WITH SAVINGS of at least €1 billion required by the Department of Health in next month’s budget, it was not surprising to see Minister for Health Mary Harney raise the issue on a few occasions recently. What was unexpected was her specific mention of a prescription charge to be paid by medical card holders for hitherto free drugs; with a relatively paltry possible savings return in the region of €25 million, it would seem to risk alienating an already sensitised sector for little monetary gain.

Built 14 years ago, there’s great flow to the space in this five-bedroom house on three-quarters of an acre, priced at €2.25m, writesROSE DOYLE

Banks run risk of becoming dependent to cheap central bank funds, ECB chief says

The door appears to have closed on the Republic of Ireland’s hopes of their World Cup play-off second leg against France being replayed after the FAI’s call for their counterparts in Paris to join them in lobbying Fifa was rejected this evening.

Some bands won’t do them. Others insist you endure two or three. But very few musicians still deliver encores as a spontaneous response to audience demands.CIAN TRAYNORasks what they’re really for

It’s 25 years since Joel and Ethan Coen made their debut feature,Blood Simple, and the former cult film-makers are now Hollywood players with Academy Awards on the mantelpiece. Their new film,A Serious Man, has been described as “the picture you get to make after you’ve won an Oscar” and is set among the Minnesota Jewish community the brothers grew up in. But the awards change nothing, and this isn’t an autobiography, they tellDONALD CLARKE

COMPULSORY BASIC training for motorcyclists will not be introduced this year despite a promise in the Government's Road Safety Strategy that all learner bikers would have to undergo formal, basic training by the end of 2008.