A much-heralded Government initiative aimed at helping first-time buyers onto the property ladder has been described as “almost laughable” by a consumer expert, given current interest rates.

In reference to Cork woman Donna Hartnett, and the impassioned and compelling letter she wrote: it struck a chord and encapsulated the immense frustrations of ordinary families facing the onslaught of wave, upon wave of taxes and bills.

The Government’s decision to introduce a bank levy and increase the Dirt tax in the budget could potentially breach EU State AID rules and seriously undermines the sector’s attempts to return to profitability, said the president of the Irish Banking Federation, John Reynolds.

JUST like most Irish citizens, James O’Donovan felt the pinch when the recession struck.

The effective tax rate on interest earned on savings will be as high as 45% as both the new higher rate of Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) tax and the PRSI levy on unearned income will both come into force on Jan 1.

Working people are having to live on 10% less than they were used to because of the impact of harsh budgets during the last five years.

The majority of people feel that Government policies are actively discouraging saving, with taxes taking €1 in every €3 that savers earn in interest.

BRENDAN Howlin, the public expenditure minister, has said that long-awaited legislation needed to reform the ethics laws for people in public life will be brought to the Government early next year.

The Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), the current ethics watchdog, has no teeth, so it is not able to bite.

If the rumours are true, the property tax will be assessed on both the house and the site.

Public Sector Reform Minister Brendan Howlin has rejected claims the Government is trying to “muzzle” a long-awaited probe into the banking collapse.

Financial services firm Ernst & Young have expressed concern over the Government's move to increase Deposit Interest Retention Tax (Dirt) from 27% to 30%.

There has been a significant improvement in the public finances in the first four months of the year, but Finance Minister Michael Noonan has warned of further tough budgetary measures.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has today announced that the new four-year National Solidarity Bond is now available for purchase in all Post Offices.

NEARLY 30 years after its first major scandal and bailout — and after a number of others along the way — we arrive at this: the country’s largest bank nationalised and retreating deeper into the protection of the taxpayer.

THE Government has made an attempt to encourage consumers to spend their cash by increasing a tax on savings.

Sinn Féin today revealed proposals to cut the budget deficit by over €4.5bn and invest in a €2bn jobs stimulus in 2011, also urging the imposition of salary caps for public servants including Dáil deputies.

SENIOR bankers should be hauled before a televised Oireachtas inquiry to explain how they made such “a mess” that they required a State bailout, said the chairman of An Bord Snip.

FORMER National Irish Bank CEO Jim Lacey has denied before the High Court that he was “well aware” bogus non-resident accounts were a wide- spread problem at the bank during his tenure and that it was “impossible” he could not have known about it.

SEAN FitzPatrick’s Anglo Irish Bank loans are to be investigated by the man who was previously responsible for highlighting the abuse of taxpayer’s money.

THE principle of following the money trail has been one of the cornerstones of criminal investigations for many years. The principle of seizing criminals’ assets is a much more recent but nonetheless effective innovation.

PEOPLE who stashed six-figure sums in banks and tried to evade tax have less than a week to come clean or face possible prosecution, the Revenue Commissioners have warned.

THE man responsible for highlighting public sector cock-ups and money down the drain is to retire after more than 13 years in office.

A RETIRED National Irish Bank regional manager has told the High Court it never crossed his mind to consider, when bogus non-resident accounts were identified as existing within National Irish Bank branches in the 1990s, that DIRT should have been deducted from the accounts and paid to the Revenue Commissioners.

A FORMER executive director of National Irish Bank, Barry Seymour, told the inspectors who investigated the affairs of NIB that he believed non-compliance problems within the bank related were “an industry-wide problem” with other banks similarly affected, the High Court heard yesterday.

FINES for banks who deliberately flout regulations should be increased 10-fold to a maximum of €50 million, an Oireachtas Committee report said last night.

A MAN is to be charged today in connection with failing to disclose he had a bogus non-resident account.

The money recovered from tax-evading insurance investors should be ring-fenced to pay for the overcharging of nursing home patients, it was claimed today.

LARGE-SCALE tax dodgers only get fines when they end up in court, but small fry dole fraudsters can often end up in jail, figures released yesterday show.

NATIONAL Irish bank has been hit with a total bill of €64 million after a devastating report revealed widespread tax evasion and overcharging at the bank.

The Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI) has called for the Revenue Commissioners' investigation into the tax affairs of AIB to be expanded to include an in-depth probe of the DIRT scandal.

ALLIED Irish Banks was exposed this week as having ripped off at least €14m since 1996 by systematically overcharging foreign exchange customers.

JACK STRAW, the British Foreign Secretary, complained this week that the British invest too much faith in selecting judicial figures to chair inquiries.

FORMER Education Minister Dr Michael Woods has said he did nothing wrong in adding projects to the school buildings programme in the run-up to last year’s general election.

AROUND 10,000 more letters have been sent out by the Revenue Commissioners to suspected holders of bogus non-resident accounts.

AIB promised to meet all its pension obligations to staff despite the existence of a huge deficit of over 700m in its pension funds.

MILLIONS of euro from dormant accounts is to be ploughed into projects for disadvantaged and disabled people within the next few months.

A GROUP acting for non-resident account holders has accused the Revenue Commissioners of adopting “scaremongering tactics” in a bid to frighten people into handing over unpaid tax by a December 17 deadline.

FORMER Fine Gael deputy leader Jim Mitchell lost his three-year battle with cancer yesterday morning when he died in Dublin.

The former Fine Gael Minister, Jim Mitchell, has died at his home overnight, following an illness.

THE TAXMAN’s crackdown on 30,000 bogus non-resident bank account holders has sent shock waves throughout the country.

THE taxman has recovered €283 million from special investigations into tax-dodging schemes, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report says.

The Revenue Commissioners are to turn their attention from financial institutions to individuals in a new DIRT probe.

The Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners is to appear before the Dáil Public Accounts Sub-Committee when the DIRT hearings resume today.