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Shane Ross: It's an easy life for Frank and his dear family

Enter Frank Daly, the family man. On Friday morning Nama chief Frank Daly proudly introduced us to his new family. In his interview with RTE's Morning Ireland he referred to Nama's membership of the "NTMA (National Treasury Management Agency's) family".

Shane Ross: When Enda met Angela

BRUSSELS, last Monday. A meeting, on the margins of the summit, between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Shane Ross: Enda rules it out. Absolutely

GOOD Christian that he is, Enda Kenny is surely a believer in the Second Coming.

Shane Ross: Flabby CIE puts cost on to you

So you will be hit by the household tax? Your VHI premiums are about to rocket? You have a child at university? You drive a car?

Shane Ross: Decisions, solutions, delusions

Ireland's euro magic dust was ready long before the deal was struck in Brussels. Enda and Eamon had positioned Ireland as champions of whatever deal was dictated. They were poised to claim it as their own. The magic dust suited any outcome.

Shane Ross: Enda settles for satellite status

IMAGINE the scene next weekend when Enda Kenny returns from the Brussels summit. One of the most humiliating episodes in Ireland's history will be spun as a triumph.

Shane Ross: Put a mandarin in the Seanad

PUT yourself for a moment in the shoes of Joan Burton. A few months ago the Minister for Social Protection was passed over as Minister for Finance. Eyebrows were raised as she was the heaviest financial hitter on offer.

Shane Ross: Change? Don't count on it

THE scene: a private room in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, Sunday, February 27. Present are Enda Kenny leader of Fine Gael and Eamon Gilmore leader of Labour Party.

Shane Ross: Heroic victim is a sure bet

IVAN Yates should pick up the phone this chilly Sunday morning and ring Denis O'Brien. Ivan, the presenter of Newstalk's Breakfast Show, should tell the radio station's boss that he wants a rise.

Shane Ross: Shall we storm Liberty Hall?

DO you have the mobile phone numbers of cabinet members? You don't?

Shane Ross: Stench as rubbish firm wins

ConcocT a good story. Among your cast of characters include the late lamented auditors of Anglo Irish Bank, a dodgy semi-state transport company, a collection of Dublin city councillors, and an outfit owned by an offshore Isle of Man business.

Shane Ross: Enda slips on Davos slopes

ENDA Kenny was probably the toast of Davos last week. His appalling gaffe, blaming Irish people's "mad borrowing" for the bankers' orgy, must have given attending foreign financiers and politicians unbridled joy.

Shane Ross: Troika is caught on a hook

DID the troika get it hopelessly wrong? Perhaps our less than welcome visitors have gone native.

Shane Ross: He cared about readers, not just figures

A few weeks after I was made business editor of the Sunday Independent I went out to lunch with editor Aengus Fanning and a senior management type.

Shane Ross: Town held hostage by bank

EVERY morning, when I walk to the local Spar in Enniskerry for my news fix, I pass a car park. Nothing remarkable about that.

Shane Ross: Enda's missed opportunity

FOR a brief moment last week, fool that I was, I thought we were crossing a rubicon of reform. Insiders need not worry. Bonuses are not on the way out; banks are not being reformed; semi-states are not bowing the knee; seats on boards are safe. Instead of reform, fresh phrases are being invented to give the impression of radical change.

Shane Ross: The Honohan brothers are heroes

THERE must be a contrarian gene in the Honohan family. Last week, Ed rocked the Four Courts when he launched a broadside on Ireland's debt and bankruptcy laws. He courted media publicity.

Shane Ross: If Kevin's that good, keep him

CAN we afford to lose a civil servant of the calibre of Kevin Cardiff? The paeans of praise being poured on Kevin's head by government ministers would make you wonder. Why are we letting this genius go?

Shane Ross: Cronies win quangos a reprieve

The quangos are dead. Long live the quangos. What a quango cull. Ireland's semi-states will never be the same again. Irish politics has been transformed. There is even new blood in the judiciary. While FG and Labour puritans are cleaning up the semi-states, Fine Gael and Labour loyalists are simply cleaning up.

Shane Ross: We're suckered by Sarkozy

I knew that our world was going to end last week. No, not when Italian bond rates breached 7 per cent. Nor when Berlusconi threw in the towel. Not even when it emerged that Merkel and Sarkozy were plotting a new europe.

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Hunt goes on for soldiers' killers

Police have launched a fresh bid to catch the gunmen who killed two soldiers in Northern Ireland, as a terminally ill man convicted of trying to torch their getaway car was told he must serve a minimum of 25 years in jail.Brian Shivers, 46, from Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, who was part of the Real IRA gang that murdered Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, outside the Massereene military barracks, is suffering from cystic fibrosis and has an estimated four to five years to live.

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Ireland ready to bounce back

Declan Kidney and Paul O'Connell discuss Ireland's upcoming RBS 6 Nations game against France.

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Girl shot dead 'in family feud'

The 16-year-old, named locally as Melanie McCarthy, but also known by the surname McNamara, was shot in Tallaght, Dublin, last night at around 10.35pm.