Health Minister Leo Varadkar has announced a package of measures designed to address rising health insurance premiums and stabilise prices.

A 40-day deadline set for a mammoth review of the Department of Justice is "ridiculously short" and belies the fundamental review needed, a leading expert has said.

The cabinet has appointed six outside experts to conduct a review of the Department of Justice.

Aviva raising premiums by up to 20%, costing families an extra €700

Ireland’s second largest private health insurer, Laya healthcare, is to hike its charges by an average of 20%.

Hospitals and doctors are fraudulently claiming millions of euro from insurers for non-existent treatment of patients in their care.

Irish consumers are making a big switch from cheques and paper-based payment methods to cards and online banking.

An external review into the risk management of the Irish electronic payments system following the failure of Ulster Bank last year has found that reviews weren’t carried out often enough.

Cork city and county councils should explore opportunities for joint staffing through sharing services, according to a major government-ordered review on staffing levels.

Global pharmaceutical and healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has reversed a decision to shut a plant run by one of its subsidiaries, saving over 100 jobs.

Irish people are still much fonder of cash than their European counterparts.

The umbrella body for Irish Co-ops, which represents dairy Co-ops and livestock marts, has today advocated a 'Yes' vote in the upcoming EU Fiscal Treaty referendum.

Dairy farming is entering an era of great opportunity with the end of quota restrictions in 2015, says incoming Irish Co-operative Organisation Society chief executive Seamus O’Donohoe.

Agri-food groups are to the fore among groups being encouraged to set up co-ops in a new ICOS guide and business planning template.

THE Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) plans to encourage the creation of new co-operatives among a range of initiatives over the coming year.

AN INDEPENDENT expert group has been set up to review staffing levels in Cork City Council and to make recommendations about further staff cuts.

IRELAND still trails its European counterparts in terms of paying for goods electronically, but a survey shows we are slowly cottoning onto the benefits of switching from cash.

The amount of cash withdrawn from ATM machines last year fell by €3bn, it has been revealed.

DAIRY farmers get a good price for milk compared to their EU counterparts, but are hit in terms of return per litre due to the seasonality of the current product mix, according to the ICOS dairy industry review group.

THE Irish Cooperative Organisation Society (ICOS) has awarded the Plunkett Award for Co-operative Endeavour to its former president Donie Cashman for his exceptional contribution to Irish agriculture.

THE Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has appointed Tom O’Callaghan as chief executive.

FARMERS and ecology groups have voiced starkly contrasting views on likely impacts on industry and the environment of the Climate Change Bill currently before the Oireachtas.

THE RISE of nationalism movements in Europe could threaten Ireland’s €2bn dairy export business unless the EU rethinks its new labelling proposals, says one leading figure in the dairy industry.

MILK quotas are gone, and there’s nothing to be gained from living in the past, according to Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) president Pat McLoughlin.

THE Irish Dairy Board (IDB) will consider marketing collaborations with a number of overseas representative dairy bodies at private meetings scheduled during next month’s global milk conference in New Zealand, says its chief executive Kevin Lane.

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley has said he will establish a group to implement newly made recommendations on local government reform.

THE phasing out of cheques is accelerating, with new figures showing the volume used here last year declined by 13% — more than double the reduction in 2008.

THE Irish co-operative movement has presented Cavan farmer and dairy industry leader Dessie Boylan with the Plunkett Award.

THE dairy industry will watch the signals from next week’s EU Dairy Management Committee closely for signs of prices stabilising.

THE important economic role farmers play in providing food and services to society has been highlighted by Copa-Cogeca, which represents European farmers and agri co-ops.

ONE of the key founders of the Irish co-operative movement was commemorated this week with ceremonies in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, where he is buried, and in Churchtown, north Cork, where he was born 150 years ago.

THE proposal by Glanbia Co-op to purchase the Irish business of Glanbia plc will be discussed by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) at a meeting in Kilkenny on Monday night.

PAYMENTS under the Dairy Compensation Fund began yesterday, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith announced.

DAIRY industry leaders have agreed to assess their options for the future, the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has confirmed.

ICOS has abandoned a centralised milk-testing laboratory proposal because insufficient dairy co-ops agreed to support it.

THE proposed creation of a centralised milk testing laboratory will not go ahead as sufficient economies of scale have not been identified in the interests of participating co-operatives and their milk producers.

THE 2020 Strategy Committee for agri-food, forestry and fisheries is drawn from senior experts and participants in all aspects of the sector.

DESPITE outgoing chief executive of the HSE Brendan Drumm openly admitting to struggling with the high profile-nature of the job, 34 people have applied to take up his €320,000-a-year basic salary post.

IRELAND’S co-operative movement has honoured Sir Horace Plunkett, one of its founding fathers, with the publication of a book on his life, and his immense influence on the development of Ireland’s agricultural sector.

THE challenges that Ireland faced when Horace Plunkett helped establish the co-op movement are replicated today in the current unprecedented economic downturn.

THE head of the co-ops umbrella body, ICOS, said yesterday that it is engaged in a huge level of work in relation to the movement for change within the dairy industry.

THOUSANDS of farmers from across Europe, including Ireland, will protest about low milk prices outside a meeting of farm ministers in Luxembourg today.

IRELAND’S overdependence on cash is harming the economy and the country’s competitiveness.