The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth.

Amidst the harrowing details which emerged at the recent inquest into the tragic deaths, last year, of the young Crossmaglen couple, who died in the horrific crash at Longwalk, Dundalk, one thing was abundantly clear.

Telling the truth does not appear to feature on the curriculum at the Garda Training College in Templemore in any shape, or form.

Surely it can't simply be a coincidence that so many Gardai are willing to lie under oath in a Court.

There must a a chapter in the training manual instructing them to be very economical with the truth, in view of the high number of incidences that we've seen in the media of late.

It is a shocking realisation, the fact that in a lot of cases the poor unfortunate in the dock may have more integrity that the law enforcement officer giving evidence against him.

£8.2M Assets Frozen on South Armagh Brothers

Northern Ireland's ARA, Asset Recovery Agency, the equivalent of the CAB here in the south, has succeeded in getting a Court Order, allowing them to freeze £8.2 million in assets linked to the McGleenan brothers, Joseph and Francis from the Keady/Tassagh area of South Armagh, and thought to be the proceeds of fuel 'washing' and smuggling.

This is the biggest single 'capture' so far for the agency, which was rumoured to be ready for the chop, because of non performance, but this latest success may get it a reprieve.

It was set up in 2003 following the success of the CAB, and up to recently had only achieved a haul of £8 million, but at a cost of £60 million to run the agency.

The latest haul includes 11 bank accounts and 36 houses. Last year a Court Order concerning £400,000 worth of assets, was secured against another brother Damien.

Of course freezing assets and securing a conviction a two different things, and this Court Order doesn't necessarily mean a victory, but it does inflict a serious amount of day to day discomfort to their business in the meantime.

Another Ballymac Road Death.

Earlier on Saturday morning a local lorry driver lost his life in a tragic accident at the Ballymac service station just off the roundabout north of Dundalk.

Reports say that the lorry was travelling in the direction of Dundalk, and it is believed that the driver took evasive action to avoid colliding with a vehicle which had left the filling station directly into his path.

In his efforts to avoid a collision his truck mounted the steep bank just opposite the filling station and overturned, and he is believed to have died at the scene.

This is fast becoming an accident black-spot with several deaths having previously occurred in the same area.

The high volume of traffic to this service station is mainly Northern Ireland trucks and cars availing of the better Euro prices in the south.

This traffic volume makes a U turn when leaving the station to go back to the roundabout, and countless times in any given day, traffic passing by is confronted with 40 foot truck and trailer rigs broadside on the road while making an about turn.

Something needs to be done to curtail this U turning, before more lives are surely lost at this location.

Mobile Phones Ridiculous Situation

The current news story involving the discovery of a paedophile ring, which had targeted a fourteen year old, who had ''looked in' on a gay website, through his WAP enabled mobile phone, highlights a very serious risk for children through the use of their phones.

The story now reaches right into the Chief State Solicitor's Office, where a civil servant has been suspended after having been questioned in connection with involvement with the 14 year old, in addition to a trainee garda and a school teacher.

It transpires that these low-life, sick, deranged scum, could originally have made contact with the youth following his curiousity with a gay website which he browsed through his phone.

This news must surely shock all parents with young children, all of whom have the latest phones in the hands. Many will already have been closely monitoring the use of the internet in their homes, but may not have been aware of the serious risk of phone usage.

On a local level, a woman, who was quite oblivious to the national story scandal unfolding this week, found material of a suspicious nature on her daughter's phone, but when she contacted the mobile phone company, she was told that under the Data Protection Act they could not discuss the issue with anyone but the child herself.

Do you get the feeling that we're heading down the sewer-pipe, and mindless bureaucracy is giving us a hard push to get us there much more quickly.

There's a compelling need to force the phone companies into restricting what children and can and cannot do with their phones.