Enda Kenny is under pressure to scrap the controversial banking inquiry and to set up an independent probe after one of its central members quit, claiming he had lost all hope in it being free from Cabinet control.

A Fine Gael backbencher has hit out at Justice Minister Alan Shatter over his handling of the Garda whistleblower controversy, saying the Government should acknowledge that they “did the State some service”.

Four Fine Gael TDs who voted against legislation allowing abortion in limited circumstances were last night expelled from the parliamentary party and told they would be stripped of their membership on Oireachtas committees.

An Independent TD has called for AIB to be closed - and turned into a national reconstruction bank.

Independent TD Stephen Donnelly has this afternoon withdrawn a proposed Bill to give judges powers to refuse to order repossessions of family homes.

Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan should have been more ambitious over the setting of renewable energy targets, it was claimed today.

MAVERICK Labour TD Tommy Broughan was staying tight-lipped last night over whether he would force frontrunner Eamon Gilmore into a contest for the party leadership.

LABOUR will not cut a deal with Fianna Fáil after the next election, the party’s deputy leader Liz McManus insisted at its annual conference.

Fresh moves to allow Swedish giant Ikea to open a superstore may be given the go-ahead over the next few weeks, a senior minister claimed today.

BED numbers are expected to be increased at a Dublin maternity hospital next year so they can help mothers-to-be who can’t be treated at Holles Street because of its planned cap on numbers.