A senior Government minister has claimed the expected €600m cost to run Irish Water every year will not lead to a hike in charges after 2018 because the economic upturn will ensure that more businesses will open to pay the bill.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar will push Fine Gael to campaign at the next general election on a platform of loosening Ireland’s strict termination laws.

Families with an income of more than €100,000 are not wealthy, but are "struggling" to make ends meet, according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who has ruled out further tax hikes.

Three High Court judges will today begin hearing a challenge to the Government's issuing of promissory notes.

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins has said that he cannot accept that TDs in Dublin should not campaign on national issues.

The Government would appear to have two choices — continue to pay public service increments of €180m or look for some other way of completing the €3.5bn in savings sought through the Croke Park deal.

The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has suggested that the political upheaval in Greece is "a cause of arousal" for a leading member of the no side in the Fiscal Treaty referendum campaign.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has accused the anti-treaty side of peddling “lunatic economics” as the referendum campaign intensified.

SUB-PRIME lenders are not interested in restructuring mortgage repayments with customers as they are planning to exit the Irish market, it has been claimed.