Firefighters in Cork City are set to ballot for industrial action next week in a dispute over back-money linked to pay restoration.

Fire brigades arrive on the scene of a fire within 10 minutes of the alarm being raised in only 40% of cases, new figures show.

Library users will soon have much quicker access to books from branches at opposite ends of the country, with over 15m titles to choose from.

Funding for payments to authors and illustrators whose books were borrowed from public libraries in the Republic was cut by a third last year.

The threat of industrial action at public libraries has eased after a national library merger plan was dropped.

A novel exploring the violent world of Latin American drug cartels was a hit among Irish readers at the country’s 336 public libraries, figures show.

The Government is to ask another body to compile data on Irish Water next year, adding yet another layer of management to the utility.

The focus should first be on water service provision, and if Irish Water is to be seen as a

Cork city and county councils say they are concerned about plans to amalgamate library services saying a one-size fits all approach may not be appropriate in such a large county.

The cost to the taxpayer of sending a select number of senior local government officials to an exclusive management course at Harvard University tops €315,000 for the past seven years, figures show.

Opposition is growing to the amalgamation of library services nationwide, with local councillors, Oireachtas members, and trade unions warning it will lead to the closure of branches in small rural communities.

Only 45% of fires attended within critical first 10 minutes

Readers here had austerity on their minds last year with Strumpet City the most borrowed book of adult fiction from public libraries, figures show.

Nearly €10m was collected in a last-minute rush of second home tax payments ahead of its deadline last night.

Tens of thousands of households who still have not paid the so-called second-home tax have been warned "there is no escape".

IF public sympathy has been in scarce supply for the owners of ‘second homes’ or or "Non-Principal Private Residence" to use the convoluted language of bureaucracy, it is growing as it becomes increasingly clear that much of the blame for this mess lies squarely at the door of the Department of the Environment.

Deduction from salaries, pensions, and social welfare payments by Revenue are now being processed as deadlines have lapsed on almost a quarter of a million property owners who received warning letters demanding payment of the 2012 household charge.

Millions of euro of taxpayers’ monies have been wasted by government departments on exorbitant debit and credit card transaction fees despite warnings to change, a senior TD has revealed.

Local authorities are facing a dressing-down from the housing minister for leaving thousands of homes lying idle while housing waiting lists remain at crisis levels.

Dubbed the “Claureen crater”, a pothole on the fringes of Ennis, Co Clare, was a silver lining for one firm, generating revenues of €12,000 in emergency tyre repairs in a matter of days.

The Government is to launch a major “compliance campaign” to get money from the one in five homes yet to pay the household charge — and it will also start charging interest on the amount owed.

Nearly 500,000 of the 1.6m people eligible for property tax have already registered to pay.

Anybody who failed to pay the household charge by close of business yesterday faces an increased charge of €144 from today, the Department of the Environment said yesterday.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has confirmed the cost of the EU presidency website, EU2013.ie is €335,535.

In 1999 the Irish people passed the 20th Amendment to the Irish Constitution, the purpose of which was to recognise the constitutional importance of local democracy in the form of local councils and& local government.

The government is still owed €47m in unpaid household charges.

Campaigners against the property tax have vowed to fight plans by Revenue to collect the levy, despite the revelation that tax collectors will value homes of owners liable for the charge.

Septic tank registration fees have been paid for over a quarter of a million properties around the country so far, according to the Local Government Management Agency.

The taxpayer has footed a €31,000 bill for sending local government officials from one county council to a management course at a US university — with the body that collects the household charge paying course fees.

Campaigners have warned of deepening boycotts against tax on family homes as Budget 2013 heralded the much-anticipated new 0.18% property tax rate.

The chief executive of the body collecting the household charge has insisted it is doing an “excellent job” — despite sending out warning letters demanding payment to thousands of people who have already paid.

Tens of thousands of property owners refusing to pay the household tax will be tracked through the Land Registry in the coming days.

Property owners who have not paid their household charge are being advised that the interest and penalties due will rise by €11 on October 1.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is seeking legal advice on whether councils can delay or withhold grants from students whose parents have not paid the household charge, but he still thinks it is reasonable for them to ask.

Councils have been told to do whatever it takes to collect the €100 household charge as anger intensifies over linking the levy to college grant applications.

A bailout troika review is expected to push for a faster introduction of the property tax, amid reports that most households will pay an annual charge of between €250 and €400 from next year.

More than €7m in household charges paid by property owners is being used to finance the agency collecting the levy, despite communities facing cuts to essential services and the closure of local facilities.

Thousands of property owners have been refunded by the agency collecting the household charge after paying twice or having been accidentally overcharged.

Leo Varadkar has admitted that it is the worst timefor the Government to introduce a property tax amid calls for the new levy to be postponed.

Dramatic coverage has been given to the views of Paul McSweeney of the Local Government Management Agency, the body charged with organising the collection of the household tax.

The head of the agency collecting the household charge revealed how he and staff have been threatened, how he received hate mail and how a shotgun cartridge was sent to a senior staff member as a death threat.

Many disgruntled property owners still refuse to pay the household charge.

The head of the country's largest local authority is defending his salary despite a threat to local services.