Sean O’Riordan examines a UL report which highlights the high numbers leaving the Defence Forces

Fianna Fáil says that, in spite of the Government’s claim of a “jobs bonanza”, more and more people are having to seek a living in low-paid employment.

There are nearly 58,000 workers being subsidised by the State to the tune of €422m as their incomes are too low to survive on, according to figures from the Department of Social Protection.

Strikes at Tesco stores nationwide have been suspended, pending talks due to begin over the weekend at the Labour Court.

Patrick McMillan, 25, is a skier from Ogonnelloe, Co. Clare who races for Ireland in Super-G and downhill disciplines. A bad shoulder injury before Christmas means he is missing out this month’s World Championships but he hopes to be back racing in early March and is focused on racing for Ireland at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Helen O’Callaghan on how kids with autism took to a film project

Is ‘expanding capacity’ our only vision for society, even if it leaves a child waiting alone at the school gate, asks Victoria White

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has been urged to hold back on cutting the main support payment to lone parents amid warnings that it could push many people into poverty.

Two short moviestelling stories light years apart have shared the honours at a schools’ film awards.

Post-primary schools in Ireland have been urged to redouble their efforts to ensure that students get at least two hours' physical education per week.

Four Slovenian ski officials were suspended yesterday for allegedly rigging the results of pop violinist Vanessa-Mae to help her qualify for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

This week the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform advertised clerical positions in the civil and public service. The starting salary is "in the region of €21,000 per annum". A couple both employed in such positions would earn a combined total of €42k per annum. After tax (incl. pension levy), their net weekly income is €699.65.

As fledgling candidate Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan took wing for Europe, veteran MEP Jim Higgins acknowledged he was poised to make his Euro exit.

One of the country’s largest trade unions is today expected to back calls for pay restoration across the public and private sectors, and reject employer calls for tax cuts as an alternative to wage increases.

More than 2,500 pre- school inspection reports are now online, Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald has revealed.

A family with two children in childcare face paying out €16,500 a year — a cost that may stop people from taking up employment, according to a report.

One in 10 of the workers in full-time employment who are forced to boost their earnings with family income supplement payments are state employees.

The glitterati of young movie makers will be out in strength this week as Munster schools make up almost half of the 24 in the running for Ireland’s junior Oscars.

As sporting losses go, yesterday’s was up there with the worst of them.

Never mind the Republic of Ireland’s loss in Cologne, or Munster’s woeful experience in Edinburgh, Irish sport’s most damaging defeat is about to be recorded today, and in Leinster House, of all places.

One-in-five members of the Defence Forces depend on state benefits to feed their families due to deep pay cuts in recent years.

We do like a gripe, us Irish.

People are missing out on vital social welfare payments because they are being misinformed about their entitlements, it has emerged.

Teens with severe mental and physical disabilities are being forced to make do without vital State help due to an “unexpected” rise in demand — which the HSE was first warned of four years ago.

Proposed new child benefits capping payments for the better off would worsen the lives of struggling families, a leading anti-poverty group has warned.

Islamist guerrillas are turning the vast Sahara into a new theatre of war against the West, writes Alex Diaz

Hundreds of spouses had welfare claims cut after authorities found their partners were overpaid by the Department of Social Protection.

A backlog in the Department of Social Protection means people due to apply for a family income supplement will not have it in time for Christmas.

About 1,700 families are applying every day for State supports to help with the cost of sending their children back to school.

A SURGE in the number of “working poor” households applying for state help to top up their incomes has led to waiting times of more than four months for the Family Income Supplement (FIS).

BUDGET cuts to Family Income Supplement (FIS) for hundreds of low-paid families will drive many of them “over the brink”, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has warned.

THE impact of budget changes to the family income supplement (FIS) have been highlighted by an anonymous letter writer who has contacted each Dáil TD registering her dismay at the measure.

WORKING families have warned they risk homelessness because of cuts hidden in the Social Welfare Bill rushed through the Dáil yesterday.

THE family of a four-year-old boy who suffers from quadriplegic cerebral palsy, is profoundly deaf, unable to speak and was born with a hole in his heart is set to lose €9,152 a year because of hidden budget family income supplement (FIS) cuts.

THE Government has been urged to have a last-minute change of heart over budget cuts to the family income supplement (FIS), which could force hundreds of working families over the edge.

HUNDREDS of “working poor” families face cuts of €120 to their weekly income under a measure buried in the small print of budget legislation.

STRONG criticisms have been made about the strict criteria to qualify for financial help from the state with back-to-school costs.

THE Federation of Irish Sports (FIS) and Irish Sports Council (ISC) are holding out hope Taoiseach-in-waiting Enda Kenny will keep sport at the cabinet table when, as expected, he names his ministers later today.

ALL the political parties scrambling to be part of the next government are being asked to guarantee that a percentage of National Lottery funding will be set aside for the use of the Irish Sports Council (ISC).

The Children’s Rights Alliance is "deeply disappointed" by the announcement in today’s Budget that the Child Benefit payment is to be cut.

Some of Ireland's biggest sporting names today pleaded with the Government to spare sports funding in what is widely expected to be a difficult Budget for the country.