Brian Cowen News

DUBLIN, Ireland a * Pity the Irish prime minister. Brian Cowen has just taken a 20 percent pay cut, leaving him the equivalent of $300,000 a year.

Ireland is going ahead with a public service austerity package for its 2010 annual budget.

IRELAND slashed pay for public sector workers, cut welfare provisions and imposed new environmental taxes on fuel yesterday as it unveiled a record 4 billion in budget cuts to combat its deficit.

EVER Budget in the history of the Irish State will deliver savings of A 3.6billion for the crippled Irish economy.

Recession-ravaged Ireland is to unveil a four-billion-euro austerity package for its 2010 annual budget Wednesday in an effort to stabilise a ballooning gap in public finances.

Union chiefs have warned of chaos and further industrial action if the Government forges ahead with public sector pay cuts in the forthcoming Budget.

The Government tonight vowed to press ahead with 1.3bn public sector pay cuts after talks with unions on alternatives dramatically collapsed.

Brian's getting jumpy in London and I don't blame him. Mark Hennessey's line London report of the meeting between Brian Cowen and Gordon Brown makes me wonder just how thoroughly the mainstream media have done their homework on the one issue that's apparently holding things up .

As many as 80,000 'green' jobs could be created over the next decade in Ireland, the Government has claimed.

I popped into my friend's house to see how the Springbok/Ireland match was going.

Brian Cowen has defended the Vatican's refusal to deal directly with an investigation into paedophile priests in the Dublin diocese that has shocked the country.

McDaid said that in the past he had abstained and been absent from some votes. Cowen's majority has already shrunk to a precarious level after by-election defeats in June and after two Fianna Fail MPs resigned the party whip in August in opposition to hospital cuts.

Brian Cowen and Gordon Brown will be reviewing progress in the implementation of the outstanding aspects of the St.

A reading expressing distress at clerical child abuse in Dublin is being read at masses in Down and Connor, Northern Ireland's largest diocese.

THE Taoiseach was confronted by angry flood victims yesterday, but would not be drawn on extra relief funds.

Off-duty police officers join picket lines protesting against expected pay and service cuts in forthcoming budget More than a quarter of a million public servants, including police officers, staged a general strike in Ireland today to protest against forthcoming cuts in jobs and services.

The Government has today announced a 10m fund to assist people suffering extreme hardship as a result of flooding.

The Government today cleared for publication an investigation exposing sickening child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the Dublin Archdiocese.

Macedonia's prime minister visits Dublin. Also in diplomatic news: Croatian President Stipe Mesic makes a farewell visit to BiH and FBI head Robert Mueller met with Turkish officials in Ankara.

Much of Ireland's public sector stood idle on Tuesday as nurses, teachers, firefighters and other employees protested against government plans to cut pay and reduce the large budget deficit.