Government spending is accelerating at an unsustainable rate, and overruns in day today spending are likely to top €2.5 billion by year end, the budgetary watchdog has warned in its pre-budget submission. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.

Sticking with the upcoming budget, Fiona Reddan talks to tax specialists about what we can expect to see with the limited resources available to Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers.

One of the targets inevitably will again be housing. But a new survey finds that all sectors of the construction industry reported a slowdown in August for the first time in 18 months, writes Hugh Dooley on what is an almost universally gloomy assessment of the sector.