Cork-headquartered tech support company Voxpro has said it should have the capacity to grow employee numbers in its home city by a further 400 in the next 12 months.

Farmers need strong enforcement of the new Grocery Goods Regulations, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association.

A recommended 10c increase in the national minimum wage — outlined to government yesterday and due to be considered as part of the October Budget package — has been widely-slammed as being anti-business and potentially damaging to Ireland’s competitiveness.

The IDA has played down the threat to Ireland’s competitiveness of the UK’s plans to slash its corporate tax rate to 15%, saying the tackling of high business costs and ensuring the availability of a skilled workforce are bigger concerns.

A raft of special advisers are being drafted in by new ministers to stave off attack from opposition TDs and to media-manage their images.

Several TDs are set to be promoted to ministerial office while existing ministers will be moved across to new portfolios under the government being put together by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

While politicians argued the figures inside Leinster House, parents made clear on the streets of Ireland that they reject Government insistence that special needs pupils are getting the right supports in school.

A referendum on gay marriage is looking likely, with a number of TDs from the Government and the Opposition throwing their weight behind proposals to put it to a public vote.

In last year’s general election, or so the Leinster House lore goes, a banker in a pinstripe suit would knock on the doors of homes in Dublin South and introduce himself by saying “you might know me from the Vincent Browne show”.

WASN’T it so refreshing to hear an Irish politician being so honest over the radiowaves yesterday?

THE Taoiseach is expected to announce his 11 nominations to the Seanad, within the next 48 hours, with the Greens and Progressive Democrats each securing two coveted seats.

DEFEATED Green Party leadership contender Patricia McKenna came sixth in a ballot of Green Party councillors on who should obtain a Seanad nomination, it emerged yesterday.