The Government has exceeded its annual spending target by an average €5.1 billion in each of the last three budgets, new figures from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council indicate. While part of the overspend was due to unforeseen factors like inflation, the budgetary watchdog said a significant portion stemmed from “bad planning” and “poor expenditure management”. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.Staying with the budget, Ireland must “rethink” its tax strategy in this year’s budget and take “decisive action” with measures to strengthen competitiveness, KPMG has said. As Colin Gleeson reports, the professional services firm, in its pre-budget submission to Minister for Finance Simon Harris, has urged the Government to increase the entry point to the marginal income tax rate, alongside a suite of other measures.There are many reasons for why turmoil is gripping the UK government at present, but a big part of the reason is the basic lack of fiscal room Keir Starmer’s team have to loosen the pursestrings and splash some cash. Eoin breaks down the issue in his column. Fintech company Payoneer paid about $13 million (€11.2 million) for Irish employment platform Boundless, filings now reveal. Ciara O’Brien reports.Colin also reports that Ireland climbed two places to 15th in Europe last year in terms of attractiveness for foreign direct investment (FDI), according to a new study by EY.Irish consumer confidence has risen moderately after falling to its lowest level in four years in April, according to an Irish League of Credit Unions survey. Conor Healy has the story. IBM is still one of the biggest and most influential technology firms. What makes a company like that, that employs 3,000 people in Ireland, tick? Ciara O’Brien interviews its global chief financial officer James Kavanaugh.The surge in demand for weight loss drugs shows few, if any, signs of slowing down. Eli Lilly’s manufacturing plant in Kinsale is at the centre of this revolution. It makes the active ingredient for its blockbusting Mounjaro drug among others there. Eoin takes you behind the scenes at the plant. A plan being driven by Europe’s largest economies would see powers to oversee financial markets centralised at EU rather than national level, a proposed shift that would cause serious concern to Ireland and Luxembourg. Jack Power reports. Facebook parent Meta has lost its challenge over a possible fine of up to €430 million, and possible orders affecting its general data access practices, following an inquiry into a single complaint relating to personal data processing. Mary Carolan reports. If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.