Fine Gael’s promise to scrap the hated Universal Social Charge (USC) is “not achievable” within the next five years, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has claimed.

Householders could be facing water charges of between €250 and €400 per year within the next three years.

Taoiseach-in-waiting Brian Cowen will today be officially elected Fianna Fáil leader after a parliamentary party meeting in Leinster House.

TONY BLAIR “turned the air blue” with expletives when he discovered his government was only giving DUP leader Ian Paisley a photograph album for his 50th wedding anniversary in 2006, a book has revealed.

IT WAS difficult to stomach some of the more generous tributes paid to Ian Paisley early last week after he announced his impending retirement, but the balance had certainly been restored by last weekend.