A damning report on the operation of a fund set up to help emerging businesses in the North will be probed by a powerful House of Commons committee of MPs next week, it was revealed today.

A planned £25m (€37m) takeover of a security firm in the North at the centre of a hospitality corruption investigation has been scrapped, it was revealed tonight.

Millions of pounds were poured down the drain by a computerised payroll system for the Northern Ireland Civil service which never produced a single payslip, an official report said today.

Heads must roll over a money-spinning car-park at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital which is lining financiers’ pockets, it was claimed today.

Tony Holland , chairman of the Parades Commission in Northern Ireland has been awarded a knighthood in the British Birthday Honours today.

The Public Accounts Committee at Stormont was today investigating the high levels of leakage in Northern Ireland’s water system.