The appointment to a State board of a little known Donegal politician who failed to be elected in the local elections has creative cronyism written all over it, writes Political Editor Mary Regan

Gaeltacht Minister, Joe McHugh has started school to learn a language he is supposed to be speaking and promoting.

The new Junior Minister with responsibility for the Gaeltacht will take a refresher course in the Irish language after it emerged his proficiency in the language was not enough to conduct an interview on TG4.

The country's second youngest TD, Simon Harris, is to be appointed to the high profile position of Junior Finance Minister in a reshuffle to be announced this afternoon.

The Coalition is expected to announce a raft of junior ministerial appointments today including new positions in social protection and environment.

The spotlight is now firmly fixed on Taoiseach Enda Kenny as he finalises the shake-up of his junior government ranks, writes Political Correspondent Shaun Connolly

Tánaiste Joan Burton has moved to allay concern among some Labour TDs that she got a raw deal in the attempted Government relaunch, as Taoiseach Enda Kenny prepared to sack a number of junior ministers.

There is bad news on the jobs front with up to 290 jobs being lost in Dublin and Donegal.

The government has announced details of the largest St Patrick's Day travel programme since it came to office.

More than 20 people have applied to take over the job of Irish language commissioner when the current holder steps down early, blaming Government inaction.

Only six of the 16 officers responsible for the use of Irish in Government departments can speak the language themselves, the outgoing Irish language commissioner has said.

Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs Dinny McGinley has said nobody should turn down the opportunity of a festive job if they're worried about losing their jobseekers' allowance.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has told the Dáil of the “savage circumstances” surrounding the roadside murders of RUC Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Robert Buchanan by an IRA gang who had been assisted by gardaí.

The president of the Irish Association of Suicidology has called on banks to train staff how to deal with struggling mortgage-holders and warned that more people are taking their lives because of debt.

Most girls will feel a sense of dread on learning their darling brother has drawn a picture of them — and then delighted in showing it off in public.

Axing the air service to the Aran Islands will threaten jobs and businesses and force people to leave, locals warned yesterday.

The Dáil was rising for the summer holidays, but that wasn’t the reason the opposition party TDs were leaving.

The 2007 Linguist Survey of the Gaeltacht found that Irish had 15-20 years remaining as a community language without a change in the current Statepolicy, best described by Prof Joe Lee as ‘letting the language die by stealth’.

Islanders off West Cork have been cut adrift by the Government as a junior minister has admitted: “We can’t help you.”

The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and its carers were yesterday poignantly thanked for the help they gave finance minister Michael Noonan’s wife Florence, who died from the disease last Thursday, 14 years after the illness had gripped her life at the age of 54.

A heavy cargo service will be provided for the four islands in West Cork.

The landscape of Gaeltacht areas across the country could be dramatically changed under plans agreed by the Cabinet.

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny says he has been “caught” with the €700,000-plus pension package awarded to a former senior civil servant and there is nothing he can do to reduce the pay-out.

TWENTY American citizens have been awarded Irish government grants to learn Irish over the summer, among them a former FBI agent, a retired lawyer and a faculty member of the Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas.

GAELTACHT areas will be identified in future by how much the Irish language is used instead of by geographical location, under a bill to be introduced by the Government.

The newly-elected Government at its meeting today, on the nomination of the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, has appointed Ministers of State and assigned them to departments with the particular areas of responsibility set out below.

The new Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan has revealed that Donegal TD Dinny McGinley will be named as junior minister in his department.

With all bar four of the 43 constituencies in the General Election finished counting, the country’s political scene has undergone a sea change.

Former Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin has failed to retain her seat in Dun Laoghaire. Richard Boyd Barrett won the seat, bringing the haul of seats for Independents and others to 17.

The election of Fine Gael's Mary Mitchell O'Connor in Dun Laoghaire brings to 141 the total number of seats filled so far (from a total of 166).

There are 70 seats filled so far.

Fine Gael's Dinny McGinley and independent candidate Thomas Pringle have been elected in Donegal South-West.

Outgoing Tánaiste Mary Coughlan is refusing to accept defeat as counting continues in the Donegal South West constituency this evening.

CANCER services and rising fuel prices were top of the agenda when Enda Kenny carried out a whistle-stop tour of Donegal yesterday.

FERRIES and a helicopter carried ballot papers to the first of 2,600 island residents voting in the general election. Islanders in Donegal South-West and Mayo voted two days ahead of tomorrow’s mainland poll.

An elderly woman despondent about the state of the country has returned to the island she lived on for 56 years to cast her vote.

More than 950 voters on islands off Donegal and Mayo go to the polls this morning as the election campaign enters its last two days.

A SMALL Donegal town has suffered a devastating blow after a bakery last night blamed rising costs and a drop in sales for the loss of at least 124 jobs.

A bakery tonight blamed rising costs and a drop in sales for the loss of at least 124 jobs.

BOTH sides in the Fine Gael street fight promised they would deliver the decisive blow throughout yesterday.

SEVENTEEN TDs have each claimed more than €5,000 in expenses per month since the introduction of a new allowance system.

FIANNA FÁIL’S Frank Fahey has strenuously denied opposition claims his Lost at Sea scheme to help fishermen buy new trawlers was “tailor-made” to suit a handful of constituents in Galway West.