Dublin - Banks participating in the Irish government's deposit guarantee plan will contribute a total of 1 billion euros (1.34 billion dollars) to make the scheme work, according to national broadcaster RTE.

The state, which announced specifics of the plan on Wednesday, will raise the money over two years, RTE reported.

Any bank that made use of the guarantee would also be expected to eventually repay the government.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said the move will take the Irish government deep into the banking system, RTE reported.

The original plan called for 440 billion euros in deposit guarantees at the six Irish-owned banks.

Dublin - Irish President Mary McAleese issued a statement Wednesday to say she had told the government "of her intention to surrender 10 per cent of her salary in light of the current national budgetary situation."

Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan announced Tuesday 2 billion euros (2.7 billion dollars) of savings in what he said was "a call to patriotic action," including a 10-per-cent pay cut for government ministers and top civil servants.

Dublin - In the first budget since Ireland's economic crash, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is set to announce Tuesday 2 billion euros (2.7 billion dollars) in cuts aimed at tackling the "most difficult conditions in living memory."

Disappearance of state agencies, tax increases, child benefit cuts and increases in hospital charges are just some of the scares in store in a budget being compared to early Halloween in Ireland.

Dublin - Ireland's Financial Regulator has fined the Irish Nationwide building society 50,000 euros (67,950 dollars) following the circulation of an e-mail soliciting new deposits based on Ireland's bank guarantee, a statement said Tuesday.

The Financial Regulator said it had "reasonable cause to suspect that Irish Nationwide breached a regulatory requirement in relation to General Principle 1, Chapter 1 of the Financial Regulator's Consumer Protection Code," the statement added.

Dublin - The Irish economy is to contract more than previously thought in 2008, according to the latest quarterly report released on Tuesday by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), a Dublin-based think tank.

The ESRI revised downward its estimate that Ireland's gross national product (GNP) would contract by 0.4 per cent in 2008, saying that it now predicted a 1.3-per-cent fall.

A country's GNP is its economic output without the contribution made by multinational companies.

Ireland's GNP would fall by 0.7 per cent in 2009, the ESRI said.

Dublin - The Central Bank in Dublin forecast Friday that Ireland's economy would contract by 0.8 per cent this year and that the recession would "persist" in 2009.

"After more than a decade of very strong growth, the Irish economy has entered a difficult period of slowdown and adjustment," the bank said in a statement.

Ireland's gross domestic product grew by 6 per cent in 2007.