The Coalition has been urged to address Ireland’s spiraling rent prices as part of any measures to tackle homelessness, after claims the issue has helped force thousands of people into emergency accommodation or onto the streets.

IT IS very possible that in the next general election, whether it is in 2015 or 2016, the Irish people will vote for the most dramatic transformation in politics since the foundation of the State, writes Rory Hearne

A prominent member of the Dáil Technical Group has criticised Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett, saying he had switched position three times on the issue of speaking rights in the Dáil.

The Dáil has been suspended for the day, amid a major row between the Technical Group and the Ceann Comhairle.

Sinn Féin has argued that the tax cuts announced in the budget are "pathetically inadequate" in comparison to the crippling water charges that struggling families now have to face.

The appointment to a State board of a little known Donegal politician who failed to be elected in the local elections has creative cronyism written all over it, writes Political Editor Mary Regan

The Dáil's Technical Group is to write to the Ceann Comhairle asking him not to allow four ex-Fine Gael TDs to join it.

Lucinda Creighton says joining the Dail's technical group is an 'exciting prospect'.

More than €23m has been handed over to the Government during the tax amnesty for second homes.

Radical reforms on reducing pay and pensions for politicians, term limits for ministers, and limiting Government powers have been proposed by a group of Independent TDs and senators.

The TDs who were expelled from Fine Gael for voting against the abortion bill have again denied that they are planning to set up a new party.

A member of the 'Reform Alliance' of former Fine Gael TDs has denied the group is about to become a political party.

The Coalition has been accused of deliberately creating a "rat-race" among young people looking to buy a home in order to "drive up the fortunes of the construction sector".

As Fine Gael, Labour, and Fianna Fáil, have discovered, the Irish electorate is not loyal, writes Gary Murphy.

Lucinda Creighton says she will not be renewing her Fine Gael membership this week.

AND they said irony was dead? After casually waving goodbye to 10 economic emigrants an hour, Enda Kenny’s great reward may be a job overseas for himself.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has admitted to coalition tensions ahead of the crunch Euro and local elections in May.

Talk is cheap was Leo Varadkar’s dismissive reaction to Lucinda Creighton and the Reform Alliance’s recent meeting in the RDS.

Patient Focus is calling for an independent inquiry into the deaths of four newborn babies at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

Reform Alliance leader Lucinda Creighton has attacked her former ministerial colleague, Phil Hogan, and accused the Fine Gael minister of “abusing” taxpayers’ money.

If exasperated headmaster Enda Kenny thought expelling Blueshirt bad girl Lucinda Creighton to reform school was going to make her change her ways, he was very much mistaken.

A common thread running through the litany of institutional failures at the CRC, Irish Water and the penalty points scandal was bad governance resulting in nobody being held responsible, according to public service expert Dr Eddie Molloy.

DANIEL O’CONNELL never had it this good. The original purveyor of the monster meeting would have been astounded as to the quality of debate among those in attendance at Saturday’s gathering of the Reform Alliance in the RDS in Dublin.

The Reform Alliance’s window of opportunity to set up a political party may be receding after an opinion poll has showed support for such a move was significantly down.

Convention assures us that first impressions mean a lot. If that is true, then the political establishment will not lose too much sleep over Saturday’s Reform Alliance party conference that was not a party conference.

The Reform Alliance say they may become a political party in the future, but there are no plans for it at the moment.

Lucinda Creighton has said that the Reform Alliance will work with anybody who is trying to change politics in Ireland.

The Reform Alliance group of Fine Gael rebels is holding a major conference in Dublin today.

Rebel ex-minister Lucinda Creighton has said for the first time that she expects to fight the next election under the Reform Alliance banner.

The Reform Alliance will host their public conference this afternoon in the RDS and you can follow live updates here from 10am.

Lucinda Creighton said she wants politicians to be "in the background for a change" at the Reform Alliance conference this weekend.

Next Saturday, the Reform Alliance will hold its long-trumpeted, long-threatened, day-long conference in Dublin.

SO, it’s come to this: ministers handed out tablets to keep the media awake at the latest smugtastic Government announcement about very little.

THE Government’s Medium-Term Economic Strategy to 2020 is elegantly written.

I read with interest Alison O’Connor’s piece (Opinion, Jan 10), on Lucinda Creighton’s new public face. One has to agree the emergence of a new political party is somewhat passé after the bailout.

Former tánaiste Michael McDowell has said he has “no association” with the Reform Alliance and will not attend their rally at the RDS later this month.

Controversies over the use of public money and the long lead-in to May’s crunch local and European elections look set to dominate the new Dáil term.

If media exposure equalled political success then surely Lucinda Creighton would be fast-tracked to the office of the Taoiseach by now.

A founder of the Reform Alliance of former Fine Gael politicians has denied that the group is looking to become a full political party.

Claims by rebel TD Lucinda Creighton that she does not intend to use a one-day conference by her Reform Alliance grouping as the springboard for a new party have been ridiculed by Fine Gael top brass.

New political grouping The Reform Alliance, which is due to be registered with the Standards in Public Office Commission in coming days, is holding a conference at the end of this month.

Reform Alliance’s Lucinda Creighton has backed calls from the political standards watchdog requesting Envisronment Minister Phil Hogan to publish the legal advice he has received about his standoff with the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo).

Environment Minister Phil Hogan says he does not know what the final bill for the pyrite property scandal will be, but has dismissed claims it would be up to €460m.

A “completely unacceptable” attempt by Health Minister James Reilly to access detailed files on potential primary care sites has been described as a “misunderstanding” by high-ranking officials.