PLANS to reduce the number of Vocational Education Committees (VECs) by about a third and make them more efficient will be brought to Government within three weeks by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan.

The consequences of An Bord Snip Nua's recommendations on how to save money in the agriculture sector will be discussed today.

HAVING reassured myself that An Bord Snip was not a new area of health to do with circumcision in our new multicultural society, I still found it very strange that Taoiseach Brian Cowen, previously the country’s finance minister, would actually admit to forming it.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has appealed to the public to avoid "knee-jerk and defensive reactions" after the publication of today's report by An Bord Snip Nua.