Fine Gael Finance Spokesman Michael Noonan has called on the banks to stop penalising mortgage holders.

THE Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has warned the economy grew by just 0.25% this year while the domestic side will “continue to shrink”.

The Fine Gael Finance spokesman Richard Bruton has hit back at claims from Fianna Fáil that he's a "eurosceptic".

Ireland's recession will last at least 12 months, the country's leading think-tank predicted tonight.

The rising cost of health care, education, food and other basic provisions is eroding people’s quality of life, it was warned today.

The Government was urged to establish a tough consumer watchdog today as the rate of price increases hit their highest level in almost three years.

THE Government’s hugely ambitious €34.4 billion transport plan will result in tolls becoming a reality on major roads throughout the country.

The poor and the elderly will suffer the most from the sharp rise in inflation, it was claimed tonight.

The cost of housing, education and health is continuing to rise, despite a slight fall in the overall inflation rate, it emerged today.

BARRISTERS working for tribunals of inquiry earn more in three days than old age pensioners receive in a year, Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy told the Dáil yesterday.

UNDER-BREATH Budget Day gripes were plentiful, but public protest was left to the country’s third-level students who converged on the Dáil in a noisy, animated but — apart from a few expletive-peppered slogans — impeccably-behaved show of disgruntlement.

The Government is expected to come under fire from the opposition in the Dáil later today after the measure announced in yesterday's Budget.

Today's rise of 0.5% in inflation figures continues to sound alarm bells for the Government's economic management, Fine Gael Finance spokesman Richard Bruton warned today.