Yesterday, the Government published its Capital Investment Plan for Health Services covering 2019 to 2021. At the same time, the Irish Hospital Consultant Associations was also publishing its Pre-Budget 2020 Submission, writes Martin Varley.

The Taoiseach has hit out at Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin comparing him to a priest who secretly goes behind the altar to engage in sin himself.

The Taoiseach has compared Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to a priest who secretly goes behind the altar to engage in sin himself.

Housing and public transport deficits need addressing urgently if Cork is to overtake Dublin as the leading job growth region by 2022, as predicted by a recruitment expert.

Why is the Government taking such a risk on its €3bn Broadband Plan when top officials have advised against it, asks Political Editor Daniel McConnell.

The gulf in planned development between Cork and Kerry is highlighted by the number of mentions each county gets in both the national development plan (NDP) and the longer term Project Ireland 2040.

Under Project Ireland 2040, the Taoiseach is promising to restart projects that were stalled during the recession.

Multibillion-euro projects to support rural areas, build new hospitals and to fund start-up businesses will be unveiled today under the long-awaited national development plan.

I read that political parties are now desperately looking for women to ‘throw’ into the electoral mix so as to satisfy a 30% female representational requirement.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has welcomed the industry contribution agreed by stakeholders to Sheep Ireland for sheep breeding.

HEADLAND Archaeology (Ireland) Ltd in Cork is rebranding as Rubicon Heritage Services and opening new offices in England and Scotland as part of ambitious growth plans, following a management buyout.

Tottenham today announced plans to de-list themselves from the UK stock market and return to private ownership in a bid to raise funds for a new stadium.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has won his coveted majority government in elections which changed Canada’s political landscape with the opposition Liberals and Quebec separatists suffering a shattering defeat.

THE left-leaning New Democrats have closed in on the Conservatives days before the May 2 Canadian election, leaving the Conservatives with almost no chance of winning a majority, two polls released yesterday showed.

An Egyptian court ordered the dissolving of the country’s former ruling party and the confiscation of its assets today, meeting a major demand of the protest movement that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Thousands of protesters were defiantly continuing their vigil in central Cairo today despite government efforts to defuse the political crisis.

EGYPT’S military deployed on the streets of Cairo to enforce a night-time curfew as the sun set yesterday on a day of rioting and chaos that amounted to the biggest challenge ever to authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year regime.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan said he looks back with pride on how he handled the economic crisis since he took office. He said he has done what none of his predecessors had to do and the Irish people were on his side.

Egypt’s opposition called the results of parliamentary elections invalid today claiming vote rigging secured an overwhelming victory for the ruling party.

THE future of regional airports including Galway, Kerry, Donegal and Knock is in doubt with more than a third of state support to be slashed under the four year plan published last week.

IRELAND’S national development plan was effectively abandoned when the Government, with some fanfare, recently launched its programme of capital spending for the years 2010 to 2016.

EMPLOYERS’ groups have broadly welcomed the Government’s promise to invest €40 billion in infrastructural development over the next six years but demanded that words must be turned into action.

CAPITAL spending on roads, public transport, schools, health facilities and other infrastructure is to be slashed almost by half in what the Government presented as a “stimulus” to get the economy back on track.

About 270,000 jobs could be created by 2016 under Government plans to boost spending on enterprise, education, the environment and public transport, it was claimed today.

FURTHER construction layoffs are inevitable as the Government’s capital spend is running 25% behind its budgeted plans for 2010, say quantity surveyors Davis Langdon PKS (DLPKS).

THE Government has been called on to act immediately to restore confidence in the construction sector to prevent a massive downturn.

IT is high time the Government took a look at the drastic shortage of resources available to the recently unemployed. Bitterly disappointed wouldn’t even begin to describe my reaction to the resources made available to jobseekers who log on to the Fás website. The initial home page of the site appears to be reasonably well laid out – but don’t be fooled.

A property tycoon with ties to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s son was sentenced to death today for ordering the killing of a Lebanese pop star who had been his lover.

CONSTRUCTION chiefs have accused the Government of rowing back on promises for development in the mid-west, saying there will be “huge implications” for jobs and tourism.

Massive blunders by politicians, developers, bankers and regulators destroyed the Celtic Tiger boom, Fine Gael’s 75th Ard Fheis heard today.

The Labour Party is calling for the National Development Plan (NDP) to be re-drawn in order to prevent the economy from going bankrupt.

IBEC has recommended the Government cut public sector pay and social welfare rates in the emergency Budget next week.

THE latest figures on the economy ought to leave no one in any doubt that the problems facing this economy are deepening by the day.

SOME 2,000 fish farming jobs can be created in coastal communities over the next five years, a national aquaculture conference was told.

THE Smarter Travel sustainable transport policy document published by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey (February 5) takes the public for fools.

CONSTRUCTION is set to begin on a new spur of the Luas, which will bring tracks through west Tallaght and further down the N7.

The Taoiseach has said the National Development Plan will not go ahead in its original form because of the downturn in the economy.

RIVERS and canals could have an important role to play in the country’s transport system, north and south.

PUBLIC sector workers have been told by a top economic think-tank to take a pay cut to help the Government balance its budget.

THE Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has asked the Taoiseach to abolish stamp duty to reignite the country’s ailing building sector.

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has today written to the Taoiseach requesting a moratorium on residential stamp duty until the next Budget.

The proposed M3 motorway will lose money, according to a financial analysis included today in TaraWatch's pre-Budgetary submission.

THE Government is still refusing to rule out income tax increases in the budget after another marathon meeting on Saturday failed to finalise what is likely to be the toughest package of measures since the 1980s.

The Construction Industry Federation has called on the Government to deliver on the National Development Plan.