Exchequer figures just published this evening show three of the four big taxes have performed worse that the department of finance had hoped for. 

Income tax performed exceptionally badly the November returns alone which includes the all important self employed was €300 million short. 

Corporation Tax and Excise duties are also less than the coalition hoped for, but VAT has performed well, delivering €180 million more than hoped for this year. 

Spending pressures also remain, though the overspend in the department of health has been pulled back to €366 million.

Gardai are investigating a shooting in Clontarf in North Dublin this afternoon.

A man in his sixties understood to be a well known convicted criminal was injured in the attack, which happened in the past hour at Furry Park Road. 

He's been taken to Beaumont hospital, details of his condition are not yet known.

A man in his thirties was arested at the scene and he's being questioned at Clontarf Garda Station.

A number of Independent TD's were ruled out of order in the Dail after trying to raise allegations that Gardai had wiped penalty points for influential figures. 

An Assistant Commissioner has already been appointed to examine the claims that 100,000 fixed penalty notices were quashed without justification. 

Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Joan Collins and Luke Ming Flanagan were all ruled out of order by the acting Ceann Comhairle.

Deputy Daly described it as a matter of national interest. 

A Dublin man's been jailed for four months for throwing a homeless man's rabbit into the River Liffey.

20 year old Gary Kearney, with an address at Conyngham Road in Crumlin, pleaded guilty to cruelly torturing or terrifying an animal.

John Byrne, who's lived on the streets for the past 23 years, had to be rescued when he jumped into the river to save his pet rabbit 'Barney' in July last year.

Pope Benedict has notched up half a million twitter followers more than a week before his inaugural tweet is due to appear. 

Counting all the eight languages of the accounts on which papally-approved tweets will appear, the number of followers was more than 500,000.

The numbers still represent only a tiny fraction of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics who follow the pope offline and are far lower than for celebrity singers Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber who each have over 31 million followers.

The pope's first tweet will appear in English on December 12.