THE European Commission will not object to Ireland’s massive budget deficit this year, but will hold the country to reducing it dramatically over the next four years

THE European Union must not overreact or under-react to the current weakness of the dairy market, according toFarm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

TOMORROW’S budget will signal a major redesign of the country’s entire tax system, needed after the collapse in tax receipts from sectors such as development and the huge increase in unemployment, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has indicated.

THE finance ministers of the 15 euro countries told Ireland in no uncertain terms that it must act immediately to cut the burgeoning public debt, putting further pressure on the Government to make cuts in next week’s budget.

WHILE global leaders struggled in London to agree on policies that would let each do their own thing, Bill Clinton had a simple message for the alternative globalisation event in Brussels: “Just do it.”

IRELAND increased its transport emissions more than any other country in Europe, up by a massive 165% from 1990 to 2006, compared with an average of 28% among 28 European countries surveyed.

THE patient is not at the centre of Ireland’s healthcare system, an international survey has found, and patients here are among the least empowered in Europe.

CLOSE to a third of Irish people say they are exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace, despite the ban that came into force five years ago, according to an EU-wide survey.

FINANCIAL services is now more likely to be included in plans for an EU-wide common base for calculating corporation tax, given the current economic crisis, according to European Commission sources.

AID to the world’s poorer nations reached its highest level ever in 2008, but charity levels are likely to be doubly hit by the growing economic crisis, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and aid agencies have warned.