Sinn Féin has been against the involvement of civil servants in mediating or attending some of the government formation negotiations.

The Simon Communities of Ireland have said that though there is a drop in family homelessness for the second month in a row, it is worrying that 2019 came to a close with nearly 10.500 people in emergency accommodation.

For the arts, yesterday’s budget will be spelt out by Culture Minister Josepha Madigan at a press conference. Her enthusiasm for transubstantiation didn’t extend to delivering significant extra funds for the Arts Council, out of a Brexit budget.

Airline travellers were urged to be aware of the risk posed by African Swine Fever (ASF) to the Irish pig industry if meat or meat products from affected animals are brought into the country.

A year ago, Leo Varadkar held all the aces.

The fiscal hawks sounding the warnings must be heeded by the Government, says Kyran Fitzgerald, and public pay and capital expenditure must not be allowed to keep drifting up

Just because something is permitted, doesn’t mean it is right, writes Elaine Loughlin

Irish sheepmeat will be exported to Japan for the first time after talks between government officials from both countries yielded an agreement.

A Department of Education planning application for a three-school campus in a rapidly expanding Co Cork town has been rejected by county council planners because it contained a litany of mistakes.

Not everything will be sunny in the South-East this evening as Cork City and Waterford bid for a much-needed SSE Airtricity League Premier Division victory to lift dark clouds hanging over both clubs.

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).

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris have been forced to deny CervicalCheck officials warned them that offering free smear test re-checks would severely damage the service - accusing critics of being involved in "revisionism".

In film-making, planning foresight is an essential element of the painstaking process between conception and production, writes John Daly.

"I especially think homework is bad for those with special needs, like me, who are really exhausted when they come home in the evenings."

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.

Mary-Lou McDonald has failed to sway rural voters towards her party since becoming Sinn Féin president a new poll has revealed.

A new facility in Cork is set to take the most detailed measurements yet of air pollution, which scientists say is responsible for more than 1,500 premature deaths in Ireland every year.

Few societies that imagine themselves modern, progressive and reliable democracies have paid as high a price as we have for our indifference to proper, well-resourced regulators.

More than half of primary school principals say they are still forced to ask parents for voluntary contributions, and 40% of them are running financial deficits.

Civil servants in the North are to introduce a pay rise for health service workers that was left unimplemented due to the Stormont powersharing crisis.

If the Taoiseach is to lead successful negotiations with the UK as well as our EU partners over Brexit he will need to show greater political maturity than he exhibited during the debacle over former tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald.

Testing week for Varadkar also sees him forced to correct the record of the Dáil amid ‘confusion’

The University of Limerick faces possible sanctions for misleading the Department of Education and others over severance payments to former staff who were then rehired.

The gunman who slaughtered 26 people at a Texas church was able to buy weapons because the US Air Force failed to report his domestic violence conviction to the federal database that is used to conduct background checks on would-be gun purchasers, authorities said.

The first minister to introduce Skype clinics, in a rural coastal constituency, is considering expanding the service. With a demand for constituent clinics quadrupling since Jim Daly became a minister in the Department of Health last June, he began hosting Skype clinics from his Dublin office.

The operation of a €10m fund for college students with disabilities is to be reformed to ensure more people benefit and with fewer delays.

The company that built dozens of schools now under investigation due to fire safety concerns is currently building six more schools for the Department of Education and was given the contracts after the fears emerged.

Latest: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake stunned central Mexico on Tuesday, killing at least 79 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust.

There was singing, fancy dress and plenty of tea and scones today in Rathbarry, west Cork.

Concerns are being raised about the impact ‘Dial A Drink’ services are having in Ireland.

Paschal Donohoe was the big winner in Leo Varadkar’s Cabinet reshuffle having been handed control of both the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure.

Two new sports buildings worth almost €15m were officially opened at the University of Limerick today by Minister of State, Patrick O’Donovan, Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

An €8.2m-a-year office leased by the State is lying idle with no plans to move workers in until the middle of the year.

The first time Garda whistle-blower Sergeant Maurice McCabe’s concerns of serious malpractice and alleged cover-ups in the force gained public attention, former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan retired after a late-night knock on the door, writes Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

The Emergency Department at University Hospital Galway is in crisis today, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

Dozens of people, many of them children, have initiated legal proceedings against the State and GlaxoSmithKline after developing narcolepsy following the swine flu vaccine.

A 700-bed student accommodation project on the country’s newest third-level campus depends on EU approval for a funding system, due to question marks over its effect on government debt.