The Government has been urged to scrap plans to cut taxes in next month’s Budget, with one economic think-tank saying it risks widening the gap between rich and poor.

It is hard to believe, but following the release of the end of August exchequer returns this week, there will only be one further set released before the October budget.

It may take decades to remove dangerous lead water pipes from Irish homes, Environment Minister Alan Kelly has said.

A budget deficit of under 2% of GDP is still anticipated for 2015, despite latest exchequer returns disappointing slightly.

The public finances have shown a quarterly surplus for the first time since before the financial crisis, cementing hopes that the Government will meet its budget deficit targets for the year.

The Government was yesterday accused of double standards and ‘complete hypocrisy’ in its fight against tobacco after it emerged that the State has multimillion-euro investments in the tobacco industry.

The Government has increased the value of its 99.8% stake in AIB from €11.6bn at the end of 2013 to €13.3bn at the end of last year, according to the NTMA’s annual statement.

The Government will use the proceeds of the sale of AIB to pay down debt when it partially offloads the state-owned bank towards the end of 2015 or the start of 2016, according to the Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

Irish Water owes the taxpayer over €14m as a result of interest accrued and fees on a loan from the National Pension Reserve Fund to pay for the controversial installation of meters.

Taxpayers plugged a €17m hole in the pension funds of University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin last year.

The sustainability of Ireland’s pension system is among the worst in the world and could result in workers facing the growing prospect of poverty in retirement, a global study has found.

A substantial proportion of the €500m being made available by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland — the State’s new ‘SME Bank’ — needs to be put into the hands of alternative funding providers, rather than the domestic pillar banks for the project to work, it has been claimed.

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

It would be a mistake to dismiss the massive swell in support for Independents as a simple protest vote; it is at the heart of a breakdown of trust in mainstream party politics, writes Ray Kinsella.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said he would like a new secretary general of the department in place by the end of July.

The CEO of Anglo Irish Bank suggested using the National Pension Reserve Fund to buy Anglo shares and unwind Seán Quinn’s 29% control of the bank, a trial has heard.

The new €6.8bn Ireland Strategic Investment Fund could effectively double in value with the addition of third party capital investment, its managers said yesterday.

Bank of Ireland will issue a €500m senior unsecured bond as early as today as it continues a move back to normal market funding.

The NTMA raised €7.5bn last year and invested €1.3bn in the economy through the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF), according to its end-of-year statement.

The Government is set to re-invest €600m from the Bord Gáis Energy sale into projects which are capable of creating jobs and generating a commercial return.

The Nevin Economic Research Institute forecasts that the economy will grow by 0.5% this year and 1.1% next year, with unemployment dropping to 10.4% by 2016, according to its latest Quarterly Economic Observer.

Now is the time to invest in infrastructure projects in Ireland, according to speakers at the PwC business leaders conference.

THIS country is on course for creating a record among OECD countries for undergoing one of the most swingeing budget consolidation programmes over the past five years.

A report published by the Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy, the State’s public spending watchdog, reveals not just the shocking state of the Government’s finances but huge shortcomings in controlling spending, overseeing payments from both within and beyond the state and in the management of a range of services.

The Government should reintroduce its ban on below-cost selling to offset the “destructive impact” of food retailers on farm incomes, said IFA presidential candidate Jer Bergin.

The Ballyhea protest group took their battle to write down Ireland’s banking debt to the European Commission and one of the key people in the troika.

The Government has launched a €175m seed and venture capital scheme that can be drawn down over the next five years and is aimed at high-growth innovative companies.

A Dublin-based PR firm has received over €800,000 (including Vat) in fees in little over three years from the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

Ireland’s rapidly ageing population is leading to a financial time bomb, with warnings that no plan is in place to cope with the dramatic rise in those aged over 65.

The largest private equity firm in the world, the Carlyle Group, is looking for investment opportunities in Ireland, according to its founder and co-chief executive, William Conway.

EU leaders are threatening to slam the door on Ireland recapitalising its €32bn bank debt from the union’s rescue fund — the next debt overhang the Government has promised to tackle.

TOMORROW’S public demonstrations around the country have been called by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to ventilate the demand for a fair deal on bank debt and to oppose one-sided austerity.

Ireland has paid 42% of the total cost of the European banking crisis, at a cost of close to €9,000 per person, according to Eurostat.

“It would go on forever, wouldn’t it? After all, look at the value of property. Up went the price of your house: Boom. Then there was a stage 4. This was the big dump where everyone got dumped, and dumped upon.”

Loan losses at Bank of Ireland and AIB through exposure to the SME sector could exceed the adverse scenario in the last Central Bank stress tests by up to €1.1bn, according to a new report by Davy Stockbrokers.

The Government, via the National Pension Reserve Fund, is making available €850m to small businesses through three new funds in an effort to fill the gap in the market by banks exiting the country.

There will be a very clear yardstick next year to measure the performance of the economy — whether the country successfully exits the EU/IMF bailout programme and makesa full return to the markets.

Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher is the right man for the job, according to its public interest directors, Joe Walsh and Tom Considine.

The Government has introduced a “deeply regressive” budget for the second year in a row, Social Justice Ireland has said.

Delays to setting up a European banking union will have huge implications for the Government’s attempts to secure a deal on restructuring the €64 billion of bank debt.

The head of the National Treasury Management Agency has accused US investment bank State Street of defrauding Irish taxpayers of €3.2m when it divested a €4.7bn fund.

Eight new school building projects are to begin work immediately thanks to a €50m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The Government has received a clean bill of health from the troika in its eighth review of the economy as part of the bailout programme.