Joan Burton’s bid for the Labour Party leadership is expected to be challenged by Junior Health Minister Alex White, in a move which will divide party members following a bruising set of elections last week.

Joan Burton’s bid for the Labour leadership edged closer last night after her party colleague Brendan Howlin ruled himself out of running for the position.

In the 1980s when Labour was having another of its bruising internal upheavals, then leader Frank Cluskey noticed Michael D Higgins was absent. On hearing the TD had gone on an emergency mission to Nicaragua, Cluskey is reported to have said Higgins was taking the easy option of "saving the world over saving the Labour party".

THE big question facing the Labour Party is when to stop telling lies. When to come out and tell the people that we are a small capitalist economy plugged into the international capitalist economy which gives us a high standard of living but sometimes forces us to keep commitments to international agencies, such as the EU, with whom we sometimes disagree.

"The senior people get the senior positions. It’s the nature of politics," Labour’s chief whip, Emmet Stagg, mused on RTÉ radio the night of his party leader’s resignation. "The younger generation have to serve their time."