After a long and anxious wait, Mr Harris, along with Fianna Fáil health spokesman Stephen Donnelly and Green Party councillor Steven Matthews, took the final three seats in Wicklow in the 15th count.

Ms Harkin announced this morning that she will contest next month's General Election in the Sligo/Leitrim constituency as an Independent.

The new National Children's Hospital is set to cost at least €1.7bn and is due to open in 2023.

Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have been scathing in their criticism of the Oireachtas printing scandal which will now cost the tax-payer €1.8m.

The purchase and installation a new printer in Leinster House has cost €1.8m, a report reveals.

Fianna Fáil has called on Shane Ross to enforce current road traffic laws to save lives before coming up with more rules and regulations.

In a memo to be brought to Government today Mr Ross will seek to impose higher sanctions for those travelling at higher speeds.

The Dail's Spending watchdog has blasted the Department of Finance's use of GDPR rules not to publish payments to lawyers acting on its behalf in the €14bn Apple appeal.

A member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called on the Taoiseach and the Government to appraise themselves of what is being spent on the new children’s hospital rather than “just showing up in a hard hat for a photo op”.

A “colossal” spike in the number of imported cars from the UK has been recorded because of Brexit, new official figures reveal.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said that extending a tax relief scheme for sports people to GAA players “would raise a number of issues and challenges”.

Donal Conway has been re-elected as President of the Football Association of Ireland at its AGM in Co. Meath.

Irish Rail has received several complaints of harassment and abuse towards passengers on the Dublin-Westport railway line.

An Garda Síochána has said there were 91 findings of "neglect of duty" against gardaí last year.

A proposal by the former governor of the Central Bank to return bankers' bonuses has been slammed.

The Dáil's public accounts committee has agreed to take the step after discussions between it, Cork Institute of Technology, the University of Limerick and Waterford Institute of Technology.

The developers of the National Children’s Hospital have submitted claims for additional costs worth some €12m since February.

The HSE has been accused of making “eejits” out of members of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), after it sought to convince them that there was no conflict of interest in the role of consultancy firm, PwC, carrying out a review into the huge cost overruns at the National Children’s Hospital.

The senior civil servant on the board of the National Children's Hospital has told the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee that he did nothing wrong by not telling cabinet ministers about the cost overruns associated with the project.

The Public Accounts Committee is seeking "immediate clarity" in any possible conflict of interest over professional services firm PwC which not only advised health chiefs on the children's hospital but also completed a review of the project.

An internal Public Accounts Committee row over questions to justice chiefs about alleged theft by prison staff in jails is to be referred to a Dáil dispute body.

Claims that prison officers are stealing materials to sell on the internet and using other prison items to renovate their homes are being sent to the Garda Commissioner by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

More than 600 children under the age of four are living in Ireland's asylum seeker system.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has labelled the Government’s mishandling of the children’s hospital costs crisis as a “debacle” amid fears it is causing the coalition’s public support to crumble.

The impact on tens of thousands of patients of escalating unrest in the health service continues today with members of the public asked not to use out of hours GP services as hundreds of family doctors gather in Dublin for a protest.

The question must be asked of Fianna Fáil how, after 61 years in charge of the health service, they did not leave us a single-tier public health care, writes Victoria White

The question must be asked of Fianna Fáil how, after 61 years in charge of the health service, they did not leave us a single-tier public health care, writes Victoria White

Update 9.30am The cost of Michael D Higgins’ presidential term is set to be examined by an Oireachtas committee next week - despite being warned doing so may be "unconstitutional".

The cost of Michael D Higgins’ presidential term is set to be examined by an Oireachtas committee next week despite fears that the investigation will damage the integrity of the presidential election.

The State Claims Agency is set to be grilled today over the growing scale of the cervical cancer crisis amid revelations the Government has imposed a cut-off point for affected women to be compensated.

A number of Fianna Fáil frontbench TDs have backed calls for the party to enforce a whip on the party in support of the pending abortion legislation.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is to have individual meetings with TDs and senators who campaigned against repealing the Eighth Amendment in a bid to gain their support to legislate for abortion.

One of the US laboratories involved in the cervical cancer smear tests scandal threatened to take legal action against health service officials if they told doctors about what happened.

Brendan Howlin, who was public expenditure minister when Tony O’Brien was appointed head of the HSE, has defended his departure package.

Outgoing HSE director general Tony O’Brien will have the full terms of his contract honoured, despite leaving his post early.

Emma Mhic Mhathúna’s story started off a day during which the HSE boss made jaw-dropping revelations, writes Political Editor Daniel McConnell.

Opposition TDs have complained they are being treated “like bold school children outside the principal’s office” in having to queue to get speaking rights in the Dáil.

A Government department has been accused of “the most appalling waste of public funds” after it was criticised for ploughing more than €8m into an arts cinema paying rent of just €1 a year for the next 25 years.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. All 32 of you.

TDs are demanding that a detailed cost review of the Limerick Tunnel transport development is immediately published after officials admit the full cost may exceed €200m.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar could be hauled before a powerful Dáil committee to answer questions over the Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) controversy as soon as next week under plans to be finalised this morning.

Likening anything short of racist mass murder to racist mass murder is offensive and stupid, writes Terry Prone

Some TDs are renting out at least five properties, others are letting holiday homes in sunny tourist destinations or in plush southside Dublin addresses, and dozens more have shares with financial firms at the centre of the decade-long financial crisis.

The controversial €23m sale of Harold’s Cross greyhound stadium that would wipe out the Irish Greyhound Board’s debts may take another six months to be finalised.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s controversial ‘welfare cheats cheat us all’ campaign was a mistake, the new head of the Department of Social Protection has said.

The Government’s “welfare cheats cheat us all” campaign ignored the fact the majority of its claimed 2% welfare fraud rate was due to Department of Social Protection errors and not those of recipients.