Taoiseach Leo Varadkar miscalculated by continuing to back his mentor Frances Fitzgerald, meaning the country was left on the brink of an election as he played a game of chicken with Fianna Fáil, writes Political Editor Daniel McConnell

Commercial rates legislation must be modernised, says a Cork County Councillor, who is appealing to Local Government Minister, Eoghan Murphy, to “expedite the proposed Consolidated Rates Bill”.

The lack of a children’s detention centre outside of Dublin is to be raised in the European Court of Human Rights by Cork County Council.

Cork County Council will be asked to formally endorse an appeal to the Government to provide a commercial rates break to businesses in West Cork which suffered severely in the aftermath of recent storm damage.

A councillor who says he is "deeply frustrated and angry" at the lack of action or response from officials to representations made on behalf of constituents, has posted a notice on his window apologising for the failure.

A tug of war is developing over a chain of office belonging to a former town council, which could put some councillors and their officials on a collision course.

New municipal local bodies are "making it up as they go along".

Senior HSE and ambulance officials have been summoned to explain, in person, to Cork County Council why no ambulance was made available to take Vakaris Martinaitis to hospital after falling from an upstairs bedroom window.

The National Roads Authority is to be asked to designate the Midleton-Whitegate road in Co Cork as a primary route due to its strategic importance to the nation’s energy needs.

RETIRING Fianna Fáil TD and former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, says his biggest regret is that he did not leave a national stadium in his political wake.

DETAILED plans and Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) for a multi-million-euro road from Cork to Ringaskiddy are to be submitted to the board of the National Roads Authority (NRA) early next year.

CORK County Council has taken the unprecedented step of passing a vote of no confidence in Environment Minster John Gormley over his handling of a major pollution threat in Cork harbour.

A MAJOR split among the 12 Fianna Fáil members on Limerick County Council led to the snap resignation at the weekend of the group leader, Cllr Kevin Sheahan.

THE fear of criminals may be palpable to Cllr Noel Collins but the purpose of the garda reserve is to combat not the class of criminal described by Cllr Collins but to provide a degree of back-up to our overstretched professional gardaí (Irish Examiner letters, April 22).

THE fear of criminals may be palpable to Cllr Noel Collins but the purpose of the garda reserve is to combat not the class of criminal described by Cllr Collins but to provide a degree of back-up to our overstretched professional gardaí (Irish Examiner letters, April 22).

A MEMBER of Limerick County Council has thrown down a challenge to the powers which officials hold in granting planning permission for housing.

INTERVENTION from environment minister Dick Roche was sought yesterday, amid claims that government bureaucracy was delaying major housing developments in Co Limerick.

The Fianna Fáil party has selected two candidates to contest the next General Election in the West Limerick constituency.

PICTURESQUE Adare, one of the most sought after residential areas in the country, is caught in a property trap because Limerick County Council has not made up its mind on the route of a proposed bypass, locals claim.