On November 4, 2004, the late Tony Gregory asked the then minister for the environment and local government, Dick Roche, whether there were any conflicts of interest which would inhibit the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) from making balanced planning decisions in the Docklands area.

Roche replied with the familiar palaver about the experience and expertise of the board members and, while conflicts of interest were inevitable given the small pool of people with business experience and expertise here, the authority had adopted a formal code of conduct involving procedures to be followed in the event of a conflict of interests and that would ensure that everything was OK.

The Croke Park Agreement is a bad deal for taxpayers, public sector workers and users of public services. By Eoin Ó Broin.

Who has the right to comment on the Croke Park Public Service Agreement?

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore says that political parties should not ‘interfere’ in what is a matter for public sector workers. They should be left in peace, he says, to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the agreement and make their decision accordingly.

I don’t agree.

Protests outside Anglo Irish Bank and Dail Eireann passed off peacefully tonight. By Shane Creevy.

Outside Anglo Irish Bank on Stephens Green they marched to the calls of ‘NAMA NAMA no way, time to make the wealthy pay!’

And outside Dail Eireann the crowd shouted in unison, ‘When they say cutback, we say fight back!’

(Audio: Politico interviews James O’Toole, one of the organisers of the protest.)

Up to 20,000 Pfizer employees are to lose their jobs as profits remain staggeringly high. By Vincent Browne.

Jeff Kindler is a bright fellow.

He graduated from Tufts University in 1977 with a summa cum laude, which is saying something.

There are three categories of cum laude. A simple cum laude means with honour. Then there is magna cum laude, which means with great honour. Then summa cum laude, which means with the highest honour.

Anti-government protests continued yesterday with noticeable changes from last week; increased Garda presence and a significant jump in the numbers attending. By Shane Creevy.

After last week’s protest UNITE regional secretary Jimmy Kelly said: “We are disappointed that last Tuesday’s demonstration was portrayed purely in terms of the incident at the entrance to the Dáil. We want next Tuesday to be a bigger protest but also to be peaceful.  The incident last week should not deflect from the fact that people gathered to make their voices heard. The anger is real but it is best directed through loud though peaceful protest”.

Once again the word ‘scuffles’ will be mentioned in most newspapers surrounding the protests last night.

Both Seán Brady and Brian Cowen perceive a happy coincidence between the wider interest and their own. By Vincent Browne.

The leaders of church and State are both liabilities to their respective institutions. Both refuse to stand aside believing their continuance in office is in the interests of the institutions they are undermining. Both are decent, well-intentioned people. Neither is suffused much with that familiar conceit that so often accompanies high office. Both are afflicted with a penchant to perceive a happy coincidence between the wider interest and their own self interest.

Seán Brady, the cardinal archbishop of Armagh, failed to ensure that a priest, Brendan Smyth, whom he knew had sexually abused two boys, would be denied further opportunity to abuse children and would be brought before the courts of the land to face charges.

Brian Cowen's recent 'mea culpa' was really just an exercise in finger-pointing. By Vincent Browne.

Several years ago, I was asked to speak at a lunch function in Limerick. I asked the chairman how long I should speak. He said: ‘‘You can talk for as long as you like, but we’re going to the bar in ten minutes.”

I hope that is what the chairman of the North Dublin Chamber of Commerce said to Brian Cowen last Thursday evening before he started his 7,427-word, extremely qualified half-apologia.

Faith in Jesus cannot be squared with the pernicious authority the church claims to derive from his person. By Vincent Browne.

Diarmuid Martin’s address to the Knights of Columbanus on Monday night was remarkable in several respects: in its damning criticism of resistance within the Catholic Church to the agreed regulations and norms for the protection of children; in criticising the continuing culture of denial over the church’s culpability for the sexual abuse of children; in the implied criticism, not just of his fellow bishops in Ireland, but of the Vatican; in the acknowledgment of the church’s history of arrogance and position of dominant power in Irish society; in its support for the funding of a follow-up to the seminal but largely ignored report, Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland; and in its focus on the now scorned concept of community.