Eight of the 100 highest earning Irish-based multi-nationals are paying no corporation tax whatsoever, five have a tax bill of less than 1% and others are effectively being paid by the taxman because of serious loopholes in the tax system.

Severe financial oversight deficits at the National College of Art & Design have been highlighted in its latest accounts — that are already more than three years old.

Fresh controversy has enveloped Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan after she was criticised by the State’s financial watchdog for failing to mention possible financial irregularities at Templemore Garda College in a formal accounting notification to him.

The top paid individual in the Health Service Executive received a salary, last year, of almost €600,000.

University College Cork has said it is satisfied it paid market value when it bought a former bank from a local authority for €800,000 more than its purchase price two years earlier.

The Department of Education will be grilled by TDs next month on whether it really expects religious orders to pay everything owed under a 2002 deal on the costs of redress for institutional abuse.

A new prison working rules system that officials said would save the State almost €300m over the past decade by replacing overtime has cut costs by just €8m.

A senior civil servant received a €1.119m severance package from an unknown Government department during the worst years of the recession, writes Irish Examiner Political Reporter, Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

The prospect of a cross-border Nama inquiry should not be completely ruled out, according to Stormont's finance minister.

Communications Minister Alex White has defended Eircode, estimated to cost between €38m and €50m, after An Post said fewer than one in 10 letters and parcels use the new postcode.

The president of Limerick Institute of Technology has accused the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee of portraying the college inaccurately when a recent meeting heard that LIT paid €627,000 to a number of staff members over a four-year period when it had no work for them.

A leading private hospital has been accused of having a “parasitic dependence” on a linked public facility after it emerged more than half of its consultants have been wrongly taken from the public wing.

Bad planning, outsourcing core services with no contract, and inadequate staffing contributed to student grants agency SUSI’s disastrous first year of operations that cost €5.9m — more than three times its budget.

The publication of the penalty points report earlier today is major step forward in tackling the ’nod and wink’ culture that persists among some in the Gardai ranks, suggests Michael Clifford.

The whistleblower behind the explosive Ansbacher dossier informed the Revenue Commissioners of 27 new cases of alleged tax evasion, 10 of which yielded "substantial" settlements.

The Department of Education has been told to improve accountability and transparency in the management of the €360m National Training Fund.

The Irish Greyhound Board has said it can continue to trade as a going concern despite independent consultants delivering a damning assessment of the first year of its survival plan.

The chair of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee and Health Minister James Reilly have clashed over claims two of the system’s most senior officials should resign over repeated "Groundhog Day" failures.

A social welfare worker is being investigated by gardaí after allegedly misappropriating €1m by way of payments to people who may not even exist.

Details of a contract worth €500,000 to install recording equipment in garda stations across the country has been sought by the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee, which is considering whether to carry out further investigations.

Over €185m of taxpayers’ money was “poured down the drain” in property speculation by a quango, TDs have heard.

The issue of spending at Irish Water will again come before the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) later today to discuss accountability within the new agency.

Government departments and state agencies continue to squander millions in taxpayers’ money through poor judgment, lax monitoring, and crippling inefficiencies, despite the ongoing squeeze on public finances.

The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has expressed shock that over €70m is paid out annually for free travel passes based on usage figures from 1973.

A Government quango is set to be axed, with a report due this week by the country’s public spending watchdog set to reveal a litany of financial mismanagement and planning irregularities.

The retired co-ordinator of Macroom Youthreach has appealed to the Public Accounts Committee to delay its probe of a damning audit into the centre he ran for four years.

The Public Accounts Committee has today heard how the establishment of primary pare in the Health Service Executive (HSE) in 2010 was "patchy".

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has today called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to name the bondholders who will receive payment of €1.25bn today.

The Public Accounts Committee has said it will draw up proposals on an investigation into the banking crisis, starting with the Bank Guarantee of September 2008.

THE chairman of the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) was paid almost €50,000 to lead the six-person ethics board last year.

THE publication this week by the Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley into how the state wastes resources did not disappoint.

MORE than 15,000 people applied to join the Gardaí last week despite a ban on recruitment to the force.

The North’s water system is leaking 181 million litres a day at a cost of an estimated £5m (€4.1m) each year, a new report confirmed.

The Financial Regulator is to appear before the Dáil Public Accounts Committee today.

THE Dáil spending watchdog committee is to quiz state lawyers about reducing legal costs as well as examine attempts to cut bills for tribunals.

A SCATHING report on Ireland’s hospital emergency departments by the State’s spending watchdog shows that waiting times rose last year despite assurances by Health Minister Mary Harney that services are improving.

A new report into the Road Safety Authority's operation of driver testing services in Ireland has raised concerns about the divergence in average pass rates between test centres and between individual testers.

THE Government has been urged to provide extra funding for the state spending watchdog so that it can adequately monitor NAMA (National Asset Management Agency).

MONDAY is the most popular no-show day – particularly among clerical officers – in the civil service, where women take on average six more sick days per year than men, according to a new report.

A 20% cut in the Fás budget could be used to help fund the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) and other productive programmes, the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association says.

The Government signed-off on an €1m pension windfall for former FÁS chief Rody Molloy after he threatened legal action if he didn't get a 'golden handshake', it was revealed today.

The Referendum Commission today launched a campaign urging people who are not on the register of voters to claim their vote before the October 2 referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.