Dara Murphy had come under fire after it was revealed that he has claimed his full Dáil salary and expenses over the past two years, despite being largely absent from Leinster House.

Survivors of symphysiotomy and their families were visiting the Dáil today, where the horrific practice was being debated for the first time.

THE accuracy of that old truism, of the likelihood of several buses arriving simultaneously when the prospective passenger has been kept patiently waiting for an inordinate period of time, never ceases to amaze me.