Parents awaiting the building of a new primary school in Kanturk can breathe a sigh of relief after it was confirmed a planning condition laid down by An Bord Pleanála can be met by Cork County Council.

Outspoken economist Tom O’Connor has called on the Government to crack down on rogue employers to protect workers.

The Independent MEP Marian Harkin has blamed Irish officials for failing to properly apply for EU funding for unemployed workers.

THERE are occasions when even a monarch has to bow to the inevitable but it couldn’t have happened in a nicer way.

ALMOST two-thirds of people believe migrants here on work permits should be allowed to change their employer without condition, according to a new opinion poll.

THE board of Fás was kept in the dark for months about an EU probe into how the state training agency was using millions of euro of social funds which have now been withdrawn.

THERE were 20% fewer job losses in the first six months of this year than in the corresponding period last year, according to figures from the Government.

AS this is the first time funds from the EGF have been approved to help workers who have lost their jobs in this country, co-ordination manager of the fund David Smith is very conscious of the need to ensure that everything is done in strict accordance with EGF’s rules and criteria.

THE Credit Union Managers’ Association (CUMA) has voiced its disagreement with the main representative body’s call for a new independent regulator for the credit union movement in Ireland.

MARY COUGHLAN’S direct Cabinet swap with Batt O’Keeffe may be seen as a demotion but her new job will not ease the Tánaiste’s political headaches.

OUT with the old and in with the, er, old.

A GOVERNMENT department focusing on job creation will aim to reduce the number of people claiming the dole by putting them on back to work schemes.

ENTERPRISE Minister, Mary Coughlan hit back at what she said were “nasty” remarks about her by Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar who claimed she was an embarrassment to the country.

THE Government is currently passing legislation to fund the US-Ireland Alliance to administer scholarships for US students here. This will cost €20 million and fund approximately 60 students for more than five years.

APATHY among Ireland’s small business community regarding the NAMA process remains in place despite the European Commission giving its stamp of approval.

UP to 200 former Dell workers yesterday picketed an office scheduled to distribute EU funding for retraining programmes.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan has been accused of being “unfit” for her job and having “lost the plot” after a series of controversial remarks made in a television interview broadcast around the world.

The International Trade Skillnet today said that export-led growth is the only sustainable route to secure long-term prosperity for Ireland’s economy.

THE main representative body for Ireland’s credit union movement has called for an independent regulator for the sector, warning that the proposed reform of the financial regulatory system could damage their business.

NEW Government legislation allowing companies to claim inability to pay staff the minimum wage applicable in their sector will lead to major job losses and an end to decent wages, the country’s largest trade union has claimed.

FÁS has missed the opportunity to make a fresh start, according to Fine Gael, which claimed the new board of the troubled state training agency is “dominated by insiders”.

THE taxpayer could well be stuck with the €1.4 million bill from the just completed High Court investigation into the alleged DCC/Fyffes insider trading case.

A SMALL-SCALE version of important research on school-leavers, for which funding was cancelled by the Department of Education, is about to get under way thanks to investment by a range of bodies.

THERE are fresh fears that the worst of the economic recession may not be over as figures show the number of people on the Live Register reached its highest-ever level in December.

A TASKFORCE set up last January to tackle spiralling unemployment, and which has only met once, has no plans to meet again and is essentially “defunct”, it has emerged.

MORE than 2,000 young people who have almost completed apprenticeships will not get qualifications next year as expected because they are unable to secure work placements.

DIRECTORS at the Irish Takeover Panel saw their pay jump 22% in the year to the end of June as they seek more powers from the Government.

IRELAND is set to become the only EU country to have no bio-ethics advisory group, after funding was removed completely from the national expert body.

GOVERNMENT and Fás strategies to tackle unemployment are “fragmented, piecemeal” and “lack any vision on how the future jobs market is likely to be structured”, a leading employment expert has warned.

THE Government has been urged to stop paying €50 million grant aid to Irish meat processors who are allegedly blocking Irish live cattle exports to Britain.

There is a common misconception that the era of EU funding opportunities for Ireland has now passed into history, an idea perhaps reinforced by the bloc’s expansion since 2004 to include 12 poorer members.

THE state lost out on more than €100 million in unpaid taxes so far this year as a result of companies going out of business who were unable to settle their revenue bills.

THE National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has asked the rights commissioner to investigate its claim that workers at Independent New Network (INN) were made redundant illegally.

THE Government is under pressure to explain why the former Fás chief, Rody Molloy, got to keep an expensive company car along with his pension and golden handshake when he left the agency following an expenses scandal last year.

“HELLO money”, profiteering and strong arm tactics by retailers must be stamped out by any new code of practice for the Irish retail sector, says IFA president Padraig Walshe.

A DEPARTMENTAL official chairing a review group examining aspects of Fás overspending resigned over the delay in publishing the findings of the group.

WORKERS at the doomed Dell plant in Limerick said yesterday they want to have a say on how the EU-backed retraining fund announced by EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is used.

A €15 MILLION fund to help 2,400 redundant Dell and Banta Turnkey employees get back to work will be announced by the President of the European Commission when he visits Limerick today.

SEVERAL thousand illegal immigrants open to immediate expulsion are to be allowed stay in the country for at least four months under legislation published yesterday.

INCREASINGLY sophisticated mail and internet scams are on the increase as fraudsters use the recession to exploit vulnerable people in need of extra cash.

GRANT-AIDED meat processors are failing to create Irish jobs, according to Fine Gael.