Fine Gael is considering the scrapping of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER). This move would come about as part of a Cabinet reshuffle in the event of Enda Kenny’s departure as Taoiseach.

The Government is set to fast-track almost €3bn worth of airport, port, Luas, and road capital projects and seek extra EU funding within months in a bid to entice companies to re-locate to Ireland after Brexit.

THE Indecon survey of JobBridge is something of a swan-song, as Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar had indicated last May that the controversial internship scheme would be scrapped and replaced by one ‘more fit for purpose’.

The Cabinet will next week agree a freeze on pay rises of up €12,000 for each minister following a backlash over scheduled salary increases.

More asylum seekers have been deported from Ireland in the first half of this year than the total number deported in 2015, new figures reveal.

The two parties in pole position to form the next government have re-committed to establishing a state investigation into graphic abuse of a woman with severe intellectual disabilities after two months of inaction on the issue.

Enhanced powers for officials to govern the disclosure of interests and other ethical obligations of politicians have been delayed — after first being mooted by the Coalition over three years ago.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin announced a suite of spending increases for health, justice, and education as he insisted the Coalition had made good on its promises to fix the public finances.

The former head of the Department of Finance has said it was made clear to the Government the ECB would “not be happy” if senior bondholders were burnt.

Admissions by Fine Gael’s chief whip that the Government behaved in an “underhand” way over a Seanad nomination has provoked demands for ministers to be more honest.

Having taken the moral high ground by endorsing coalition legislation scrapping severance payments for ex-ministers, there is a bitter twist of irony about former minister Alan Shatter’s compromise of accepting the €70,000 payment and then giving the money away to the Jack and Jill charity.

The former minister Mary O’Rourke is likely to find herself back on the campaign trail after her son, Aengus O’Rourke, was chosen by Fianna Fáil to contest a Dáil seat in next month’s by-election in Longford-Westmeath.

A row has erupted over claims a former member of the judiciary appointed to lead an inquiry into the Garda ombudsman bugging scandal is a “Fine Gael judge”.

The Taoiseach and 19 Ministers will take part in events in 21 countries for St Patrick's Day this year, as part of the "Promote Ireland" programme.

THE Oireachtas health committee meets today to begin three days of public hearings from legal, medical, and religious representatives and groups advocating both anti-abortion and pro-choice views.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has fired a shot across the bows of some of his Fine Gael colleagues in relation to reform of our privacy laws. Fine Gael ministers have been pushing the idea of statutory regulation of the media in recent months.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has apologised for his party’s role in leading Ireland from boom to bust.

THE coalition’s four-year budget plan will fail to convince investors, international markets and taxpayers that Ireland can recover as exact details of planned cuts have been substituted for headline totals which do not provide any real clarity, the opposition claims.

IRISH people should be able to voice their outrage at the IMF-EU bailout deal via a national referendum, an alliance of opposition TDs from left and right demanded.

VOTERS believe a Fine Gael-Labour government would be almost as effective as the present Fianna Fáil/PD coalition.

I AM not sure whether Alan Dukes was in a self-pitying or a self-mocking mood when he addressed the Tallaght Chamber of Commerce last week. I suspect it was the latter.

THE Labour Party likes to spin a tale about how it single-handedly ‘transformed’ the office of the President.

The Tánaiste, Mary Harney, has called on members of the Fine Gael-Labour Government in the mid-1970s to make a statement about the coalition’s handling of the investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.