Pressure was tonight mounting on under-fire Minister for Justice Michael McDowell over his failure to amend the State’s rape laws, which allowed a paedophile to walk free from court and could see up to eight others released.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell tonight admitted neither the Attorney General nor officials in his Department were made aware the unprecedented Supreme Court challenge on the statutory rape law was being taken.

TWENTY-EIGHT Government Ministers are jetting off to 22 different countries for the annual St Patrick’s Day exodus as the Dáil shuts down for almost two weeks.

Random breath testing is legal and constitutional and will be introduced soon to cut road carnage, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil today.

Ireland's first-ever female judge Ms Justice Mella Carroll is retiring today after 25 years with the High Court.

THE row over Irish Ferries’ controversial plan to lay off 543 staff and replace them with cheaper foreign workers will move to the Labour Court today with the company and trade union SIPTU both scheduled to attend.

THE Government will seek to compel the adoptive parents of a young boy whom they left in an Indonesian orphanage to pay for his maintenance and upkeep over the past two years.

THE State has moved to stop four right-to-die activists benefiting financially from the will of the first person known to have committed assisted suicide in Ireland.

Dan Buckley

Evelyn Ring

The Easter Rising must not be hijacked by any organisation for its own selfish purposes, a Catholic bishop told a 1916 commemoration ceremony today.

MICHÉAL MARTIN is set to be cleared today of any oversight in his handling of the illegal charging of public nursing home patients during his term as Minister for Health.

FORMER Health Minister Micheál Martin insisted yesterday he was “not fearful” of the Travers Report into the controversial nursing home overcharging delivered to Tánaiste Mary Harney last night.

A new Cabinet sub-committee meets tomorrow to discuss how to dole out more than €500m to as many as 275,000 people illegally charged in nursing homes.

President Mary McAleese is expected to make a decision tomorrow on whether to sign controversial Government legislation ordering elderly people to pay nursing home charges.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has admitted the Government would have to consider the legal aspects of any possible calls for the extradition of three Irish men on the run from Colombia, if they reappeared in Ireland.

HOAX IRA arms dumps, corrupt senior police officers, and claims of harassment have already rocked An Garda Síochána, yet today sees the start of another two years of inquiry.

Hoax IRA arms dumps, corrupt senior gardaí, and claims of harassment have already rocked An Garda Siochana yet tomorrow sees the start of another two years of inquiry.

Former government minister Ray Burke was today hit with a massive legal bill for more than €10m after he was found to have hindered the Planning Tribunal.

The Government has reportedly set a series of deadlines for the introduction of new fee structures for lawyers working at tribunals of inquiry.

THE prospects of the Government successfully impeaching Judge Brian Curtin were shrouded in doubt last night.

The Government is on the verge of taking the watershed decision to seek the removal from office of a serving judge for the first time in the history of the State.

A MOTHER whose child’s organs were retained by a hospital without her consent has been given High Court leave to sue the State over its handling of the scandal.

The Government’s proposed ban on smoking in all workplaces could be delayed beyond its planned implementation date, according to reports this morning.

REPRESENTING asylum seekers in court is one of the biggest growth areas for barristers, according to the Government’s legal adviser.

Political Reporter

FINE GAEL will not impose any sanction on Mayo TD Michael Ring despite his legal challenge to the Local Government Act being completely at odds with the party line.

THE widow of former CIÉ chief executive Michael McDonnell is suing Oireachtas members who investigated multi-million euro cost overruns on a rail signalling system.

ALL families involved in the organ retention scandal are being urged to pull out of the State inquiry into the affair.

An accident at Sellafield’s MOX plant could have a catastrophic effect, the Government claimed today at a tribunal in The Hague.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern is to tell the FAI today that soccer fans must be allowed see home international games without subscription charges.