A STRANGE air of muted foreboding clung to the Dáil yesterday.

THE €50 billion hit of the bank bailout left Ireland braced for deeper cuts and rising taxes as Black Thursday blighted the nation’s finances for a decade.

NO, seriously, don’t panic – there’s enough cash stuffed under the bed to keep things going until April – we won’t have to start shutting down the hospitals and Garda stations until then at the earliest.

Irish workers were tonight bracing themselves for painful tax hikes after reckless bankers left a €40bn hole in the public purse.

The Labour Party has said that the Government's "gamble" on Anglo Irish Bank did not pay off.

A nationwide strike by workers anxious about the global economic crisis caused transport delays, choked public services and left millions of schoolchildren without teachers throughout France toda