The issue of the interest rate on Ireland's bailout will not feature on the agenda at the EU summit taking place tomorrow and Friday.

MILLIONS of euro in EU grants to help unemployed people get back to work are being lost because Fás has failed to update its book- keeping from paper to a modern computer system.

THE chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called on the Government to explain why it has not applied for any of the €211 million in European funding available to the State training agency, Fás.

A MULTI-MILLION euro income stream the country receives from Europe for social projects is in danger because of questions raised about the possible misuse of grants given to Fás.

The employment situation in Ireland has been particularly badly affected by the current economic crisis, a new EU survey published today reveals.

Once a peninsula of green fields and country estates, Mahon in Cork has in recent decades developed into a sprawling suburb of mixed residential housing, a rapid transformation which along with other social factors resulted in it becoming an area of high unemployment.

The European Commission has announced that Ireland will receive €375m from the European Social Fund (ESF) to upskill workers and create new employment in disadvantaged communities.

THE Government is set to lose over €15.5m in EU funding due to irregularities in the way claims for grants under the European Social Fund (ESF) were processed.

A MAJOR initiative was launched yesterday to persuade more employers to hire people with disabilities.

RECENTLY while making my way to the European Social Forum (ESF) in Florence, Italy, where a million people (according to the organisers) peacefully marched against the imminent war against Iraq, I experienced at first hand the lack of democracy and respect for human rights within the EU.