Cork is expected to get the go-ahead for vital road investment today with the promise of three key infrastructure projects for the second city at a cost of hundreds of millions of euro.

Enda Kenny says that the Coalition is unwilling to increase its spending promises in the budget despite fresh figures revealing a continued surge in the economy.

It was a dream location for a meeting but might be the last day out so to speak before Enda and Joan prepare for their Second Coming.

In the jaundiced eyes of punters pummelled by a succession of tax hikes, the Universal Social Charge is without a shadow of doubt Ireland’s most hated and most politically toxic tax.

Water charges will be further reduced for vulnerable groups and low earners in steps to be announced in the budget.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin has shrugged off the party’s failure to capitalise on the Coalition’s troubles and win a Dáil seat.

Ministers are spending €481,000 a year on a financial watchdog they have made clear they will ignore ahead of the Budget.

The mood music of the economy has an upbeat rhythm following the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showing gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an encouraging 2.7% in the first three months of the year.

Sinn Féin have pledged they will not be bought in any future government, after a landslide victory in local and European elections which saw the party take control of city councils.

It is time to clear up the mess engulfing the Irish charities industry.

Ireland’s shambolic health service has been compared by embattled Health Minister Dr James Reilly to a massive tanker that can’t be turned around overnight.

Sinn Féin has published a jobs plan which proposes a €13bn stimulus package aimed at creating more than 150,000 jobs.

ON Nov 10, the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition will ask the public to approve a referendum to insert dedicated children’s rights into the Constitution.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has insisted any cuts to public sector allowances will be made in the context of the Croke Park Agreement.

Besides indulging in semantics, Fine Gael is defending the indefensible in the latest row over six-figure pay cheques for experts.

ALMOST half the country believes Ireland should continue complying with the terms and conditions of the EU/IMF bailout, which is one year old today.

THE late Brian Lenihan has been proved right in the “unpopular” decisions he made as finance minister according to the Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin.

THE common assumption is that Martin McGuinness’s IRA past will scuttle his chances of the presidency.

ONE IN THREE counties have seen a marginal drop in their Live Register figures over the past 12 months — despite the total number of people on the dole continuing to rise by 3,460 since July 2010.

AGAINST a backdrop of unrelieved economic gloom, the outcome of this week’s emergency EU summit in Brussels was positive from Ireland’s viewpoint and is to be welcomed.

There was no quick response, as an economic problem became political

THE Government suffered its first defection last night when Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten voted against the Coalition over its decision to downgrade services at Roscommon Hospital.

IF you think things are bad now, consider what it was like in the Ireland of a hundred years ago when the 1911 Census was compiled.

Being finance minister in tough times is a dirty job — but someone’s got to do it, former ‘Minister for Hardship’ tells Caroline O’Doherty

A DISPUTE, between heads in the departments of justice and finance during the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition in 1976, erupted over Garda resources, which saw a series of heated missives fired back and forth between ministers.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell contends that our legislative provisions for the granting of bail are very stringent. Our system of justice assumes that people charged with crimes are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

WAS Charlie McCreevy rewarded or shafted? It would seem that he was both. He was offered the velvet shaft and invited to jump for the reward of a plum job in Europe.