Environment Minister Alan Kelly is denying that party members are shaken after Deputy Anne Ferris lost the whip yesterday.

Clare Daly's amendment on abortion in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities has been defeated in the Dáíl this afternoon.

A Fine Gael TD has indicated that concerns were expressed at their parliamentary party meeting yesterday about the sale of Aer Lingus.

The Parliamentary Labour Party will gather for a two-day think-in today for the first time under the leadership of Joan Burton.

The Cabinet reshuffle is, for the most part, just that - a reshuffle. But amid the familiar faces moved from one portfolio to another, a handful of politicians have made fresh space at the Cabinet table.

A window of opportunity has opened. Responding to the clear, brutal message sent by the voters to the Government, but particularly to Labour, Eamon Gilmore has acted with honour and pragmatism.

Former junior minister Willie Penrose has applied to rejoin the Labour Parliamentary Party, 23 months after he resigned the whip over the closure of Mullingar barracks.

Former presidents, ministers, and judicial office holders cost the taxpayer €15.6m in pension and severance payments last year, according to figures released yesterday.

After a long balmy summer on the beach, TDs finally got back to the business of running the country yesterday and in case they had forgotten what it’s all about they were greeted by the familiar voices of protest against austerity on the streets outside Dáil Éireann. Nothing had changed.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has left the door open to switching to a more frontline economic role in the Cabinet reshuffle signalled by the Taoiseach.

WHEN the then Fianna Fáil finance minister Seán McEntee announced in 1938 he was introducing an allowance for the leader of the opposition, he caused uproar in his party.

Labour MEP Nessa Childers has written to Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore confirming her resignation from the party.

Labour party chairman Colm Keaveney claims Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s cuts to resource teaching for disabled children betray party values and should be reversed.

The proposed ‘public execution’ of Seanad Éireann sums all that is wrong with this Government.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has her support and that of the parliamentary party.

Nessa Childers has resigned from the Labour Parliamentary Party.

Former Labour Junior Health Minister, Roisín Shortall, has said she is not ruling out becoming part of a new political party in future.

Justice for Magdalenes have questioned how the Government can pass legislation to liquidate a bank in a matter of hours but need yet more time to issue an apology to Magdalene survivors.

Colm Keaveney, essentially a member of the opposition, chaired a meeting of the Labour parliamentary party at the weekend. Michael Clifford reports

Junior Minister Brian Hayes has indicated this afternoon that the Government is exploring policy for means testing child benefit.

Rebel TD Colm Keaveney is resisting pressure to resign as chairman of the Labour Party despite being expelled from the parliamentary party on Thursday.

Rebel Labour TD Colm Keaveney is expected to be removed as party chair over fears he will use his position to create further disunity and undermine the leader, Eamon Gilmore.

The Social Protection Minister said that although it is very sad that the Labour Party lost one of its members today - the coalition made the right decision to implement cuts to child benefit and the respite grant in the budget.

The Tánaiste and the Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore has issued a statement this evening thanking all of the Labour TDs who he says had the "courage" to vote with the Government today and help implement the social welfare bill.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said today that he would "neither confirm nor deny" reports that he suggested James Reilly was not fit to be Health Minister.

A senior Labour minister says her party stands on the principle that people who can afford to pay more taxes should do so.

Embattled Health Minister Dr James Reilly was today facing fresh demands to resign following revelations he is an associate of the owner of a site controversially chosen for a new primary care centre.

The incoming junior health minister said he has no reason to believe his new boss James Reilly acted improperly over the allocation of primary care centres.

YOU might forgive Eamon Gilmore if he didn’t want to fly home from New York.

Labour TDs and senators expressed stinging criticisms of Fine Gael Environment Minister Phil Hogan in a private meeting in Leinster House yesterday.

Changes to abortion laws will be debated in the Dáil in April, as independent and small party TDs introduce a motion this week calling for legislation to give effect to the X-case judgment.

The Labour Party has not been successful in "getting the message across" since it entered Government, Junior Health Minister Roisin Shortall said today.

Newly-appointed super junior minister Jan O’Sullivan has pledged to have her voice heard in Cabinet despite not having the right to vote.

TÁNAISTE Eamon Gilmore has claimed he does not expect to lose any more TDs following next week’s budget even as another Labour backbencher fired a shot across the party’s bows.

Tommy Broughan has been a thorn in the leadership’s side for some time and few in Labour will lament his loss, writes Political Editor, Paul O’Brien

THE Government has lost a third TD after Labour’s Tommy Broughan voted against a coalition proposal to extend the bank guarantee scheme.

OUTRAGED Labour TDs have pledged “blood on the walls” if the Coalition Government tries to push through cuts in child benefit and welfare rates.

The Labour Parliamentary Party holds its first major review of being in Government at a gathering in Carlow today and tomorrow.

IN recent days I have been trying to contact members of the Labour parliamentary party to get their views on the forthcoming introduction of a levy for all private pension funds and I am still waiting for a reply.

THE sun has been so hot in Wexford for the past two months that it sizzled the beard off Brendan Howlin’s chin.

Labour Party leader Ruairi Quinn is expected to announce his front-bench team later today.

The Labour Party is meeting today to discuss its strategy for the new Dáil.