The Government has established a €1m fund to lease homes to people with an intellectual disability to help them live independent lives in a community setting.

The Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte has denied there was a communications breakdown within Government on the introduction of water charges.

Dublin City Councillors are calling on the Environment Minister Phil Hogan to attend their next meeting in order to clarify confusion over when water charges will be introduced.

Details have emerged about the ministerial trips abroad for St Patrick's Day, with the first setting off today.

Sinn Féin have accused the Environment Minister Phil Hogan of spinning into the new year after figures revealed that more than 1.1 million homeowners have paid the controversial household charge.

The Environment Minister Phil Hogan has thanked all those who have registered their properties and paid the household charge.

A West Waterford town council has provided funds from its own reserves to counteract a shortfall in local government funding that threatens to close its public toilets.

The Environment Minister Phil Hogan is once again urging those who have not yet paid their Household Charge to do so for the good of their communities.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan and four of his officials racked up €9,000 in expenses during a 24-hour trip to a European Council meeting in Luxembourg last summer.

Six Irish officials are reported to be traveling to a conference in Brazil with the Environment Minister Phil Hogan costing the taxpayer more than €10,000.

Like 40% of the water supply, he had simply disappeared, but Environment Minister Phil Hogan still dominated the Dáil — for all the wrong reasons. From Big Phil to Feck-It-Up Phil in the space of a couple of months, few ministerial careers have threatened to disappear down the drain so quickly.

THE real scandal about the household charge is not its imminent implementation but, rather, the fact that successive governments failed to introduce a property tax years ago.

The Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes (CAHWT) has said that Environment Minister Phil Hogan's reduction of the septic tank registration fee "is a desperate attempt to stem the growing opposition to household taxes".

There has been mixed reaction to the Environment Minister Phil Hogan's announcement last night that new septic tank charges are to be cut.

The Environment Minister Phil Hogan is meeting with the National Assets Management Agency to see how empty housing stock could be used for social housing.

The Finance Minister Michael Noonan has announced a €100 household charge as announced by the Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

The Government is introducing a new €100 household charge from next January to be replaced by a full property tax two years later.