The High Court has reserved judgement on whether a Harvard professor of constitutional law should give evidence in a case taken by Denis O'Brien.

Businessman Denis O'Brien says that he respects Dáil privilege, as long as it is not exploited in order to damage someone else's reputation.

IT is hard to think of another issue that was so very quickly brought before an Oireachtas committee as last Wednesday’s anti-water-charge protests at Leinster House that involved delays for some politicians leaving or entering the Houses of the Oireachtas.

A row has broken out between a Fianna Fáil senator and the Ceann Comhairle over the supply of an interpreter to a group of deaf people, due to travel to the Oireachtas for a debate on cuts to services.

EFFORTS to improve sartorial standards in the Dáil have been described by an Independent TD as “ridiculous”, “outrageous” and proof of the disconnect between the parliament and the public.

WHEN it emerged that thousands of calls had been placed from within Leinster House to vote for Michael Healy-Rae in a 2007 reality TV programme, the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil was blunt in his assessment.

THE decision by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae to pay the cost of the premium-rate phone calls which were made in Leinster House in support of Mr Healy- Rae’s appearance on Celebrities Go Wild, is to be welcomed. However, it should not be an end to the issue.

GREEN TD Paul Gogarty won’t face further sanction over his foul-mouthed outburst in the Dáil – thanks to the precedent set following a “fracas” between TDs in 1947.