Both parties have agreed to hold detailed negotiations, while still continuing discussions with the Green Party.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has been told to “come out of hiding” as confusion abounds over how the next Government will be formed.

Next weekend, EU leaders meet in Brussels for what, in the lexicon of diplomacy, is expected to be a four-shirter — a streetwise description of a meeting unlikely to conclude quickly. Whether discussions to form a government here become as bitter remains to be seen.

Ambition is little more than the capacity to put conviction before doubt.

Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan has launched a blistering attack on Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy during a private meeting of the parliamentary party.

Spike Island in Co Cork and the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare are in contention to be named World's Best Attraction at the prestigious International Travel and Tourism Awards. (ITTA)

Politicians from all parties in Galway West have expressed opposition to a gold and silver mining bid in protected Connemara habitats.

‘Corca Dhuibhne’ is on the map after John Paul Phelan, the junior local government minister signed a statutory instrument to change how the electoral area in west Kerry is referred to in the upcoming local elections.

From 2020, only 50% of the stocking density requirement can be fulfilled using donkeys, in the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has sacked Galway West TD Eamon Ó Cuív from a senior frontbench post, after it had appeared he had decided to spare him.

"Deputy Ó Cuív’s continued membership of the Party’s Front Bench is no longer tenable."

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has denied Seán Gallagher is a “proxy candidate” for the party, claiming the label is “ridiculous” — despite ongoing support from grassroots members.

Some months before America’s transformative presidential election, David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s election campaigns, used an all-too-smart phrase that is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Good morning. I would like to take the opportunity of this column to announce that I will not be running for the office of the presidency.

With incredulity, I listened to Galway councillor, Oliver Crowe, of Fianna Fáil, on RTÉ’s Drivetime radio show.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is to have individual meetings with TDs and senators who campaigned against repealing the Eighth Amendment in a bid to gain their support to legislate for abortion.

The country has decided by a stunning majority to repeal the controversial constitutional ban on abortion, it will be confirmed today.

Pro-life Fianna Fáil TDs say they will back any legislation allowing abortion for rape, incest and fatal abnormalities if the referendum is passed in a major concession on the deeply divisive potential post-referendum laws.

Ireland will remain “frozen in time” if people do not vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment, Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said.

Health Minister Simon Harris was confronted by heckles and calls for him to resign at a referendum event which had to be cut short after the interruption.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. All 32 of you.

The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring, has been accused of putting rural Ireland “under review” with promised projects still on ice.

A grant to help first-time buyers refurbish derelict buildings in rural villages and towns has yet to be rolled out, more than a year after being announced.

The Government’s ambitious plan to transform the country is great in theory but rural Ireland must not be forgotten, writes Elaine O’Loughlin.

The Cabinet will hold a special meeting today to discuss “radical” alterations to its national development plan amid mounting criticism of it.

The Government’s plan for growth over the next two decades will “kill” rural Ireland and walk the country into “economic and social imbalance”, a coalition of TDs has warned.

Leading Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen has said his decision to support repeal of the Eighth Amendment and access to abortion up to 12 weeks was “agonising and difficult”.

A dissident republican group behind dozens of gun and bomb attacks on security forces in Northern Ireland has declared a ceasefire.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan has claimed that more pregnancies involving Down syndrome and disability diagnoses will be terminated if abortion is allowed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Planning for war but preparing for potential short-term peace, the soldiers of destiny are attempting to work two strategies to address the latest political crisis.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar received a slap down from Leas-Cheann Comhairle Pat the Cope Gallagher after trying to advise him in the Dáil.

Well done to the plain-talking rural representatives who warn that National Planning Framework Ireland 2040 proposals add up to abandoning people in the countryside.

Michael Ring, the Rural Affairs Minister, is understood to have launched a “ferocious” broadside at Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at last Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

The Government has been accused of neglecting rural Ireland after it was revealed that just 0.06% of grant funding available has been awarded to help communities.

Fianna Fáil will not be appointing a deputy leader as Micheál Martin believes there is “no urgent requirement” to do so.