FÁS spent more than €100,000 on tickets for matches, concerts and other entertainment events in Croke Park stadium over the past two years.

SUSPENDED Fás director of corporate affairs, Greg Craig has refused a third invitation to appear before the Dáil public accounts committee (PAC) to answer questions about spending irregularities.

FÁS has denied putting obstacles in the way of suspended director Greg Craig who has been asked to appear before the Dáil public accounts committee (PAC).

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has defended the expenses she incurred while on a trip to the US organised by Fás.

IN his letter (April 24), Brian Geoghegan tries to contend that the Lisbon treaty will bring about common corporate taxes in Europe.

AFTER the recent murder of the two Polish men in Dublin, a Polish journalist was asked what the difference was between Polish and Irish society?

MARY HARNEY, the acting leader of the Progressive Democrats, fought back tears yesterday as she paid a moving tribute to her late mother, Sarah Harney, 84, who died on Monday following a long illness.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will continue to gauge the implications for his government today after yesterday’s shock resignation of Mary Harney as leader of the Progressive Democrats.

IT’S said that the best way of getting a story out is to tell a politician a secret.

THE Government will fall into disarray following yesterday’s events, and attention will slip from crucial issues such as crime and health, the Opposition warned last night.

BRIAN GEOGHEGAN, who retired recently as director of economic affairs at IBEC and as chairman of FÁS has been appointed a director of LeasePlan Fleet Management Ireland Ltd.

EFFORTS by Mary Harney to banish smog from Dublin in the late 1980s weren’t a total success.

BRIAN Geoghegan has resurfaced - after recently retiring as director of economic affairs at IBEC and chairman of FÁS - as the chairman of Dublin-based public relations firm MRPA Kinman Communications.

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Brian O’Mahony, Chief Business Correspondent

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney will not break off her 18-day holiday in South Africa to attend an emergency European Union meeting on the Asian crisis.

THE Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) yesterday rejected claims by employers group IBEC that sick days taken by Irish workers cost businesses over €1.5 billion a year.

EMPLOYERS group IBEC has fired the opening shot in advance of the upcoming national pay talks by calling for pay restraint and ruling out local bargaining arrangements.

JOHNNY PILKINGTON will be available to play with Birr in Sunday’s AIB Leinster club hurling final against Kilkenny champions O’Loughlin Gaels in Portlaoise.

Business and employers' organisation IBEC has called on the Government to postpone for a year the extension of PRSI to benefit-in-kind saying the timing was all wrong.

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IBEC, the major voice of Irish business, has warned of grave economic consequences unless Ireland tackled the infrastructure deficit and restored competitiveness.

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NEW ways must be found of removing delays and speeding up badly-needed infrastructural projects, such as major road and rail works, Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister Mary Harney urged yesterday.

SMALL businesses will be hardest hit by Britain’s decision not to join the euro, ISME warned last night.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney is on the move….but not politically.

A REFUSAL by the Government to pay benchmarking awards due to workers may be one of the only realistic ways of keeping State finances on track, business leaders said yesterday.

Ireland’s inflation rate fell by 0.1% in May, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office.

The employers’ body IBEC has warned of the dangers of high inflation after figures released today put the rate at 4.8%.

The Tanaiste, Mary Harney, has married IBEC boss, Brian Geoghegan in a small ceremony in Dublin yesterday evening.

The employers' body, IBEC wants the employers' PRSI rate to be reduced from 12 to 9%.