On paper, the planned centre-left party has a good-looking lineout that’s far stronger than Lucinda Creighton’s Renua, writes Gerard Howlin.

Something suspicious is happening. Very suspicious, says Larry Ryan.

IF MICHEÁL MARTIN isn’t Tánaiste after the next election he’ll be toast. If Labour can’t deliver sufficient numbers to form a government with Fine Gael, the prospect of a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition will come into view.

Mobile phones are the most commonly used telecommunications service in Ireland with almost every adult in the country (97%) possessing one.

More than a third of the electorate supports the Government’s decision to legislate for abortion — in certain circumstances.

One in four workers are not paying money into pension schemes, not because they can’t afford it, but because they are afraid that they will lose their investment.

Only a quarter of parents with dependent children would opt to send them to a Church-run primary school, a poll has found.

Only a quarter of parents with children would opt to send them to a Church-run primary school.

A MAJOR plan to help identify training and alternative careers for redundant Talk Talk workers is under way at Waterford Institute of Technology.

LONG-SERVING Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen has given a public endorsement to just one of the two candidates in the Cork North Central constituency where he is bowing out of politics.

THE economy and jobs are by far the biggest issues influencing how voters in Cork North Central will cast their ballot, but candidates’ work on local issues is the single biggest factor in who they will choose to give their first preference.

THE transfers of the wealth of left-leaning candidates looks key to deciding the destination of the fourth and final seat in Cork North Central.

JOBS and the economy are the number one concern for seven out of 10 Cork South Central voters — with nearly six out of 10 describing them as the number one issue.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin launched his party's plan to promote jobs in the agri-food sector.

THE “wow” that greeted the news of Fianna Fáil being beaten into third place by Labour in the Sunday Business Post’s RedC poll was an odd “wow”.

The private Irish business sector is not running scared of current market conditions, according to a survey of the attitudes and concerns of 250 owner managers of private and family-owned Irish companies.

GOVERNMENT plans to encourage more drivers to get behind the wheels of low-polluting cars were given a boost yesterday with a survey showing motorists backing the changes.

THE only female election candidate in Wexford has called the editor of a local newspaper a “chauvinistic pig” on a radio station because of an article she claims is sexist.

There is good news this evening for Fianna Fáil as the latest Sunday Business Post opinion poll, to be published tomorrow, shows support for the party is up by 3%.

EYEBROWS are sure to be raised at the surprising results of today’s Irish Examiner-redC opinion poll on cosmetic surgery.

CHILDREN making their First Holy Communion are collecting up to €1,000 from friends and relatives — almost treble the amount made in the 1990s, research has revealed.