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Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty was in fine form during the Budget debate. Particularly enjoyable was his contrasting the Cabinet ‘s bellyaching over when to pay the miserly €5 extra to pensioners with the carefree approach to dishing out another €4,000+ per annum to ministers.

Winter in Europe is a wonderful time to visit the most beautiful Christmas markets. If you are looking for Christmas presents and dream of the lovely smell of a Christmas tree or the sound of Christmas carols, have a look at this selection of the best Christmas markets in Europe, the best destinations for perfect Christmas holidays.

In what has been a tumultuous year to date – an inconclusive general election result in February, the shock of Brexit in June, and then the judgment in the Apple case at the end of August – last week’s Budget arguably posed the biggest challenge to date to the minority Government and the much vaunted ‘new politics’.

There is a scene in A Few Good Men where the character played by Jack Nicholson provoked by the Tom Cruise character, says that he represents those who stand guard on the wall while we sleep, while we have our parties, while we take liberty for granted, while we enjoy the freedoms that we have, because people like him are standing on that wall, day and night. Leaving aside the characteristics of that part he played, there resonates from his words the reality that exists in every community across the world.

It only seems like yesterday that rural Ireland was standing up to the Dublin 4 diktat. Luke 'Ming' Flanagan was in the Dáil and the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association was waging a crusade which took rural areas by storm. Ming and Michael Fitzmaurice, backed by an able backroom team, were uniting people against the over-centralised Irish State and its masters in Brussels and Berlin.

The President of ICMSA has warned against any complacency that the dairy crisis is over. John Comer said that what he called “the back patting” that followed a one cent per litre increase for July milk now needs to stop and the sector must move decisively towards price ranges above the cost of production.

You know, I do not know how to begin or what to say to you at the start of my column this week. We all know the terrible heartbreak of the story of the five people in Ballyjamesduff in County Cavan. Yet every time I read it or talk about it to anyone I find the tears coming into my eyes. It is so sad for every one of them - such a tragic horror story.

The future of Apple's data centre for Athenry would not appear to be in jeopardy, despite the EU Commission's demand the company pay €13 billion in unpaid taxes, and Government fears the decision could harm future of job creation and multi-national investment in the State.

As the Dáil rose for the summer recess last week, there was an almost audible sigh of relief in Leinster House - and not only on the Government side.

Even the most sceptical observer cannot accuse those who describe last week’s Brexit referendum result as 'seismic' or 'a political earthquake' of engaging in hyperbole. From an Irish perspective, it is potentially the most significant thing to happen in peace-time British politics since the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936.