OVERTIME earnings of teachers, nurses, gardaí and other public servants will be subject to the Government’s pension levy aimed at cutting €1.4 billion from the public payroll.

STRIKES and industrial action “will not bring wins for anyone” Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, said last night adding that he “honestly hopes” that such unrest will not happen in light of a €1.4 billion cut in the public payroll.

Ireland's historic experience of famine has inspired the country to help tackle global poverty, U2 frontman Bono said today.

AN EXTRA 400 primary teaching posts will be created over the next two years to help reduce class sizes, Education Minister Mary Hanafin promised yesterday.

The Government was tonight branded jaded, wasteful and incompetent and lacking the vision to deliver what the public want.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has welcomed the agreement reached on a programme of United Nations reforms which is being laid before world leaders gathering today for the UN Summit in New York.

Ireland’s new target on delivering Third World aid will only be decided after the Government’s public spending priorities are fully considered, it was claimed today.

The Irish branch of the Make Poverty History campaign today urged the Irish Government to deliver on its broken promise on overseas aid to poor countries.

Irish aid pledged to the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone in the US will go directly to people in distress, a junior Government minister said today.

The line-up of bands for Dublin’s massive Make Poverty History rally was confirmed today.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte tonight pledged not to increase taxes if his party got into Government.

THE Government's failure to meet its overseas aid target and the lack of any provision for promised extra gardaí in the Book of Estimates were criticised last night.

THE Book of Estimates which was published yesterday, and broadly outlines what will be contained in next month’s Budget, failed to realise hopes that it might be marked by inventiveness.

The decision by the Government to appoint a group of three experts to scrutinise projected expenditure will inevitably bring the cynical reaction that it is a handwashing exercise in anticipation of public outcry at the present and future cuts in public spending.