Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has defended his decision to overrule concerns expressed by his senior officials over the cost of the €3bn National Broadband Plan.

The Clinical Director of the National Centre for Pharma-economics has said that VHI's decision to make some cancer drugs available to some private customers raises an issue of equity.

The public spending €68,000 a year to keep a prisoner in jail due to shelter, heating, food and recreational costs, a senior Government official has confirmed.

Cork County Council members are questioning the cost of a new design for the proposed Cork-Limerick motorway and the likely delay in securing planning, again, for the M20 route.

The Government has been accused of deliberately hiding the true scale of the €99m capital projects budget cutbacks caused by the children's hospital crisis after failing to detail the exact areas now on the chopping block.

Limerick’s Cian Lynch was named Hurler of the Year for 2018. He is just 23 but in that short life, he has seen more public inquiries, tribunals or hearings than even he could wave a hurley at. Most fell short of provoking the kind of change that the events leading to their establishment demanded.

No-one involved in delivering the most expensive capital health project in the history of the State will be held personally responsible for the financial fiasco it has become, according to the terms of reference of an expert review.

The kind of disdain for the idea of public service, the deep cynicism fuelled by what can only be described as the slapdash, make-it-up-as-we-go-along mismanagement of the National Children’s Hospital project has become a toxic force undermining any remaining public faith in how these vital projects are delivered.

Electric Ireland has announced that it will freeze electricity and gas prices, protecting customers from the impact of rising energy costs over the winter months.

Almost €3m has already been spent on engineers and consultants for the BusConnects plan in Dublin.

Any PAC review of Áras spending will have to take place before the presidential election, which ensures the issue will form a key part of any campaign, says Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

A UK watchdog may recommend removing minimum repayments from credit card statements because it feels it encourages users to build up debt at expensive costs.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, has said that the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland will cost around €20m, he will visit all manner of holy places and will even visit the Capuchin Day Centre for homeless people.

The Moriarty Tribunal has cost the State more than €61m so far, the Public Accounts Committee has heard.

The HSE is accusing the manufacturers of an emphysema drug of “persistent manipulation of patients in pursuit of corporate interests” because of its decision to stop administering patient infusions.

Volkswagen has added provisions of around €2.5bn to the mounting total from its diesel emissions scandal, which has already cost the company around €23bn.

More than 18,000 students hoping to start college next month have been approved for financial assistance, to aid likely costs. 

Ulster Bank has set aside a further €39m in redress cost provisions to cover what it calls “errors” concerning its personal and commercial loan books.

Nearly half of all parents cut back on daily household essentials to cover school costs.

The number of adult children living with their parents has almost doubled over the last decade to nearly 500,000.

Lifesaving drugs have been caught up in a funding logjam as the HSE fears the cost involved could adversely affect existing services.

You can’t but empathise with those without water this week, yet it does pose a dilemma for anti-water charge hard left and populists, says Political Editor Daniel McConnell.

A “black hole” of more than €200m to cover the cost of the ongoing suspension of water charges and other related water costs will have to be prioritised in October’s budget ahead of other spending demands, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

Culture Minister Heather Humphreys has said the cost of the proposed Cork Event Centre could reach as high as €73m, leading to questions over the project’s credibility.

Additional charges imposed on older people and their families under the Fair Deal scheme stop some from accessing nursing home care.

More than a third of families back a proposal for the funding of third- level education that would mean students pay back loans when they start working.

Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, will eliminate about 640 jobs and close 23 branches as part of a cost-cutting programme that started in October 2014.

The HSE should never pay more than €50,000 a year for any cancer drug according to one of the country's leading health experts.

The State spent more than €66m on staffing and rental costs for its embassies around the world last year, figures released by the Department of Foreign Affairs have confirmed.

The cost of the new children's hospital could be up to €60m higher, than previous estimates.

Provisions against bad loans at eurozone banks are “reasonable”, the ECB’s head of supervision has said, adding a planned clean-up of lenders’ balance sheets would take into account their difficulties.

Boosting renewable energy generation to meet global climate goals could save as much as $4.2trn (€3.75trn) a year by 2030, according to a report asking lawmakers to strengthen clean energy policies.

If you’re buying a rental home in the UK, you’re making the Bank of England nervous.

Labour have pledged to make the maximum cost of childcare just €80 euro a week by 2021.

December’s record wet weather resulted in Eir incurring storm costs of around €500,000, the company said yesterday.

The fall-out from financial and claim irregularities at the country’s largest insurer RSA contributed to the firm recording pre-tax losses of €171.26 million last year.

The costs of failing to defeat Islamic State are rising to intolerable levels, both in lives tragically lost and dollars destroyed. A look at the numbers available suggests that the consequences of not acting outweigh the risks of a full-blown military boots-on-the-ground conflict.

Irish banks have made progress, but the costs of servicing their high-level of non-performing loans will likely not fall as quickly as they hope, despite the strong recovery, outgoing Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said yesterday.

Britain’s TalkTalk put the cost of last month’s cyber attack at £30m-£35m (€42m-€49m), and said it was too soon to gauge the impact on customer numbers, although it did see an immediate spike in defections.