Higher civil and public servants are demanding accelerated restoration of pay after claiming they earn up to 60% less than their private sector counterparts.

Two previous Garda commissioners were informed of concerns about the lack of financial controls at the Garda Training College in Templemore as far back as 2008.

The body charged with improving the standard of public administration in the country made a €126,688 settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in 2014.

A report into the country’s first merger of two “county” councils showed the amalgamation is working well, with no staff redundancies, savings of €3m, and minimal negative effect on the public.

A conference on responsibility and accountability in the public service will get underway this morning at the Institute of Public Administration in Dublin.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has today announced the appointment of Jim Breslin as the new Secretary General of the Department of Health.

WHEN is a dead baby in an unmarked grave not a dead baby in an unmarked grave? When it’s a Protestant baby!

History will be made when, for the first time, two women are appointed as bosses of local authorities in Cork and Kerry.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said there is a need to restore public confidence in the law, but he warned against unrelenting criticism of the Garda.

The Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has appointed the first Chief Executive of the new Charities Regulatory Authority.

AROUND the time my secretary threw my marijuana plant out the window was the period when I was expert on the Seanad.

The head of the Fiscal Advisory Council is standing by the group's assessment that more budget cuts are needed.

The linking of the household charge to third-level grants raises important questions about what we expect from our local authorities and how they should be funded, writes Aodh Quinlivan

WHO really exerts influence in this country? Is there a golden circle of insiders that dominate decision-making in government? Is opinion manipulated by a select cohort of furtive authoritative figures?

THE leaves are brown. The Battle of the Estimates is under way. Blood is flowing along the corridors at the heart of Government.

ALL “low hanging fruit” has now been cut from the public service, meaning key services will have to suffer mass staff departures and further funding cuts over the coming months.

PEOPLE from across the country have told the Government they do not have confidence in the criminal justice system, and say criminals are not being held to account quickly or punished sufficiently.

IRELAND will need at least an extra 1,000 GPs to facilitate Government plans to overhaul the health service, a major conference on health reform heard yesterday.

THE reporting by your investigative correspondent Conor Ryan on the number of state agencies or quangos in Ireland and the composition of their boards is a welcome contribution to a complex (and hence often misunderstood) sector of Irish public administration.

TRUST in public services has collapsed during the recession, with confidence lower than in Greece, a conference heard yesterday.

OMBUDSMAN Emily O’Reilly has called for widespread political reform here – claiming TDs’ and senators’ decisions are too tightly controlled by their party whips – and has blamed poor corporate governance for the overall downturn in the economy.

CONFUSION surrounds the identity of 52 public sector spouses who supposedly travelled together on a junket at the taxpayers’ expense.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen defended the €1 million golden handshake for former Fás boss Rody Molloy last night as two senior ministers squabbled over who was responsible for sanctioning the deal.

Former FAS chief Rody Molloy today quit his role promoting high standards in the public sector.

Former FAS chief Rody Molloy today resigned as the face of the country’s public sector best practice institute.

THE Government has no option but to cut public sector pay because the country is going bust, the head of An Bord Snip has warned.

The chairman of An Bord Snip Nua has said anyone who thinks widespread cutbacks can be avoided is out of touch with reality.

An official from the ESRI has told a conference in Dublin today that pay rates across the economy should be cut by an average of 7%.

ONE of the last acts of the current crazy government before it exited the stage for a long summer break was to impose a €200 levy on every second and subsequent housing unit in the state.

BUILDERS and developers should be left to go to the wall if they can’t survive the economic downturn by their own efforts instead of looking for state intervention to prop them up, the head of the country’s leading economic think-tank has said.

The difficulties facing the Irish economy will be discussed at a major conference in Dublin today.

SEEING the faces of the smiling, good natured men whose lives were brutally taken away brings home the human loss.

THE embattled chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Prof Brendan Drumm, is likely to spark further anger in the ongoing breast cancer controversy after raising questions over the benefits of screening programmes for the disease.

SCHOOLS must care for children’s health and welfare as well as their education if they are to help poorer pupils escape the poverty trap, an expert warned yesterday.

CITIZENS are rightly concerned that the electoral register for Dáil elections is accurate and fully inclusive. But Government is also responsible for ensuring that elections to the Seanad are fully democratic.

A LEADING economist yesterday demanded the State’s spending watchdog probe the use of taxpayers’ money by universities.

The Government has agreed to appoint a third Deputy Commissioner to An Garda Siochana as part of a raft of reforms to strengthen and support senior management in the force, it was revealed tonight.

UNIVERSITY College Dublin (UCD) is to review its procedures following revelations that one of its senior academics and a former part-time lecturer received a PhD from a controversial US degree mill.

The Labour Party has called for an investigation into so-called ‘degree mill’ universities following revelations that a number of Irish officials and academics have questionable qualifications.

AS further prominent Irish holders of dodgy degrees are outed, the time has come for Education Minister Mary Hanafin to launch an in-depth probe into the realm of questionable qualifications which offer the purchasers academic kudos overnight.

A SENIOR UCD academic and a lecturer in the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) both obtained PhDs from the same unaccredited institution as disgraced Government science adviser Barry McSweeney.

SHOULD Michael Woods ever return to the front bench, the Department of Defence might be the natural posting for him.

Michael Quinn has been appointed to the Board of Datalex, as a non-executive director.