Brevity is a quality sadly lacking in the speech of officialdom and the current trend for changing snappy departmental names to longwinded titles is a ready example of bureaucrats' verbosity.

In an echo of the Bord Failte logo fiasco, the newly-named Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, is costing a horrendous £2 million, as was pointed out by Proinsias de Rossa in July. And all for what? Good to see, though, that the press office is still ploughing through its sheaves of old "Department of Social Welfare" letterheaded paper. But spare a thought for the people manning the switchboard who, in the ensuing confusion, patiently explain what their department is called.