Hard truths were spelled out on Thursday night as Alan Kelly and Aodhán Ó Ríordáin battle to become Labour leader.

Both candidates in the Labour leadership contest have said the party has "lost the trust" of voters and "failed to present clear and coherent solutions" to the issues that most affect Irish society.

Labour must ‘address the real issues in people’s lives’

In a move that was not unexpected, Mr Howlin said that he would be instigating a leadership contest with immediate effect.

Seán Ó Ríordáin's diaries give an insight into the poet's isolation and illness, as well as politics, literature, and the social stigma of living with TB, writes Pet O'Connell.

There has been a 56% increase in the amount of cannabis seized by Revenue this year.

Plans for three major housing developments in Dublin have been lodged with An Bord Pleanála.

Labour senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has apologised to his Labour colleagues for suggesting Brendan Howlin and Joan Burton need to make way for “generational renewal” within the party.

The HSE has apologised for a letter that was sent to GPs telling them mental health services in parts of North Dublin were being suspended.

Property developers are planning over 4,000 apartments in Dublin under new fast-track planning rules.

Labour Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is mounting a legal challenge to planning permission for apartments in Howth.

The Dáil will be asked to support a referendum furthering the separation of church and state in the autumn after a public petition to remove religious influences in our schools.

Labour have called for all books for school children to be made free and for contributions demanded of parents to be banned.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has described the US decision to quit the UN Human Rights Council as a “mistake”.

Labour senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has apologised for a tweet about the Ulster rape trial.

The Belfast rape trial ended last week. The past few weeks saw the mix seethe, as preoccupations intersected in Belfast’s Court No. 12: crime, celebrity, sex, power, class, sport. All of it.

Ulster and Ireland rugby player Paddy Jackson’s plans to sue Labour senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has spurred a public backlash, with hundreds of people tweeting under the hashtag #suemepaddy.

Parents of the youngest primary pupils will become open to prosecution if they are regularly absent from school under a Labour Party bill being supported by the Government.

Sinn Féin has serious issues to deal with in their party, according to a Labour Senator.

The Office of the Attorney General yesterday backed Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald’s decision to take no action when she was told of the Garda legal team’s alleged strategy to discredit Maurice McCabe in May 2015.

The parents of the majority of pupils in infant classes could finally become liable for prosecution over non-attendance if a Labour Party bill becomes law.

There are concerns that new US immigration laws will make it more difficult for undocumented Irish to secure visas.

Hundreds of Irish Americans opposed to Ireland’s burgeoning relationship with US president Donald Trump held a mass cultural protest last night against his “patently xenophobic policies”.

Fine Gael and Labour have held tentative talks on a voting pact for the Seanad elections.

One Labour Minister has a star supporter who has been helping him score a few goals against the opposition this morning.

A potential leadership rival slapped down publicly as an “obedient employee”, claims the recovery is the party’s not the people’s, a baby narrowly avoiding a politicians’ puckered lips, and a vase broken in the very first shop entered marked Labour’s first day on the campaign trail.

There has been a “dramatic rise” in the number of families traumatised by the loss of a loved one from drug use, a support group has said.

A woman sent obscene phone messages to Áras an Uachtaráin threatening to bomb President Michael D Higgins if he visited England, a court has heard.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the junior justice minister, has spoken of the need to regulate social media users and the harsh reality of receiving “nasty” messages and emails.

A drug injection centre must be set up in Cork and users be allowed to bring drugs to the facility in a bid to stem the tide of addiction in the city, says a Sinn Féin TD.

A Labour minister has said the issue of a referendum on retaining Irish Water in public ownership should be assessed during the lifetime of the next government.

Drugs Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Health Minister Leo Varadkar will bring plans for supervised drug injection centres to the Government before Christmas in a bid to tackle the addiction crisis.

THE proposal by junior minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin to decriminalise drug use, up to and including heroin use, may run counterintuitive to most people’s sensibilities.

Equality Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has criticised people protesting against emergency accommodation for Traveller families caught up in the Carrickmines blaze, saying their views “remind me of Alabama in the 1950s”.

The ban on gay men giving blood should be lifted, Equality Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has said.

Addicts should be legally allowed to bring their own heroin to State-sanctioned injection centres, drugs minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has indicated.

Phil Hogan’s handling of Irish Water has been strongly criticised by a Labour minister who attacked the former Fine Gael minister for “threatening people” over the charges.

Dubbed the Minister for Hugs and Drugs, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin’s radical ideas regarding heroin and cocaine will not get a warm embrace from everyone.

The Government has been urged to implement long-awaited plans to combat the illicit trade in prescription sedatives, as figures show seizures of the tablets have more that doubled.

Dating app Tinder may be a strange place to find the face of Drugs Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, but one user decided he’d have a better chance of scoring with the opposite sex if he used a picture of the Labour TD.

Ireland’s drugs problem is terrifying, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the junior minister with responsibility for the drugs strategy, has admitted.

Failure to invest in critical regional infrastructure could jeopardise economic growth in the south of the country and limit business development, according to Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly.

Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is an avid GAA fan. He is also the Minister of State for Equality among other titles.

The Oireachtas Justice Committee will highlight the Portuguese drug decriminalisation model in an upcoming report to the Department of Justice.

Drug consumption rooms can play a role in reducing overdoses and encouraging hard-core addicts into treatment, according to the EU drugs agency.

Senior gardai have privately told drugs minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin they face an “impossible situation” battling open drug use on the streets and that current approaches “aren’t working”.

About 600 heroin users are to be given a life-saving antidote in cases of overdoses, under a HSE project aimed at reducing drug deaths.

The Ombudsman and Children’s Ombudsman have welcomed recommendations that they both be allowed to investigate complaints by asylum seekers living in direct provision centres.

Heroin addicts should be allowed to legally inject their drug in a medically supervised setting, drugs minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has said.

New drugs minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said Ireland needed to “think differently” about how it approached the problem — and people with an addiction should be dealt with by the health service, rather than the criminal justice system.