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Kenny: It's a myth that the Economic Management Council makes all the decisions
The ECM is due to meet today to discuss the level of the budget adjustment.
Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you
The ECM is due to meet today to discuss the level of the budget adjustment.
The Finance Minister had previously said that in order to maintain the special rate for the tourism and hospitality industry he would need to find €360 million elsewhere.
The government’s liabilities last year were a whopping €208 billion.
Ashoka Mody has spoken out against austerity once again ahead of the October budget.
Eamon Gilmore has set out his stall ahead of Budget negotiations.
A report yesterday said Revenue is to start looking at records to see if individuals are in receipt of a second pension and assess their level of tax compliance.
The Minister for Jobs also said that Ireland has to “close the game out” while getting out of the bailout.
The new chairman of the Irish Business and Employers Conference told a dinner last night that the country had hit a “tax ceiling”.
The Finance Minister said the reduction of the 13.5 per cent rate for the hospitality sector had always been a short-term “pump priming” measure.
Ruairí Quinn said there is still a long way to go…
Focus Ireland has said that there is a feeling that NAMA tries to sell off property and if they can’t, it is then proposed as social housing, though many of the agency’s properties are not suitable.
Enda Kenny clashed with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin at the first Leaders’ Questions of the new Dáil term today.
The Nevin Economic Research Institute said that €400 million could be raised with a 1.5 per cent increase on the top 10 per cent of earners.
The Minister for Social Protection said the measure had been on the table, but was no longer being looked at ahead of next month’s Budget.
The Taoiseach has said that the Budget is going to be tough no matter what but that the coalition would aim to deliver it “in as fair a way as possible”.
Lots more thinking to be done on day two…
Michael Noonan indicated there may be a Budget adjustment of less than €3.1 billion if there’s good news contained in two key sets of data, but he said the final figure had not yet been decided.
ASH Ireland said the levy should be imposed on the tobacco industry, on the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
The Tánaiste has defended the Labour Party’s record in government and said that Joan Burton is doing a “fabulous job”.
The Seanad is also back but will it be abolished? We look at that and seven other questions ahead of the return of TDs and Senators this week.
Fine Gael’s holds its two-day meeting in Portlaoise, Co Laois while Labour is meeting in Enfield, Co Meath and Fianna Fáil is holding its annual think-in in Waterford.
The Sinn Féin president says that his party will “ferociously argue” against budget measures that would “heap the burden” on families and carers.
The IMF’s Gerry Rice wants Ireland to keep pace with cuts but did not rule out a reduction to deal with the “drag on growth”.
Mental Health Reform will address TDs and Senators today on issues in the sector; the group is highlighting shortfalls in promised staffing levels and concerns about ring-fencing of funding.
Threshold has said that up to 30,000 new houses need to be constructed annually to meet demand.
The committee wants access to the same data and presentations that will be provided to the Economic Management Council.
The Labour leader has not ruled out moving to a domestic post in the lifetime of the coalition, but has rejected the suggestion he needs to spend more time in the country in order to address problems within the party.
Focus Ireland launches its 2014 pre-Budget submission today and said that the government needs to avoid forcing more households into homelessness.
The Irish Central Bank governor has said that the ‘steady course’ the government charted and stuck to has been key to restoring lender credibility.
Táinaiste Eamon Gilmore said in an interview with the Financial Times said that the Government will not let others ‘drive the speedometer’ on Irish austerity.
The Education Minister was speaking with just over a month to go until Budget 2014.
The Labour Party wants to see just €2 billion in cuts in the next budget but economists have said we must stick to the plan. What do you think?
Minister for State Kathleen Lynch said she has yet to discuss this with coalition partners Fine Gael.
The pre-Budget call from the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Heart Foundation is aimed at tackling the “enormous economic cost of smoking-related illness”.
While the Sinn Féin TD said he and colleagues take home the average industrial wage most other TDs and ministers use some of their wages to buy a new car, go on holiday, put it in the bank or buy shares in the bank, he claimed.
But the deficit for the first eight months of this year was over €4 billion less than it was in the first eight months of 2012.
There was a 20 per cent increase in new car sales in August compared to the same month last year. However, looking at the year as a whole, sales are down 8 per cent.
Two government backbenchers have outlined vastly different approaches to Budget 2014 in columns for TheJournal.ie in the last 24 hours.
Labour TD Kevin Humphreys believes that an unnecessary €3.1 billion adjustment, as some in Fine Gael have proposed, would result in lower growth and loss of confidence and says that promissory note savings should be used.