From public spending and tax cuts, to pension reforms and house-building, some of the proposals from parties chasing your vote do not add up, writes Jim Power

A lot may have changed in the last 20 years, but in many ways, few lessons have been learned from how we lived in the late 1990s and early 2000s, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

So, this brilliant RTÉ Investigates programme reveals frightening and cruel things happening to children in creches. We’re all horrified, and rightly so.

Even if you were to confine the exercise to a timeframe book-ended by Charlie McCreevy’s decentralisation proposals from 2003, the number of reports warning about unbalanced regional development would, if laid back-to-back, stretch almost the length of the main runway at Dublin Airport.

The fiscal hawks sounding the warnings must be heeded by the Government, says Kyran Fitzgerald, and public pay and capital expenditure must not be allowed to keep drifting up

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe professes to be very proud of his rainy day fund and it is surely good that our Government has a sinking fund from which resources can be drawn should the national roof fall in, or fiscal dry rot develop.

THIS Government preaches fiscal responsibility from a high pulpit — but then it can be capable of collapsing like a cheap suit when demands for extra cash are put its way. We saw it this week, somewhat bizarrely, with a decision taken on vitamins.

Pascal Donohoe is an inclusive kind of a guy. He wraps his arms around all and sundry in his pronouncements on governance. Hence in yesterday’s budget speech we heard more than once about “our country”, and “our people” and “our children”. It’s no doubt heartfelt but also works well as a political tool. We’re all in this together, you, me, the butcher, baker and candlestick maker. And there is something for everybody in the audience.

OUR budgets are nothing like they used to be. We have much to be thankful for in that. But, like an addict that keeps putting off full sobriety until tomorrow, we remain somewhat in la la land if we think we’re fully paid up members of the fiscal reality club.

Central Bank governor Philip Lane has proposed that the Government back a revamped Special Savings Incentive Account (SSIA) scheme, more than 17 years after former finance minister Charlie McCreevy presided over a widely criticised €16bn scheme to encourage savers to set aside money on a regular basis.

It is some trick, to be able to increase spending by a whopping €3.4bn in one year and still be able to claim to be prudent, writes Daniel McConnell

For all its posing as prudent, Fine Gael’s fiscal knicker elastic is not nearly as tight as its talk, writes Gerard Howlin.

The price of a barrel of oil has now increased by over 76% since the middle of June last year, writes Jim Power

As employment in Ireland returns to levels last seen a decade ago, many businesses are discovering that an economic recovery has a downside.

By any yardstick the 2002 compensation deal for victims of clerical abuse agreed by education minister Michael Woods was disastrous — unless of course, your loyalties lie with the congregations who have dodged their responsibilities in what was to have been a 50/50 burden-sharing agreement.

Update: Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has revealed he spoke to AIB chairman Richard Pym on Monday morning to discuss the bank's inclusion in the so-called Paradise Papers,

Yesterday’s debate on the disadvantaging of mostly women carers when they come to pension age goes to the heart of defining who we are and what we value.

Catch up on this morning's headlines...

While not an election budget, it could well be Paschal Donohoe’s final budget before we find ourselves at the polls, writes Daniel McConnell

Labour TD Joan Burton has accused Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe of "travelling down the same path" as Charlie McCreevy's boom-time budgets in his financial plan for next year.

Investors will scrutinise the Ryanair share price over the coming weeks for evidence that the rostering fiasco is not a sign of a deeper malaise.

A serious issue has arisen over the continuation of Nóirín O’Sullivan as Garda Commissioner, writes Michael Clifford. Yes, the response to that might be what’s another issue?

A serious issue has arisen over the continuation of Nóirín O’Sullivan as Garda Commissioner, writes Michael Clifford. Yes, the response to that might be what’s another issue?

The budget will be a test of Finance Minister Pascal Donohoe, who now has complete control as a result of the two portfolios of finance and public expenditure being brought under his remit.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary had a 3% pay rise, increasing his earnings to €3.26m.

What happened to Gino Kenny’s bill on medicinal cannabis was another example of extremely poor parliamentary work, writes Fergus Finlay

I’m pretty certain though that all the stuff about tight fiscal space will be upended on budget day, writes Fergus Finlay

Having promised in his leadership election campaign to help those people who get up early in the morning and who work and pay taxes, Leo Varadkar’s bluff will be called in October when his finance minister presents the first budget of their joint stewardship of the economy, writes Jim Power.

On the 40th anniversary, Ryle Dwyer looks at the momentous events of the 1977 general election.

As he faces into his last day in Cabinet, the Minister for Finance yesterday tore up his ministerial scripts and let rip with the famous Michael Noonan wit.

THE Australian Svengali Lynton Crosby, who has led right-of-centre election campaigns around the world and is credited with David Cameron’s unexpected Commons majority two years ago, has contrived to reduce the British general election battle to one simple but excluding question: “Who do you want to lead Britain, Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn? Personality rather than policy is the battleground.

Outgoing Kerry Group boss Stan McCarthy is set to join the board of Ryanair later this month.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of Albert Reynolds becoming taoiseach, Ryle Dwyer examines a volatile career which saw him scupper coalitions but help build peace.

Budget day is no longer shrouded in secrecy. We’ve come a long way since 2003, when the then minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy, launched decentralisation on an unwitting populace in his budget speech. Not all of his cabinet colleagues knew what was coming.

From opposite ends of the idealogical spectrum, the two powerful figures would bring a wealth of experience to the Seanad, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.