TAOISEACH Brian Cowen vowed to fight in the face of falling poll numbers right up until voting begins next Friday.

IT’S apocalypse now.

SPENDING on Christmas travel, trees and nights on the town will be greatly reduced this Yuletide, according to a shopping survey.

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny will have cause for concern this morning after an opinion poll showed his party continuing to lose support.

Irish people are in danger of making an uninformed choice in the Lisbon Treaty referendum, according to Libertas chairman Declan Ganley.

JUST three-quarters of letters posted within Ireland last year were delivered the next day — 17% short of the target laid down by the communications regulator.

SOMETIMES, secretly, politicians hate the electorate. Well, maybe that’s a bit harsh. The politician who works his back off for the people of his constituency, and then loses his seat, usually goes through a couple of years of bemusement, and frequently bitterness.

THE latest opinion poll tells us that Fianna Fáil is on the way out and if we’re patient enough to wait out the 1,500 days between now and the next general election, we can collectively wave it goodbye.

ALMOST half the population believes that treatments for lung cancer patients are limited and that there is a stigma attached to the disease.

Donal Hickey on efforts to boost the domestic market

Only 57% of Irish people travelling abroad for leisure purposes in the past 12 months took out travel insurance, according to research findings issued today by Vhi Healthcare.

JUST how much faith should be placed in the opinion polls of recent days?

RESULTS of a new opinion poll which showed the Government just 1% ahead of the alternative coalition were yesterday dismissed by the Taoiseach.

Festive shoppers were today warned to step up security measures as it was revealed one in 20 people take no precautions using bank cards.

THE opposition will be glad to see the back of October after the third poll of the month showed support for Fianna Fáil increasing, despite the controversy over payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

FIANNA FÁIL had cause for further celebration yesterday, as a second opinion poll confirmed that public support for the party has increased, despite the controversy over payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

TWO in every three people believe Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was wrong to accept payments from businessmen in Manchester in the 1990s, a new poll has found.

GOVERNMENT childcare subsidies are ineffective and the careers of working parents are suffering, a new study reveals.

HALF of Irish consumers believe that retail outlets are not properly labelling fresh foods with their country of origin, a new survey has found.

WOMEN, particularly housewives, fret that money shortages during retirement will be a major cause of loneliness, according to a survey.

FOUR-out-of-five Irish bosses work every weekend, while almost half miss important family events due to work pressures.

THE Government is set to step up measures to move Ireland closer to becoming a tobacco-free society, it emerged yesterday.

VHI Healthcare has said it has captured 35% of the multi-trip travel insurance market, an increase of 9% since 2004. Some 250,000 members have taken out multi-trip since the product was launched two years ago.

An Post are still missing service quality targets despite marginal improvement, the Commission for Communications Regulation said today.

A new survey of small and medium sized businesses by O2 Ireland suggests the emergence of a digital divide in the use of broadband services.

A survey published today by the communications regulator, Comreg, shows that An Post's quality of performance for the first six months of 2004 is down.

THE surge in spending triggered by the release of €14 billion from the Government's Special Savings Incentive Account (SSIA) scheme will add nearly 2% to economic growth rates in 2006 and 2007, Goodbody stockbrokers said yesterday.

A GOVERNMENT-commissioned report has been unable to establish if individual pubs and restaurants will suffer financially as a result of the smoking ban.

HEALTH MINISTER Micheál Martin will go on the offensive this week to urge the public to ensure the smoking ban is enforced and insist offenders will be punished for ignoring the clampdown.

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has published its first annual report on the quality of service performance of An Post.

LUNG cancer is to become predominantly a female disease within 20 years, a comprehensive report to be published today by the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) has found.

The ComReg quarterly report has revealed that mobile are users are sending more text messages.

The Irish are leading consumers of holidays online, according to a new survey.