THE Progressive Democrats became the latest political party to unveil an ambitious plan for Dublin.

Candidates for the forthcoming general election must officially declare themselves by noon today.

ENDA KENNY is very keen to wash his hands of the incumbent’s handling of the health system.

THE Progressive Democrats’ health billboard campaign launch yesterday was hijacked by an angry parent who criticised the lack of services for his four-year-old son’s rare condition.

The Tánaiste must explain what he knows about the Moriarty Tribunal’s unpublished findings, Fine Gael Enda Kenny said today.

THEY say a politician in trouble ploughs a lonely furrow but the Taoiseach was never one to cultivate proverbs.

TÁNAISTE Michael McDowell finally broke his silence on Bertie Ahern’s payment crisis last night with near unequivocal support of the Taoiseach’s position.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today insisted reports of a rift in the coalition Government over the Progressive Democrats’ proposed stamp duty reforms were ridiculous.

Taking people out of the tax net and improving public infrastructure will be Progressive Democrats’ future priorities in Government, it was claimed today.

PAUL KINSELLA (Irish Examiner letters, August 15) inaccurately reflects the Progressive Democrats’ attitude to public transport with his incorrect reference to what he claims is Mary Harney’s “ideological block” on new buses.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell’s political party is to be picketed by a group claiming there is rampant corruption in the legal profession.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell tonight accused Green Party supporters of being involved in vandalising his Progressive Democrats party offices during the Love Ulster riots last month.

The Progressive Democrats are trying to topple the Good Friday Agreement, it was claimed today.

A NEW airport terminal ahead of schedule and on budget. An airport operator that welcomed 6% more passengers last year, with revenues up 7% and operating profits up 9%.

TRANSPORT Minister Martin Cullen has rubbished the Progressive Democrats’ preferred option for the development of a second terminal at Dublin Airport, laying bare the depth of the division between the Government partners on the issue.

A voting pact between the Government parties has not been ruled out in next month’s by-elections, it emerged today.

THE Northern peace process is in the grips of a “very deep sense of crisis”, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams warned yesterday.

TO put Brian Cowen’s first budget in context, millionaires like U2 will continue to pay no tax. Neither will horse breeders.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will have to demonstrate the strength of his newfound ideological beliefs today as the Government crucially sets out its spending priorities for the second half of its tenure in power.

“AS in crime, so in planning: make the law, enforce the law.”

MEET Patricia O’Neill — the PDs’ secret weapon in the election campaign.

A Progressive Democrat TD tonight said she had hit a raw nerve with republicans after she dressed up a mannequin in pro-IRA merchandise sold in a Sinn Féin shop.

Tánaiste Mary Harney was at the centre of a political storm last night when the country’s largest trade union boycotted pay talks with Government because of forthright comments she made about public transport reforms at the weekend.

EDUCATION Minister Noel Dempsey and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday dramatically caved in to the Progressive Democrats’ demands that college fees would not return.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said today he believed the IRA could have misunderstood the true intention of the parties caught up in the peace process.

IRISH public support for US foreign policy has dropped sharply since the days after the September 11 attacks, an opinion poll shows.

SHANNON and Cork airports will be made independent of Dublin next month in a radical shake-up of the industry.

The Progressive Democrats’ newly elected TDs are due to meet in Leinster House later today to discuss how it should proceed in talks on forming a new Government with Fianna Fail.

As day three of the election campaigns begins, politicians are expected out in the constituencies.

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy has praised the Progressive Democrats’ election manifesto, saying its economic proposals were sensible and prudent.

The opposition is this morning expected to launch a tirade of criticism against the Progressive Democrats’ election manifesto, which was published in Dublin yesterday.

Gerry Adams is the second most popular political leader among voters in Ireland, according to a new opinion poll out tonight.