THE property market and the need for legal changes mean most of the estimated €3 million in annual savings from halving the number of Vocational Education Committees (VECs) might not be reaped for a number of years.

NOW that ministers are sitting comfortably in their new offices, with advisors appointed, time to press ahead with the 100-day programme.

WHILE Michael Noonan has his fingers crossed that NAMA has got its haircut plans right in revaluing assets of troubled developers, the finance minister knows he has got the real deal when it comes to a proper trim.

Thirty new full-time and relief positions are to be created in Dublin and Laois by healthcare company Nua, in the areas of nursing, social care and clerical support, it was announced today.

The consequences of An Bord Snip Nua's recommendations on how to save money in the agriculture sector will be discussed today.

OVER 100,000 public servants providing frontline services in healthcare, security and emergency response will resist Government attempts to impose the cutbacks proposed in the McCarthy report.

A MAJORITY of graduates working in the agriculture and food industry believe that a Yes vote in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is in Ireland’s best interests, according to the results of a survey published yesterday.

RECENT government actions to tackle the recession are encouraging young people to emigrate rather than stay in Ireland.

The Rehab group today highlighted a number of cuts proposed in the Bord Snip Nua report which it says would have a disproportionate effect on people with disabilities.

DESPITE the recent Bord Snip Nua/McCarthyReport proposals which include a cut to its funding, the state-financed training body Skillnets showed its worth by investing more than €36 million in developing workplace skills in 56,000 workers last year, according to its annual report just published.

The recommendations of An Bord Snip Nua are expected to be high on the agenda when the Cabinet holds its regular weekly meeting in Dublin this morning.

THE Bord Snip part was the easy bit.

The Taoiseach warned today no area of public expenditure was immune from feeling the snip of a €5.3bn cost-cutting masterplan.

CUTS of more than €127 million in the transport sector have been proposed by An Bord Snip Nua as the report left virtually no area untouched.

Chambers Ireland has said An Bord Snip Nua's recommended cuts "are not enough" for the Govt to balance the books.

The Department of Finance has published An Bord Snip Nua's recommendations for around €5.3bn worth of public spending cuts.

Brian Cowen was today accused of covering up plans for multi-billion euro cutbacks until politicians go off on their lengthy summer break.

THE massive cost to taxpayers of the bank bailout has sent the mid-year exchequer deficit soaring to €14.7 billion, new figures reveal.

GIVEN that An Bord Snip Nua’s brief was to cut public expenditure and that, if the rumours are to be believed, it felt it could go so far as to recommend the dropping of government ministers, I can’t understand why it did not recommend the abolition of the Seanad.

ECONOMIST Colm McCarthy is expected to deliver recommendations for €5 billion of the toughest spending cuts in the State’s history to Finance Minster Brian Lenihan tomorrow.

The Taoiseach is set to outline major reforms of the public service today that are expected to include widespread restructuring and thousands of job cuts.

Investec has said that it will look at the implications of owning two specialist mortgage providers in the Irish market in the coming weeks.

IN his speech to the Sinn Féin Árd Fheis last weekend, Gerry Adams was reported as saying: "No matter how daunting, tedious and frustrating this process may be for the governments and the rest of us, there is no alternative way forward."

Nua internet surveys, is to be rebuilt on a website platform designed by Kadius Systems Ltd, the Dublin-based software development company.

Broadcom has closed with the loss of 50 jobs.