Dublin - Networking website Facebook plans to set up its international headquarters in the Irish capital Dublin, Deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan said in a statement Thursday.

The Dublin headquarters was expected to offer technical and sales support to users and customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the statement said, without giving details of the amount to be invested.

Some 70 positions were expected to be created in Dublin, a spokeswoman for the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Dublin - Ireland's Central Bank said Tuesday that mortgage- lending had reached its lowest level in 21 years in August.

Lending for residential mortgages was up just 9 per cent compared to August 2007, which is the lowest growth rate since
1987.

The increase in August was less than half the increase in July, according to the Central Bank, which described the figure as "exceptionally low."

The Irish government has donated more than 1.5 million dollars to Irish immigration organizations in the United States, a statement from Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Sunday.

The total of 1,518,500 dollars would go to 16 organizations "which provide frontline support and advisory services to Irish emigrants."

Dublin has so far provided over 3.1 million dollars to immigration groups this year as up to an estimated 50,000 Irish citizens living and working in the US face possible deportation for not having visas.

Dublin has been pressuring Washington to grant the so-called undocumented Irish legal status.

Dublin- A report in Thursday's Irish Times revealed more about the funding for the main lobby group that successfully campaigned for a "No" vote in Ireland's June referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

The founder of Libertas, Declan Ganley, told Ireland's Hot Press he had given the campaign a "personal loan" of 200,000 euros (300,000 dollars), the Irish Times report said.

Ganley said he had also set up a loan facility at the start of the campaign in case it needed more money. The campaign spent 800,000 euros, he said, out of a budget of 1.3 million.

Dublin  - Ireland's economy - which enjoyed an unprecedented boom in the last decade - is in recession after the gross domestic product fell for the second successive quarter, figures released from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Dublin showed Thursday.

GDP fell by 0.8 per cent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same quarter of 2007 after falling by 1.3 per cent in the first quarter compared to the first three months of 2007.

GDP fell by 1 per cent overall in the first six months of the year compared to last year.

Gross national product, which excludes earnings from multinational companies, fell by as much as 2.1 per cent in the second quarter after growing by 0.9 per cent in the first quarter.

Cork, Ireland - The back-to-school period is a trying time for parents worldwide and as Ireland grapples with recession and rising unemployment, the concept of "free education" flies in the face of tight household budgets.

The daunting prospect of having to buy yet another school uniform for growing offspring, the soaring costs of school books, clothes and class equipment is dampening spirits as well.

A mother of two, Fiona Dobbin, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa: "I have spent around 800 euros (1,180 dollars) so far on fitting out my children, aged 10 and six, for the next school year."