A comprehensive proposal to transform how public spending was policed was shelved in favour of a new local government quango established by Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

We, as a nation, are in serious hock to all and sundry. We recently learned that the State, Central Bank, banks, businesses and households, aka you and me, owe a combined €1.64 trillion.

The public will soon have access to thousands of financial statements and accounts of public bodies which previously could only be accessed in limited circumstances, following a recommendation by an Irish Examiner journalist.

Several high-profile individuals face the prospect of being identified as motorists who have had penalty points offences controversially wiped from their driver’s licence by gardaí.

The Data Protection Commissioner has launched an investigation into the loss of a laptop from the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

OVER €800,000 is being paid annually by the Department of Education to a Cork City hotel, one of more than a dozen premises being used as alternative accommodation by the Cork School of Music, the annual report of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General 2002 states.

BETWEEN 1995 and 2001, the scale and projected cost of the refurbishment of Cork Courthouse had escalated from an estimated €6.35 million to over €20m, the annual report of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General 2002 says.