The Labour Party has unveiled its new look front bench with several former ministers covering multiple portfolios.

Four ousted Fine Gael TDs —including ex minister James Reilly — are battling to become the party’s next Seanad leader, despite a number previously calling for the upper house to be scrapped.

Dozens of previously high-profile politicians are waking up to the reality today that they are no longer TDs after a second successive general election saw a seismic shift in the Dáil landscape.

The population of this constituency has, like many other commuter belt areas, increased in recent years.

There must be a general election in the air…..as TDs’ attendance for votes in the Dáil has dropped significantly in recent months.

Several Government TDs have backed calls for a referendum to be held to ensure Irish Water remains in public ownership ahead of further water charge protests planned for this week.

Independent senator Averil Power has insisted her decision to print 73,000 calendars through the Oireachtas and send them to voters has “nothing to do with the election”, after being heavily criticised for spending taxpayers’ money on the move.

A leading Labour backbencher has warned Tánaiste Joan Burton the party must not be “stampeded” into a pre-election voting pact with Fine Gael and that grassroots members need to be given their say on the deal.

Billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien’s legal action against the Dáil’s watchdog committee has been widely condemned across the political spectrum.

Eight hospitals, five of them taxpayer-funded, are under investigation amid claims staff got gifts from a medical supplies firm in return for contracts and commercially sensitive information.

A rebel Labour TD has been re-admitted to the party in a move seen as an attempt to “circle the wagons” against expected heavy general election losses.

Labour’s chief whip, Emmet Stagg, was accused of “double duplicity” for condemning lone-parent benefit cuts to a constituent, having pushed TDs to vote for them.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has come under fire for dismissing Opposition demands to debate the threat to Dáil privilege posed by an injunction brought by businessman Denis O’Brien as “hysteria”.

Sinn Féin conducted a secret 2006 investigation into "40 different cases of sexual and physical abuse" by the Provisional IRA, and sent a memo to party media handlers "should the report ever be leaked," it has been claimed.

A ‘Ferns-style’ commission of inquiry should be set up to investigate the extent of the Sinn Féin abuse allegations, after it was claimed the party is aware of more than 100 attacks that were covered up by the provisional IRA.

A TD has defended water charge protesters who targeted the President after footage of Michael D Higgins being verbally abused by demonstrators provoked outrage.

Labour's chief whip Emmet Stagg has said he would have difficulties entering Government with Sinn Féin.

"The senior people get the senior positions. It’s the nature of politics," Labour’s chief whip, Emmet Stagg, mused on RTÉ radio the night of his party leader’s resignation. "The younger generation have to serve their time."

Labour TDs and senators have begun taking sides in the leadership contest after the shock resignation of Eamon Gilmore.

As senior Labour ministers took to the airwaves on Saturday to defend their party’s record and leader, conversations started taking place between its young turks on what to do about Eamon Gilmore.

The battle for the job of pulling the Labour Party back from the brink will begin today when nominations open for a leader to replace Eamon Gilmore who conceded his party needs "a new voice".

The reality of coalition government is well known to Labour. It has bounced back from the brink before, says Gary Murphy.

A Government TD has warned of the “danger” of bias ahead of the banking inquiry but stressed the need for an investigation after the “economic mismanagement” of Fianna Fáil.

AN illicit love affair is so quintessentially French that revelations of President François Hollande’s clandestine meetings with Julie Gayet have been greeted by the French with a shrug.

I refer to the article about Emmet Stagg by Shaun Connolly (Irish Examiner, Dec 17) ‘€97k TD: I’d make more as a plumber’.

Emmet Stagg might earn more as a plumber, but as a 69-year-old plumber he’d probably be retired by now.

THE opposition stormed out of the Dáil — nobody noticed. The stunt, which was to protest the Government’s habit of railroading legislation through the Oireachtas only drew mild attention because it followed a TD’s bid to get a minister to drink contaminated water during a rowdy debate on the introduction of metering.

A senior Labour TD has claimed he would earn more as a plumber than the €97,000 he receives for sitting in the Dáil.

Three quarters of the €27.856m donated to the charity wing of the Central Remedial Clinic between 1998 and 2011 was not sent on to the facility.

Education Minister Ruairí Quinn has called for the board of the Central Remedial Clinic to quit as the controversy over the use of public donations to top-up the salaries of well-paid managers escalates.

More than 90% of TDs who responded to a recent survey thought politicians should not ban alcohol in Leinster House.

Labour chairman Colm Keaveney resigned from the party saying it is “heading for disaster” and that he wanted to challenge the Coalition’s failed policies from the opposition benches.

Labour Party chief whip Emmet Stagg welcomed

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Coalition leaders have warned defiant Oireachtas members not to campaign against the abolition of the Seanad ahead of a referendum later this year.

A second prominent Labour TD has come out against the Government's proposals to abolish the Seanad.

The Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has said the Government has not discussed the referendum on the abolition of the Seanad in detail yet.

Plans to sweep away the Seanad have left Labour openly divided.

The privatisation of the State’s forestry agency, Coillte, “looks more un-likely every day”, according to Pat Rabbitte, the minister for communications.

Having taken offence at the wearing of Easter lilies by TDs in the Dáil recently, Fine Gael party chairman, Charlie Flanagan, asked the ceann comhairle to rule on standing orders regarding the wearing of emblems in the Dáil.

Gerard Howlin looks at the repercussions from the Meath-East by-election and argues that what matters more than who wins, is how the result compares to expectation

An Bord Pleanála has granted permission for a crucial 40-acre expansion at Intel in Leixlip, which it is hoped could create thousands of jobs.