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1. Budget 2017: Financial package of €1.3bn to breach important European Union rules, warns watchdog
The Government's decision to increase the budget package led to warnings from the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the independent budget watchdog, that the Government had gone beyond what was prudent and was set to breach key EU rules.
Yesterday's budget measures, including a €5 a week increase in the pension and other welfare payments, a comprehensive childcare package, measures to help first-time house buyers and a modest cut in the universal social charge, will cost the exchequer an extra €1.3 billion – significantly higher than the figures mooted just a month ago. In all, less than a third of available money has gone in tax cuts.
2. Donald Trump's groping boast should offend 'any decent human being'– Obama
Barack Obama assailed Republican nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday over remarks about groping women, also criticising Republicans who continued to support the candidate.
"You don't have to be a husband or a father to hear what we heard just a few days ago and say that's not right," the president said in Greensboro, North Carolina, in his first public remarks since the release of a 2005 tape showing Mr Trump bragging about groping and kissing women without their consent.
3. Fianna Fáil claims credit for increased public spending
Fianna Fáil forced the Government to accept a greater emphasis on public spending over and above what was contained in the deal struck with Fine Gael to facilitate a minority administration, Micheál Martin told his TDs and Senators last night.
The aftermath of yesterday's budget also saw others involved in drafting the €1.3 billion package rush to take credit for it, with Minister for Transport Shane Ross saying the imprint of the Independent Alliance was all over it.
4. Nóirín O'Sullivan to defend Garda attitude to whistleblowers
Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan will today defend the force's attitude to whistleblowers, insisting the force protects and supports them.
Ms O'Sullivan will appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Justice just days after a senior judge was appointed to investigate allegations of intimidation and harassment.
The commissioner will tell TDs she welcomes internal and external dissent and will say the force has learned from its mistakes.
5. Nama blocked Project Eagle valuations, say property sources
Nama blocked potential bidders for its Northern Ireland loans from hiring local agencies to value the properties against which the debts were secured ahead of their controversial sale to US company Cerberus.
It has emerged that potential buyers were told they could not hire local property professionals to value either the assets against which the Project Eagle loans were secured, or the debts themselves, in the run-up to the sale in April 2014.
And finally: Miriam Lord: Many hands make light work of Grope Budget
Covered in more paw prints than a Donald Trump tootsie, the lads spent all day and all night boasting about how much their hands were all over Budget 2017, writes Miriam Lord.