The long-awaited final report from the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse is set to be published next Wednesday.

CUTS and compromises will be the main feature of the public finances over the next 18 months, the Government announced.

The Departments of Health and Education are both expected to receive a funding boost in today's budget.

THE State’s systematic shaving of resources intended for people on the margins of society is graphically illustrated by news that the country’s biggest charity is propping up a vital arm of the education system.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has been accused of holding up the tendering process for the proposed graduate entry school of medicine which the Government plans to open next September.

PLANS to more than double the number of Irish students who can gain entry to medical school may do little or nothing to ease pressure on school leavers hoping to study medicine, a campaign group said yesterday.

OVER €1bn of the additional €2.5 billion in spending announced by Finance Minister Brian Cowen yesterday will go towards paying public sector wages and pensions.

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy is due to publish this year’s Book of Estimates later today.

THE proposed Benefit in Kind (BIK) changes proposed from January 1, leave creches run by the State on behalf of their employees off the hook.

There is a call for Sinn Fein's two northern ministers to join an EU campaign to stamp out cigarette smuggling, following reports that the IRA is heavily involved in the trade.