Colleges that make unauthorised payments to staff or make misleading or false financial reports could be hit with financial penalties from the end of this year, the Government has decided.

Colleges and universities will face significantly increased financial penalties from this autumn if they fail to produce audited accounts, ignore salary rules, or breach strict spin-off company laws.

So, what a momentous week this was. Ireland qualified for the second round of the European Championships revisiting, in doing so, the heady days of the 1988 competition which heralded a new era of self-belief and may even have helped set the national psyche for the real tiger times. Oh, and Brexit. 

MIGRANTS are being prevented from fully accessing third-level education because of lack of information, high fees and their previous qualifications not being recognised by Irish colleges.