The retreat from decentralisation carries all the hallmarks of Bertie Ahern wanting to agree with everyone but offend no one.
- Mr Richard Bruton TD on the Government's possible abandonment of the plan to move 10,000 civil servants out of Dublin
I would think that if most local authorities had similar investigations they would find similar problems.
- Chairman of Roscommon County Council, Mr Tom Crosby, after two officials from the council were suspended and a third resigned following an investigation into planning irregularities
A person to whom you owe a debt could become an enemy. If they become jealous of your good fortune as a result of them having assisted you, it could lead to a High Court action and the eventual disintegration of your friendship.
- Mr Ward McEllin, president of the Law Society of Ireland, recommending that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? contestants have a legal agreement with the friend they would phone
The pressure I feel is on lads now to drink in sport. The drinks companies are there ready to pour it into them.
- Dr Michael Loftus, former president of the GAA and coroner for north Mayo
I was the only person to be hit and I believe I was singled out because I am the Sinn Fein spokesman on policing.
- Mr Gerry Kelly who was awarded £9,000 after a policeman hit him on the head with a baton last June
We had to sit all that way in the freezing cold without even a cup of tea. I was numb with the cold.
- An elderly passenger on a train from Sligo which was not heated
States today collude in the invasion of their own countries. That is strong language but it is a fact. Self-preservation is not selfish.
- Ms Aine Ni Chonaill of the Immigration Control Platform calling for tighter asylum laws
To all those drunken drivers who operate under the maxim, "If I stay over to the left and drive at a constant 15 m.p.h, then nobody will know that I'm three times over the limit": trust me, people, we know.
- Bus driver Mr David Smith in a letter to The Irish Times
The risk is seen as being potentially greater than £28 million, since there would be an expectation that the State would fund the ongoing operation of Media Lab Europe should corporate sponsorship fail to materialise on the scale projected.
- Memo to the Taoiseach from Mr Dermot McCarthy, then assistant secretary of his Department, on the possible costs of backing the MIT Media Lab in Dublin
The BBC has hyped this up an awful lot to advertise a programme going out this Sunday.
- The Food Standards Agency in Britain accusing the BBC of generating a public health scare over the levels of chemicals found in farmed salmon
These reports are so silly that they do not deserve a reply.
- Mr Salam Khatab al-Nassiri, director- general of the Information Department at the Ministry of Culture and Information in Iraq on rumours that President Saddam Hussein was seriously ill
If we give this room up, we can no longer broadcast the truth and then we will have lost.
- Ms Eva Kurnertova, editor of the daily news brief at the State-owned Czech television station involved in a newsroom sit-in
It was like a scene from hell. I saw four men methodically going around setting people on fire, chopping people.
- Mr Cletus Springer who witnessed an attack on a Mass celebration on the island of St Lucia in which Irish nun Sister Teresa Egan was killed
Current research indicates it would be impossible for a person to inhale enough depleted uranium particles for it to be a health risk.
- A spokesman at NATO commenting after reports that six Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans conflicts have died of leukaemia
What do you call three dogs and a black bird? The Spice Girls.
- Dr Liam Fox, Tory spokesman on health at a recent party. He apologised for the remark this week
It was like warfare. People were screaming and trampling over each other to get out.
- Mr Henk Jong, an eyewitness at a New Year's Day fire at a disco in the Netherlands in which 10 young people died
I have never seen such a sight in my whole career.
- Supt Amanda Hattingh on the scene at a South African woman's house where she kept over 1,000 rats
