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Over a period of 10 years readers of Auto Express have been invited to participate in the Driver Power survey and evaluate the cars they own. The detailed survey encompassed many aspects of vehicle ownership - reliability, dealer performance, design, handling and ease of use.

Over a period of 10 years readers of Auto Express have been invited to participate in the Driver Power survey and evaluate the car they own. The detailed survey encompassed many aspects of vehicle ownership - from reliability to dealer performance, to design, handling and ease of use.

The Mayo Advertiser celebrates its fourth birthday this week and as a big thank you to all our readers, supporters, and business clients, we are throwing a party in the form of lots of competitions and giveaways for you to win. Prizes include a fabulous two night stay in the bridal suite of one of the county’s foremost four star hotels - the McWilliam Park in Claremorris (no, you don’t have to be married or getting married - just loved up); an amazing €150 hamper from Staunton’s Pharmacy in Castlebar filled with top name beauty and pampering goodies; 1,000 complimentary business cards from Halligan Print in Castlebar to help budding entrepreneurs enjoy further success; a complimentary Aveda natural hair colour and new-look cut at Petals Hair & Beauty in Westport (worth more than €80), plus a chance to win a complete new make-over as part of a glamour fashion show supported by our sister paper, the Galway Advertiser. Read our competition page inside for further details - and best of luck!

The dizzying scale of Irish debt as finally revealed by the financial and state authorities yesterday will have no doubt left most of us reeling from shock and anger. Already dubbed ‘Black Thursday’, the figure of more than €35 billion now defined as the outer limits of what we must raise in order to pay off government liabilities, is staggering. The news of a further €3 billion bail-out required for AIB, that will effectively nationalise the country’s largest bank with money taken from our own National Reserve Pension Fund, can only be described as sickening. Coming one on top of the other in the face of the international markets deeming Ireland a no-confidence zone, it feels like we are just being socked in the stomach over and over again. How many more body blows can we endure?

The human life cycle is a strange beast that can be thrown off course by myriad factors along the way from good luck to chance meetings and unexpected times of adversity. All things being equal though it is believed that our life cycle — from the moment we are born until the moment we die — falls into seven-year cycles, with new phases occurring from ages one to seven, seven to 14, 14 to 21, 21 to 28, 28 to 35, and so on. When you think about it and apply these religious/spiritually driven beliefs to your own life, you may very well find they ring true. At age 21 you may have been a completely different person to what and who you are now, or perhaps, at age 34 or 49 this year, you are experiencing a certain restlessness that is difficult to explain, but harder again to deny. Whatever the reason, you are driven to begin another new phase in your life — this time perhaps in a completely different direction.

Almost as soon as the impending five per cent increase in electricity costs were announced this week, the clicking sound of light switches going off all around the country could distinctly be heard. Once more with the system out to get the people, the people will play to beat the system. As we know only too well, there is nothing the Irish like more than a challenge. Lay down the law of the land and they’ll find a way around it. Pay taxes in full? Not likely when there are cartloads of creative ways around stumping up full whack. Cough up more for the pleasure of luxurious heat and lighting in the home? Get a grip. We’re descended from survivors of the Great Famine. We know how to do 40 coats. We can do hardship if we have to.

The start of the Junior and Leaving Cert exams this week at last brings into focus what life is really all about — the next generation. Yes, all of us struggling to come through these difficult times being distracted by so many forces along the way — job losses, income reductions, tax levies, welfare cuts, education hikes, bank bail-outs, stock market crashes, foul tempers, and anxious states of mind, etc — are entitled to feel important too but really, our role is merely to lead by example.

The continuing imposition of ‘austerity measures’ yet again this week, with even more taxes to empty our coffers through new levies and cutbacks, is enough to make a body feel old. Imagine, though, if we all really were old right now in this modern youth-obsessed society of ours — what would it be like having to worry about not only funding our remaining years through a dwindling pension, but also the looming handicap of health issues?