Dear Minister Gormley,   I am writing to you regarding the important matter of the proposed amalgamation of Limerick City and County Councils, as recommended in the Brosnan report. In view of the short legislative timeframe before the General Election due early in the New Year, it might not be feasible to implement this report.

As Budget Day approaches you will see and hear the intensity of predictions and analysis from the ever growing phalanx of pundits will increase.   As varied and inaccurate as some of these predictions may be, there does appear to be a growing consensus that the budget announcement must contain measures designed to promote growth

On the Late Late Show a few months back I raised concerns about the Greens attitude to collective cabinet responsibility. At the time I was talking about the Greens agreeing unpopular measures at the cabinet table and then getting their tweeting colleagues and apparatchiks to create the illusion that they were really against them.