Those who have expressed exultation at their return to this country should not underestimate the Government's determination to explore all the options open to it to ensure that Ireland continues to play its full part in the fight against international terrorism. - The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, raises the possibility of the 'Colombia Three' serving their jail terms in an Irish prison.
Pulling the troops out would send a terrible signal to the enemy.
- President Bush insists the US will not scale back its military presence in Iraq.
I thought about the Columbia crew every single day. Frankly, every single day of the last two years.
- Commander Eileen Collins, of the space shuttle Discovery. The Discovery successfully returned to earth this week in the first shuttle voyage since the Columbia disaster.
I am sure that the problems are not serious in the President's mansion. Perhaps the President would like to come and have dinner with us here?
-Abadi Kokari, chief of the village of Guidamonji in Niger, responds to President Mamadou Tandja's claim that talk of mass starvation in the country is "foreign propaganda" .
We could see raw sewage coming out of the Oldcastle plant for the last three to four years. I could see the damage that was being done.
- Eamonn Ross, Secretary of the Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association, Co Meath. The county council said this week that the sewage treatment plant has caused the deaths of thousands of fish.
Comments that we are near full employment are wide of the mark. While jobs are being created, others are being lost through redundancy with 25,000 being made redundant last year.
- Eric Conroy, general secretary of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, as the number of out of work continues to creep upwards.
I love my country but I am unable to do any service for the people because it is overrun by fanatics and extremists. The streets are ruled by gangs, looters and goons.
- Professor Abdul Sattar Jawad, head of English literature at Baghdad University, explains why he is leaving to take up a post in Jordan.
Teachers will tell you that young children arrive in schools and don't know how to make the sign of the cross.
- Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, says Ireland is becoming "gradually unchurched".
The scaremongers who had predicted a large influx of cheap labour from central and eastern Europe have been proved wrong.
- Tony Venables, director of the European Citizen Action Service, as an EU report shows that migration from Eastern Europe accession states represents less than 1 per cent of the Union's labour force.