for owner-occupancy and for rent.

Future social housing in the area would be provided through the obligation of developers to provide 10 per cent of new housing for people on the social housing waiting list.

Mixed tenure is needed to encourage more shops and other commercial service to the area, the plan states. “The dominance of low income households and limited disposable income is restrictive for local businesses and makes it difficult to attract new commercial activity into the area.”

Regeneration

The council is particularly anxious to develop a new shopping centre following its purchase of the old Ballymun Town Centre complex in 2014.

The plan sets out “site briefs” for 31 plots of land in Ballymun detailing the amount of housing, commercial, community and recreational facilities which must be provided. The infrastructure required or planned to service the sites, such as roads, sewerage, and public transport such as Metro North is also included in each site brief.

The delivery of Metro North is “an essential component” of the regeneration process, the plan states.

City planner John O’Hara said the plan provides a “unique framework to finish the regeneration” and “fulfil the full potential of Ballymun”.

The plan will be on public display for four weeks before it comes into force.

The Bill, brought forward by Minister for Transport Shane Ross, will still proceed to the Dáil in the autumn despite the reservations of senior figures, including the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan, about its potential impact.

Ministers Heather Humphreys, Michael Ring, Denis Naughten, Joe McHugh and Michael Creed also expressed concerns about the proposals.

They cited the lack of rural transport, social inclusion issues and the potential impact on Garda resources and the courts system as reasons. Some also fear this will lead to an attempt to lower the blood alcohol limit closer to zero.

At present, drivers detected with 51 to 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in their system receive penalty points rather than a ban for their first offence. Mr Ross wants a mandatory driving ban to be introduced.

Rural transport

The Cabinet agreed to review rural transport schemes and to request a report from Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan on whether current rules are being adequately enforced.

Amid unhappiness in the Government backbenches over the proposal, a decision on whether to allow a free vote on the measure was deferred until September.

A Government spokesman said all senior Ministers would be bound by the Cabinet’s decision but he could not clarify whether this extended to Ministers of State. The programme for government states all office holders are bound by a Cabinet decision.

Government sources said Mr Varadkar had made that point yesterday but later indicated there may be some space for manoeuvre for Ministers of State.

Several Ministers of State including Kevin ’Boxer’ Moran, Seán Kyne, Brendan Griffin and Patrick O’Donovan have expressed concern about the measures.

Mr Varadkar confirmed he will ask Fine Gael members to support the Bill but will allow for the parliamentary party to decide whether there should be a free vote extended to TDs and Senators.

Five thousand marchers and band members will gather, along with an expected crowd of 25,000 – all enlivened by the recent political tumult that has put the Democratic Unionist Party centre-stage in Westminster politics.

Last Friday, Orangemen gathered for a dress rehearsal in Lurgan, known locally as the ‘Mini Twelfth’, where bandsmen and lodge members from the greater Craigavon area fine-tuned their routines before Richhill.

Lurgan is evenly split between Protestants and Catholics. Some parts of the Armagh town are home to near-ubiquitous GAA and Celtic insignia, before they give way to Union Jack bunting and orange flags on the way from the train station up to the main street.

The Lurgan marching route has its own history: “All those houses south of the church would have been Protestant-owned houses,” explains Denis Watson, Grand Master of the Armagh County Lodge.

During the Troubles, however, many Protestants moved out: “It’s now nearly all nationalist. So where previously we would have gone down as far as the railway station and turned around and come back up.”

‘No-go area’

“That’s now a no-go area because the Parades Commission determinations mean we’re not allowed past Shankill parish church,” says Watson, reflecting the problematic relationship Unionists have with the Parades Commission which approves marching routes.

In the 1990s, Watson, as master of the Royal Black Institution’s Lurgan chapter, was a prominent figure during the most difficult years of the Drumcree parades conflict in the 1990s, when Orangemen in Portadown were stopped from walking back from the church.

Watson, who served as a member of the Stormont Assembly for Upper Bann between 1998 and 2003, last walked down Garvaghy Road wearing his orange sash in 1994. It was, he remembers, “not a very pleasant experience then”.

Watson is still hopeful that a “resolution” can be reached so that he and his fellow brethren can once again pass the Drumcree parish church, where Orangemen continue to hold a weekly protest, and walk down the Garvaghy Road.

However, the veteran Grand Master is realistic in his assessment that no amount of leverage now enjoyed by the DUP in Westminster will solve an impasse which he says requires cross-community respect and toleration.

As such, he is dismissive of the recent overture made by Portadown Loyal Orange Lodge district grand master Darryl Hewitt to DUP MPs, who insists that the Portadown lodge had tried to talk, but that now it is “time to walk”.

“I don’t think (Portadown) has been part of the Conservatives/DUP agreement and I think that it has been made quite clear that it wasn’t part of the agreement, and I think the Orange institution came out likewise,” Watson goes on.

Sprawling estate

Honouring tradition, Friday night’s Lurgan parade began at the sprawling Brownlow estate which was bequeathed to the Order by the Brownlow family who arrived as Protestant planters in the 17th Century.

Said to be the largest Orange hall in the world, Brownlow is home to a museum that chronicles the 1912 Ulster Covenant, the Great War, along with the service of of local brethren in the RUC and the staunchly unionist Glenavon Football Club.

Curator Clive Higginson winces at mention of the word “sectarianism”, but he is open about the Order’s Protestant-only philosophy: “The Orange Order is a Protestant organisation, so that means you’re sectarian then by definition.

“It sounds like a dirty word as if a finger is being pointed at you, but it’s made up of Protestant people and if you want to put that title on it, then it’s fine,” Higginson tells The Irish Times candidly.

Questioned about the Conservatives/DUP deal, Stevie Gregson of Lurgan’s Britannia Loyal Orange Lodge 24 has little fear of direct rule from London from Conservatives dependent upon the DUP .

“On a personal level I voted No for the [Good Friday] Agreement, I didn’t think that the republican movement had come far enough in terms of eschewing their terrorist past. Things have developed a lot since then of course,” he went on.

Distrust of Sinn Féin is evident at among the Brownlow crowds. Gregson regards its calls for a Border poll with barely concealed contempt: “There are many on the nationalist side who would not vote for a united Ireland, ” he says.

Dismissed

Talks between Sinn Féin and the Orange Order are dismissed disdainfully by Denis Watson: “Sinn Féin-IRA have made no apologies whatsoever for all their misdemeanours, all the genocide that they created on the Protestant community.

“Until there’s an open apology and we see a genuineness from them that they’re genuine about being apologetic for what we’ve gone through I can’t see there being any dialogue with Sinn Féin, full-stop,” he says.

Watson and many fellow Orangemen are at pains to offer a sincere and genuine welcome to nationalist neighbours, though others gathered in Lurgan hold stronger views, evidenced by derogatory references to the Pope and “Taigs”.

Last month unionist election candidates distanced themselves from public endorsements provided by Ulster Defence Association-linked groups. Stevie Gregson is uneasy about any such links.

“I’m uncomfortable with it. If you look at this parade tonight you will not see any evidence of paramilitary flags or organisations. It’s not something that the organisation that I belong to supports in any shape or form. Terrorism is terrorism, always has been and always will be,” he says.

This year, it was the turn of Lurgan Purple Star LOL 63 to unveil a new banner, which saw its lodge secretary Nigel Dennison happy to bask in the approval of his fellow brethren, if uncomfortable to talk about politics.

Nevertheless, Dennison allowed himself a small indulgence when asked if he is hopeful, or expectant of preferential treatment for the Order now that the DUP holds sway in Westminster. “Expectant,” he said cryptically, with a knowing smile.

It says the NMH “blurred boundaries” between the publicly-funded facility and a semi-private clinic on its site pose a risk of conflicts of interest.

The report, to be released on Wednesday, says four senior managers received additional payments from the NMH for duties carried out relating to the semi-private clinic.

A series of linkages between the publicly-funded hospital and about a dozen companies providing services involving senior figures at the institution are also highlighted in the audit.

It points to a €1.4 million loan provided to the hospital by the semi-private clinic and maintains that buildings owned by the NMH were used as collateral for a €4.5 million loan taken out by the semi-private clinic, which the maternity hospital management services and to which it provides transaction processing.

Factual inaccuracies

The NMH last night strongly criticised the audit findings, saying the report contained multiple factual inaccuracies. It said there were numerous omissions of relevant facts and that conclusions had been reached without supporting evidence.

“We disagree with much of the opinion expressed. The nub of our disagreement arises from the failure of the reports to accept that the National Maternity Hospital is not owned by the HSE but is an independent entity,” it said.

The audit report describes the semi-private clinic as “an unincorporated entity” under which consultants employed by the NMH provide services to private patients. It says the net income is distributed to the consultants.

It says the NMH stated that the payments to three managers were from private sources other than fundraising or donations. HSE internal auditors considered these payments to be in breach of public sector pay policy.

Payment to master

The report also highlighted a €40,000 payment made to the current master of the hospital, Dr Rhona Mahony.

The hospital said it welcomed the HSE’s acknowledgement that the €40,000 additional payment to the master was sourced from the fee income of the NMH.

The hospital said the buildings which were used as collateral for the loan were not publicly funded. It said they had been in a dangerous condition and were leased to the semi-private clinic at a modest rent.

The hospital said the refurbishment of the four buildings cost about €6 million. The semi-private clinic paid €4.5million and it loaned the hospital €1.4 towards the project on an interest-free basis.

In exchange, the hospital had use of the upgraded facility for offices and retained ownership.

“My stance leg, was very diagonal, when I was planting my two feet, which I wouldn’t do now. I’d be a lot more square, and solid in my base...

“And I just slipped. I remember it very vividly, watched it a good few times. I remember, at the time thinking, I was at fault for it, then going straight into the next play. And that was a good lesson for me, in going from play to play. That’s very important. It was my mistake, and we conceded a goal, I think, because of me...”

Cooper is recalling this moment not because he wants to but because he can. The 2013 Leinster football semi-final against Kildare, only his second championship start for Dublin, the game just six minutes old when he slips and allows Paddy Brophy clean through for a Kildare goal.

Dublin still won by 16 points, but for Cooper the lesson was invaluable; try again, fail again, fail better. He’s now considered one of Dublin’s most reliable defenders.

“Yeah, I learned a lot of from it, and I’ve learnt a lot from a lot of things since then. But I remember quite vividly I went straight to the other side of the pitch for my kick out, a poor kick out off Stephen at the time, so it was good to get that experience, dropping one thing, no matter what happens, and going into the next thing. It was a good lesson in that regard.

“Obviously there’s a lot more to his [Brophy’s] game than beating me by [my] slipping, and if I was, or he was, to play the next day I’ve no doubt we wouldn’t be too far away, so looking forward to maybe having a good cut off him again on Sunday.”

Which indeed Cooper likely will. Brophy only returned to the Kildare panel prior the championship, having spent the last two-and-a-half years played Australian Rules football with West Coast Eagles, the Perth-based club.

Dublin are looking to win a record seventh Leinster title, and even accounting for some of the hype around Kildare, he does have reason to believe it will be closer contest than most imagine.

“I think so. There seems to be a good bit of expectation amongst themselves, Kildare GAA, and the team, and they’ve a manager, a coach, who’s put a lot into them, a lot of good individuals.

Ankle injury

“Particularly from my point of view, looking at their offence, some are very dangerous, I’ve marked a couple of them, and newer guys coming into form as well. So looking forward to it, a very good offence, from the platform in the middle, right up, to threats in lot of places.”

Cooper missed most of Dublin’s league campaign with an ankle injury, but was promptly restored to the full back line for both the quarter-final against Carlow and the one-sided semi-final win over Westmeath.

“It obviously wasn’t easy trying to get a jersey back and I’m still trying to get a jersey back. The lads, I thought, were going well in various positions and you can chop and change and you can maybe move a few guys anyway but, yeah, relieved.

“But I had done a good bit of work in fairness. I wasn’t sitting idle. I was doing a good bit of work to try and prove myself.”

Then Dublin as a whole appear to be pacing themselves a little differently this season, perhaps looking to peak no moment earlier than the third Sunday in September – presuming they get that far.

“I think getting up to that peak, maybe not peak but level of intensity, has been a little bit later this year. We always had a good bit in the legs, going into the National League, whereas this year we didn’t. And then it was about getting from game to game.

“We got to the final, and I think that was good enough territory, for us to get there, for what we had in our legs. But I think we came back after that very much refreshed, and that’s the way it’s been, pulling back a little and then striking when it’s most needed. I think we’re on course, with a good bit to go yet.”

In a briefing paper drafted last month for incoming Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, officials identified the Halawa case as one of three “immediate and high priority issues” he faced, along with Brexit talks and efforts to restore the Northern Executive.

Referring to calls on the Government to take a case against Egypt at the International Court of Justice, the officials wrote that any such action would be “complex and protracted” and there would be no guarantee that it would be ultimately successful.

“Our assessment is that any such action would be viewed as hostile by Cairo and would result in the existing commitment to release Mr Halawa once the trial ends being taken off the table,” the memo states.

Diplomatic approach

The department believes that “the [relatively] early release of Mr Halawa is more likely to be achieved through a continuation of the current determined and firm political/diplomatic approach.”

Officials told Mr Coveney that Dublin had secured a commitment from Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in November 2015 that he would return Mr Halawa to Ireland after the ongoing trial ends – a pledge repeated to a delegation of TDs who visited Cairo in January.

Mr Halawa (21) from Firhouse in south Dublin, has been in jail in Cairo for 3½ years. He and hundreds of others were arrested in August 2013 at the Al Fateh grand mosque and Ramses Square in Cairo during protests against the ousting of then president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The trial has been hearing evidence in recent months, but no evidence implicating Mr Halawa has been presented.

The officials suggested the reasons for the long delays in the trial included complications arising from a mass trial of 494 defendants as well as the fact that “some of the defendants expect harsh sentences, and thus have an incentive to string the process out”.

According to the memo, it “remains a possibility” that Mr Halawa will be acquitted. If that happened he should be able to return home “with minimal delay,” it states.

Prison term

“If he is found guilty and sentenced to a prison term, we will immediately press forward through diplomatic channels to ‘call in’ the commitment given by the Egyptian president to use his discretionary powers.”

Elsewhere in the briefing paper, officials note how Brexit has helped drive an “unprecedented” increase in passport applications. The Passport Service processed 750,000 applications last year, up almost 10 per cent on the previous year. So far this year 475,000 applications have been received, a rise of 14 per cent.

“The demand stems from increased travel linked to economic recovery as well as the impact of Brexit,” the officials state, noting that applications this year from Northern Ireland and Britain had risen by 44 per cent and 59 per cent on last year, respectively.

The briefing paper as released by the department contained a number of redactions. These included all substantive material on the restoration of the Northern Executive and a section on an ongoing review of the overseas mission network.

Mr Conway, who is now a Dublin-based solicitor but ran the IRA’s intelligence operation until 1975, said he believed Hayes had given the apology in the hope that it would help the relatives of those killed.

Speaking to the BBC, Hayes, who lives in the Coombe in Dublin, said he took what he called “collective responsibility” for all the IRA’s actions in England, including the Birmingham pub bombing.

However, he refused to identify the names of those who placed the bombs in the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town pubs in Birmingham on November 21st, 1974. To do so, he said, would make him an informer.

“With the inquest coming up and hearing the feelings of the relatives he probably felt that he could perhaps say something that could help them in some small way,” Mr Conway told The Irish Times.

The inquests into the deaths of the bomb victims have been re-opened following a 40-year campaign by the victims’ families, though they are already unhappy about limits put on its scope.

Suspects

Last week former chief coroner of England and Wales Sir Peter Thornton said suspects will not be investigated or named during the hearings – a ruling denounced by the families as a “whitewash”.

The identification of the perpetrators – a couple of whom are still alive – is not possible, said Thornton, because it is not “in the public interest for these investigations and inquests to pursue unachievable, or indeed unlawful objectives”.

However, he said he would accept evidence about whether West Midlands Police had been tipped off twice about the possibility of bomb attacks in the days before the November 1974 atrocity.

Last June, a pre-inquest hearing was told that police had been told about an overheard conversation involving IRA members 11 days before the attack, but there is no evidence that the police did anything to stop it.

Hayes, said Conway, had “broken cover” by being interviewed now: “Look, I’m reluctant to use the word courageous but yes, it’s the only word that comes to mind.

“Mick is the sort of guy that was hiding in the bushes all those years and not known to anyone and it must have been very difficult for him to do,” Conway told The Irish Times.

“I’m surprised Mick has come out of the bushes after all this times it would have been difficult for him,” Mr Conway went on, “I know his apology is very difficult for the relatives but I think they should try and take it for what it is.”

‘Messed up’

The IRA had made it clear immediately after the Birmingham pub bombings that it had “messed up”, he said: “They made it clear from day one, they admitted look it was us, it was a mess up.”

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan said Hayes should make himself available to British police for interview, saying that his interview makes clear that he has is possession of relevant information.

Criticising Hayes for speaking to the BBC without co-operating with the authorities, or contacting the relatives, O’Callaghan said: “Giving an interview on television is no replacement for justice and is of no benefit to the families of the bereaved.”

However, Fine Gael TD, Alan Farrell held out little hope that Hayes’ interview will lead to anything: “I think there might be difficulties under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement if, for example, an effort was made to extradite him.

“I have no truck with any of these people but I do not see the Irish authorities having any oar in it unless there is evidence that he was orchestrating or managing terrorist activities in the Republic,” he said.

The study says the newly established “family hubs” – group accommodation provided to get homeless families out of hotels and B&Bs – could become the next “direct provision” for poor families.

It says the “major reliance” of successive governments on the private sector to provide social housing has contributed to the problems now facing the State.

The study, Investing in the Right to a Home: Housing, HAPs and Hubs, was written by Dr Rory Hearne and Dr Mary Murphy of the university’s sociology and social sciences institute. It was conducted as part of a Europe-wide examination of how to strengthen social investment.

The report describes a “core tension within Irish housing and economic policy” with one trying to address the social housing crisis and the latter “encouraging and relying on the private market” to deliver investment in housing.

While the private sector may deliver investment, it cannot distribute housing in a way that vindicates the rights of the poorest households. It calls for a tripling of State funding for social housing building to €1 billion a year.

“Absence of [State] investment in social housing negates the housing rights of the most vulnerable,” it says. “We are not at the peak of the housing crisis and we expect [it] to escalate over the next five years.”

‘Not valid’

It says the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), a payment to households on the social housing list but living in the private rented sector, “is not a valid mechanism to meet the right to housing”. While HAP is a valid housing option it should be secondary option for households in need of social housing, while direct local authority or approved housing body social housing should be prioritised.

“While we make this argument from a security of tenure perspective we also note that from a cost perspective that direct build social housing presents a far greater return on State investment and is thus a more cost-efficient policy.”

Concerns about the lack of research or evidence to “justify the emerging family hubs model” are noted, and the lack of any pilot to show how they might work.

Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy has said places for 650 homeless families, currently in hotels or B&Bs, will be provided, with another 200 places planned for families who are yet to become homeless. Such hubs provide cooking and laundry facilities, as well as homework clubs and on-site key workers.

‘Therapeutic incarceration’

“The danger with ‘hubs’ is that they both institutionalise and reduce the functioning capacity of families.” This can lead to “therapeutic incarceration” and lead to society blaming the families – predominantly lone-parent mothers, working class and migrant women – for something they did not cause.

“There is a real danger family ‘hubs’ may become the next ‘direct provision’ – an addition to Ireland’s long lamentable experiences of institutional responses to social [issues].”

The report calls for a three-month limit on how long families stay in hubs and a commitment to close all hubs by December 2019.

It says HAP tenancies should have be for minimum of five years and local authorities should be obliged to re-accommodate families which lose their HAP tenancy.

He states that persons with disability “should be supported to have a home of their own”, arguing that “all persons with disabilities have the capacity to live independent lives in the community, with the right supports”.

This, in my view, is wrong on several counts.

Many disabled people need full-time care, therefore in no way could they ever be considered living “independent lives”, notwithstanding “the right supports”.

And what supports? One has to fight hard to get even a few hours of home help provided by the HSE by way of a personal assistant, so the possibility of acquiring a personal assistant to live in the private home of a disabled person who needs full-time care is wholly unrealistic.

He argues that the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), in carrying out inspection of residential facilities for people with disabilities, has “catalogued extensive non-compliance with regulations in areas such as health and safety”.

Do some people naively assume that HIQA would be in a position to carry out the same rigorous inspection on behalf of the thousands of disabled adults, (many, one assumes, with a moderate or severe disability), who, he argues, would be better living “independently”? It would be totally unfeasible. The present system, to my mind, is much more reassuring, as at least inspection is being carried out, and followed through on.

Finally, Mr Connelly argues against (in his words) a “group home setting”, on the assumption that all disabled adults would prefer to live independently.

This is not the case. Our 38-year-old son, for example, who has cerebral palsy, and is wholly dependent on my husband and me (now in our 70s) for his needs, would be extremely unhappy living alone (one assumes with this imaginary full-time personal assistant).

It would give us enormous peace of mind if, once we are no longer able to care for him, our son could share accommodation with others of similar disability, each with a private living area, within the community, with shared full-time support, an arrangement that would make practical and economic sense.

However, despite our making extensive inquiries, we understand that this choice simply does not exist.

The HSE is currently closing residential homes but has not provided any alternative for the thousands of people in our son’s position.

As your excellent coverage of this appalling situation highlighted recently, ageing parents of disabled adult children have absolutely no idea what will happen to them once we die, a fear that haunts us daily. – Yours, etc,

ROSEMARY GRAHAM,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

This, yet again, is typical of the divisive language that has calculatingly sown the seed of doubt in legislator’s minds and caused over 500 days of an inexcusable delay to the Bill’s passage.

The impact on total advertising revenues will be nominal. Recent advertising expenditure data from Nielsen, 2016, indicates that total drink expenditure was €47 million (exclusive of alcohol promotion by multiples).

Are we to really believe the hyperbole that revenues, in an industry worth just over €1 billion, will “collapse” in the face of targeted regulation?

Only a minute amount of this spending will likely be affected by the provisions of the Bill. Drinks companies will be allowed to continue to advertise their brands, including an image of the product, an image or reference to its place of origin, its method of production, its price, its brand marque, its name, its logo, a description of its flavour, etc.

While this is not an exhaustive list, it would seem a reasonable range of expression for even the most creatively challenged.

The Bill does not propose to prohibit advertising of alcohol products.

It contains a modest set of regulations principally on the content of advertisements that will limit the appeal of alcohol advertising, particularly to children.

This will minimise its impact so that alcohol products can no longer align with performance, success, social inclusion or a variety of other positive outcomes.

The Bill, were it to be passed, will prohibit alcohol advertising in certain places and times, placing a limited “ads-free zone” perimeter of 200 metres around schools and early-years services.

Alcohol products would also no longer be advertised on public service vehicles.

World Health Organisation data conclusively demonstrates that alcohol consumption in France has fallen by 26 per cent since legislative measures were introduced in 1991. Ireland’s consumption of alcohol in 2016 rose by 4.8 per cent to 11.46 litres.

Evidence-based research dictates that public action must be taken now to curb our high risk levels of alcohol consumption. The rights of private economic interests must be rebalanced to allow for a reasonable public intervention that supports a responsible society’s endeavour to live healthier and more productive lives. – Yours, etc,

EUNAN McKINNEY,

Head of Communications

and Advocacy,

Alcohol Action Ireland,

Coleraine House,

Coleraine Street,

Dublin 7.

Yet Noel Whelan does not call Labour small fish or “fringe deputies”.

The thuddingly dull comparison between Donald Trump and the left, as constant in your newspaper as the Angelus, on the basis of criticism of the mainstream media, is fatuous. It should not need to be said that the basis and method of the left’s critique of certain sections of the media differs ever so slightly from Mr Trump’s lying, egomaniacal Twitter outbursts against CNN.

Your columnist manages class snobbery and reverse class snobbery in the one paragraph, suggesting that the kind of people who vote left are not natural Irish Times readers and, heaven forbid, that some left-wing TDs have the temerity to have been born to middle-class backgrounds. I can assure him that many supporters of the left of all classes read this newspaper, either as its de facto status as the paper of record or as a means to keep abreast of the latest fashionable delusions of the bourgeois hive-mind, of which Noel Whelan is such a stalwart proponent. – Yours, etc,

JILL BRYSON,

Walthamstow,

London.

The activity of government encompasses many different threads moving in parallel at different speeds.

Applying Fintan O’Toole’s logic to newspapers, should they write only about homelessness, abandoning all articles about sports, the arts and all other issues until the homelessness problem is solved? If this were the case, newspaper sales would fall to the extent that journalists would quickly find themselves unemployed. – Yours, etc,

MARY MORRISSEY,

Castletownbere, Co Cork.

When one speaks about the “church” in this context, one presumably means the key decision-makers in the church, rather than the ordinary church members such as myself.

The key decision-makers are the hierarchy of senior priests, of which Archbishop Diarmuid Martin himself is a member.

The archbishop has a wonderful opportunity to influence events. He is the ex officio chairman of the board of directors of two Dublin State-funded hospitals, Crumlin Children’s Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street. He could set an example of divestment by resigning from both those positions, making way for non-religious replacements. He is also in a powerful position to encourage religious orders within his sphere of influence to withdraw from involvement in both schools and hospitals.

In addition, he has the position and influence to organise a national, public discussion forum to debate the withdrawal of the church from State-funded institutions, to look at the obstacles to withdrawal, and to discuss alternative forms of management structures in these institutions. – Yours, etc,

LESLIE LAWLESS,

Dublin 4.

The numbers of “experts” working in or discussing health, homelessness, poverty and community, and so on, is increasing by the day, with many quoted regularly in the media and their words going unchallenged.

Many of these “experts” exert political clout – also without challenge.

There are of course many very dedicated, experienced personnel working in all those areas but what defines an expert remains a mystery.

The lyrics of Mac Davis come to mind, “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way”. – Yours, etc,

ALICE LEAHY,

Director of Services,

Alice Leahy Trust,

Bride Road,

Dublin 8.

On balance perhaps more credence can be attached to the Attorney General’s view in that at least one knows where it’s coming from, while The Irish Times could not muster an opposing view to which an authoritative legal source would feel able to add his or her name. – Yours, etc,

JOE AHERN,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.