Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy wants to remain in his position for "as long as" he can.

New data from Tusla shows a rise of more than 6,000 referrals to the Child and Family Agency last year, with a corresponding rise in the number of cases awaiting social worker allocation, including 20% of cases deemed “high priority”.

€58bn was spent on delivering public services last year, up from €51.8bn in 2016.

The Constitution gives no immunity to parliamentary committees who unjustly attack the personal rights of a citizen as was done to former Rehab CEO Angela Kerins, her lawyer has told the Supreme Court.

An Post has told an Oireachtas committee that Eircode usage remains “very low”, with less than 5% of all mail it handles using the €38m postcode — more than two years after it launched.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to campaign for referenda, including for a vote on abortion.

The Government are examining holding up to 10 referenda over the next two years, including multiple votes on the same dates as the presidential and local elections.

There is a complicated justice architecture in Ireland.

Several groups have welcomed the recognition of Traveller’s minority ethnicity status.

John McGuinness has been nominated as chairman of the Finance Committee after being passed over for a position on Fianna Fáil’s front bench. The Kilkenny TD who was not selected as a party spokesman by leader Micheál Martin is now set to chair one of the most high-profile Oireachtas Committees.

Decisions on who chairs Oireachtas Committees as well as who takes the position of Leas Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil are expected to be decided later this week.

Adverserial politics should be replaced by European model of multi-member coalitions and oppositions that contribute to policy, say Muiris MacCarthaigh and Mary C Murphy.

Nama was the €72bn missing elephant of the election campaign, writes Political Editor

How do we restore trust in and credibility to our institutions, asks Gerard Howlin?

There is a perception that the legislative process is disengaged from the people. To address this, and to have better law, many Oireachtas committees frequently invite members of the public, groups, and organisations to have a say early in the development of legislation.

Bankers should be jailed and former politicians should forfeit their pensions, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has suggested.

Your front page article (Oct 26) deserves some context and explanation.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said today that he accepts a lot of pensioners have been left confused as a result of the manner in which Revenue dealt with the demand for back tax from .

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny’s Government was elected with a stronger mandate for reform than any of its predecessors and though no one expected anything much to change overnight the pace of change, or more accurately the lack of it, is becoming dispiriting.

FUTURE budgets are to be opened up to greater scrutiny, but the reforms fall short of Fine Gael’s pre-election plan to force ministers for finance to heed independent advice or tell to the public why it was ignored.

Polls have just opened to elect the ninth President of Ireland, to decide on two constitutional referendums and to elect a TD to Dáil Éireann in Dublin West.

The Justice Minister Alan Shatter has said the two constitutional amendments to be voted on in tomorrow's referendums are about "fairness and accountability".

The final hours of the Presidential campaign will see all seven candidates continue campaigning across the country.

There are growing calls for a no vote in the referendum on giving the Oireachtas powers to conduct inquiries.

GOVERNMENT parties will be able to block or knock down proposals for Oireachtas-led probes.

The Government has today published the wording of a referendum that could see former Taoisigh Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern, as well as former bankers, appear as witnesses in a banking inquiry.

AN inquiry into the alleged sexual assault of patients by former Drogheda surgeon Michael Shine will be conducted, Health Minister James Reilly has said.

KEY players in the banking crisis could be hauled before a televised public inquiry after a report on the issue failed to pin the blame on any bankers or politicians for the “financial mania” that gripped the country.

The former Finance Minister and Fianna Fáil TD Brian Lenihan has said he accepts the criticism of the previous Government, as outlined on the report published today into the banking crisis.

The Government is to hold a referendum to give Oireachtas committees greater powers of investigation.

FOR the first time the Olympic Torch could be carried through the streets of Dublin if negotiations between the London 2012 organising committee and the OCI President, Pat Hickey, reach a successful conclusion.

The Government’s latest piece of animal welfare legislation was comfortably passed in the Dáil today after it was altered to secure the support of the Greyhound industry and pro-hunt lobby.

THE Irish Government vehemently defended Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws and insisted that terminations are easily and readily available where there is a risk to a woman’s life.

Mobile phones and snacking by TDs and Senators will be banned at Oireachtas Committees when they go live on the internet in coming weeks.

People appointed by the Government to State boards must be vetted by the Oireachtas, the Dáil heard today.

As the Dáil resumes after its 11-week summer break today, one TD called for a national conversation to plot a roadmap for the parliament in the 21st Century.

A SENIOR Fianna Fáil TD has warned the Government it would be “foolish” to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon treaty.

The Dáil today voted itself an 11-week summer recess amid rowdy scenes between Government and opposition benches.

TDs and Senators are travelling to Westminster next month to investigate the feasibility of establishing a dedicated Oireachtas TV channel.

A MAMMOTH row has broken out over plans to move the Seanad into the Natural History Museum this summer while the refurbishment of Leinster House takes place.

The Government tonight announced the 17 Coalition TDs who will chair Oireachtas Committees and pick up €1.7m in extra pay over the next five years.

Labour Party TD Eamon Gilmore tonight emerged as the clear favourite to succeed Pat Rabbitte who suddenly resigned as leader.