The Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has admitted he made a mistake in making cuts to DEIS schools.

The Finance Bill to give legal effect to the measures contained in Budget 2012 will be published today.

Fianna Fáil is to put down a private members motion in the Dáil later this evening, calling on the Government to reverse cuts to education made in the Budget.

Families across the country are bracing themselves for a raft of new taxes and charges which come into effect from midnight tonight.

Retailers will be expecting a busy day today as shoppers take advantage before the new VAT rate comes into effect from tomorrow.

The Department of Finance has moved to reassure the Irish public today after official figures revealed that Ireland's economy has nosedived again, falling 1.9% from July-September of this year.

Some of the country's biggest supermarkets have announced they will absorb the VAT increase which is to be introduced in the new year.

New research on fuel poverty has shown 51% of older people have had to go without food or clothing to pay for home heating.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has today insisted the Government will keep supports in place for disadvantaged schools, despite budget cutbacks.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been accused of ceding more economic sovereignty at last week’s European summit deal.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has today urged banks to pass on the most recent ECB interest rate reduction to its variable-rate mortgage customers.

The principals of 12 Cork primary schools — all in the Department of Education’s DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) disadvantage scheme — have written the following letter to local TDs to highlight how Budget 2012 will affect them and their pupils:

SCHOOLS in disadvantaged areas are to lose more than 400 teachers as a result of the cuts buried in Budget 2012.

THE Government has been urged to reassess its jobs strategy after the unemployment rate rose to 14.4%.

A TEACHER has told of the outrage she felt when she turned up for school the morning after Finance Minister Michael Noonan delivered the budget to learn her job was to be axed with immediate effect.

CORK county councillors will find themselves between a rock and a hard place this week as they face up to what may be major cuts in some services in 2012.

THE progress that boys have made in reading and maths will be eroded overnight by budget cuts to a school serving one of Cork’s most disadvantaged communities, its principal has warned.

THE impact of budget changes to the family income supplement (FIS) have been highlighted by an anonymous letter writer who has contacted each Dáil TD registering her dismay at the measure.

IRELAND is heading for another referendum on the EU within the next 12 months, opposition parties insist, as the Tánaiste agreed that a vote would be held if necessary.

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore has praised the role of embattled Social Protection Minister Joan Burton in the budget and rebuffed suggestions that she was used as a scapegoat for the cuts.

The Government has not ruled out the possibility of means testing certain social welfare benefits, according to Labour junior minister Jan O'Sullivan.

WORKING families have warned they risk homelessness because of cuts hidden in the Social Welfare Bill rushed through the Dáil yesterday.

THIS Fine Gael-Labour Government came into office nine months ago.

SOCIAL Protection Minister Joan Burton was forced into a second climbdown on her budget proposals after pressure from her party TDs and warnings that the future of hundreds of community employment schemes now lay in doubt.

THE family of a four-year-old boy who suffers from quadriplegic cerebral palsy, is profoundly deaf, unable to speak and was born with a hole in his heart is set to lose €9,152 a year because of hidden budget family income supplement (FIS) cuts.

ENDA KENNY is desperately trying to avoid a divisive euro referendum being forced on voters next spring after a crunch deal threatened to split the EU in two.

THE Government has been urged to have a last-minute change of heart over budget cuts to the family income supplement (FIS), which could force hundreds of working families over the edge.

Union members and single parents have picketed the Dáil in protest against Budget cuts to community employment schemes.

A rally to protest proposed Budget cuts to Community Employment (CE) schemes will take place at 2pm at Dáil Éireann today.

FRESHLY minted rumours are the only new currency in circulation, the Central Bank has insisted.

MOTHERS angry at proposed cuts to lone-parent payments will today march on Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald’s office in Clondalkin accusing her of “forcing workers out of employment”.

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin has urged the Government to reject the Franco-German proposals to tackle the eurozone debt crisis.

HUNDREDS of “working poor” families face cuts of €120 to their weekly income under a measure buried in the small print of budget legislation.

THE coalition parties were accused of looking after their own “party hacks” by appointing supporters to highly paid Government positions.

THE absenteeism rate among nurses at Ennis General Hospital is almost four times over the HSE target level, a report shows.

IRELAND’S desperate bid to save its rock bottom corporation tax being blasted out of existence by the Franco-German alliance received a glimmer of hope last night at the euro crisis summit.

UNIONS have called for the Government to increase corporation tax to make international companies contribute more to the crippling economy.

MORE than 3,000 public service workers will be hired next year to replace retiring employees, despite promises to cut the public sector wage bill.

AMERICAN author David Guterson has joined John Updike, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer and other literary stars as the recipient of the dreaded Bad Sex in Fiction award.

BORD BIA and the Irish Dairy Board (IDB) can work in tandem to develop new overseas markets for Irish milk exports, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

ONE of the 31 Garda stations to be closed under Budget 2012 is currently undergoing a complete refurbishment, it has emerged.

THE blame game is under way between Labour and Fine Gael over who is responsible for the deeply unpopular cuts to disability allowances which have now been put on hold.

THE Department of Education says a 20% cut to a fund for students with disabilities will leave enough money to meet demand, just three months after telling another department it could seriously affect numbers taking up college places.