It is expected that two to three hundred candidates will have entered into personal insolvency arrangements (PIA) by October, according to Michael McAteer, a partner at the consultancy firm, Grant Thornton, and a newly registered personal insolvency practitioner (PIP).

The job market is non-existent for graduates, and my job prospects are very thin, writes Cian Power

Should I leave or should I stay and fight for the meagre career crumbs that will become increasingly difficult to find, asks Carlynn McCarthy

In early 2011, 7,000 private sector jobs were being lost every month. Now, 2,000 jobs are created each month, writes Richard Bruton

The Government’s call for young people to further upskill to make themselves more attractive to the jobs market is a tough proposition, writes Stephen Rogers

During the final pre-election Prime Time debate in Feb 2011, Miriam O’Callaghan posed a question: “I want to ask you, if you had one key social justice issue that you would pursue if you were in government, what would it be?”

The experience of ‘graduating’ from the troika’s programme will inform how other countries, large and small, cope with austerity, writes Mohamed El-Erian.

The past few years have been difficult but the end of the bailout programme is in sight. Olli Rehn looks at how the future is looking bright for the country.

Former minister and MEP, Carlos Pimenta, talks to Europe correspondent Ann Cahill about the impact of austerity on businesses in Portugal.

The financial crisis that has engulfed Europe for almost half a decade is far from resolved and many believe the breakup of the euro is still a distinct possibility, writes Europe correspondent Ann Cahill.

NO, says Dr Seán Healy

MARY McDONNELL has been caring for her daughter Sinéad for 50 years, and it’s not getting any easier.

YES, says John FitzGerald

Organisations that deal with people in need see the direct effect of the cuts on their clients. Noel Baker finds that they are hoping for a move away from the short-term approach that has left many on the brink.

THE owner of a string of bars and a nightclub in Cork City that have boomed through the recession puts his success down to customer engagement.

UNDER current projections, the Government’s budget deficit will decline to 2.2% of GDP by 2015 if it sticks to the agreed plan to implement adjustment packages of €3.1bn in 2014 and €2bn in 2015.

FOR the first time in half a decade, Ireland now has choices in terms of overall budget strategy.

WHEN economic historians look back at the first couple of decades of the new millennium, it will be characterised as the great recession which presaged the age of austerity.

Deepening austerity measures are pushing households into a “live for now” culture, causing shrinking savings and risks triggering a fresh personal finances crisis.

THE recent G-20 meeting of finance ministers in St Petersburg confirmed that the debate between growth and austerity is over — at least for now.

THE austerity policies first inflicted by Fianna Fáil, and now continued by Fine Gael, Labour, and the EU-IMF troika, have been a disaster for ordinary citizens and the economy.

AFTER two-and-a-half years in office the Government is delivering on its plan to restore order to the public finances, to get the economy out of the crisis it was in and growing again, and to get people back to work.

IT is hard to pinpoint precisely when the word austerity stopped being an abstract economic theory, or throwback to the 1980s, and became an everyday reality for this generation.

Almost €325m is owed to local authorities by businesses as the level of outstanding commercial rates has risen dramatically in recent years.

Austerity is having a devastating effect on health in both Europe and North America, driving suicide, depression, and infectious diseases and reducing access to medicine and care.