The season beckons and Faith Ryan is warming up to art and affordable buys. 

A Sinn Féin TD who became embroiled in a high-profile row in the Dáil after it emerged that his brother was a homeless heroin addict has revealed that his sibling is now clean.

Join the Oireachtas and see the world… new figures show that the spend by TDs and senators on overseas travel last year increased from €218,799 to €230,313.

Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien says he regrets revealing his brother’s heroin addiction in a Dáil exchange, but was infuriated by comments made by Tánaiste Joan Burton.

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.

Former government minister and ceann comhairle John O’Connell has been remembered as “a great humanitarian who did great good in his world”.

One of the country’s biggest unions mounted pressure on the Government to abandon budget cuts that will hit the vulnerable.

A local TD has said that if bombs found in a housing estate in Dublin yesterday has gone off, the scene would have been like something from the Troubles.

Esther N McCarthy discovers hot kitchen gadgets and cool storage solutions.

How much can Ireland really be expected to achieve as the newly appointed OSCE chair, asks Caroline O’Doherty

A drug addict was being held tonight over the murder of his pensioner father with a sword in a retirement home.

HEALTH Minister James Reilly has declared a crackdown on drug costs after discovering that medicines can be bought up to 20 times cheaper across the border.

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).

Labour’s Eric Byrne has been elected to Dublin South Central.

THE Labour Party was hit with another political blow last night as a second high-profile female TD in just a number of weeks announced she would not be seeking re-election.

REVELATIONS regarding Fianna Fáil’s handling of excessive donations has put the accounting system for its multi-million euro income stream under scrutiny.

A WOMAN living in a notorious inner city Dublin estate has been stabbed and others have been threatened with being burnt out of their homes if they attempt to stand up to a group of criminals openly selling class-A drugs in the area.

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore has been caught in an embarrassing ethics row after one of the party’s councillors used his free Dáil postage facility to send out local election literature.

PLANS to twin Dublin City with Beijing have met with opposition from councillors and human rights campaigners.

JOE SHERLOCK took five years off his age to have a better chance of winning a Dáil seat in the 2002 general election.

What is making Mary Harney keep her powder dry, and effectively leaving a cloud over whether a government will be formed on June 14? Is she looking for certainty there is nothing going on behind the scenes that would destabilise a government almost as soon as it is formed?

Labour candidate Eric Byrne has conceded defeat in Dublin South Central.

Labour's Mary Upton has won the third seat in Dublin South Central.

Labour's Tommy Broughan, Terrence Flannagan of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil's Michael Woods have been elected on the fourth count in Dublin North-East.

Just 14 seats now remain to be filled across seven constituencies in the General Election count.

Bertie Ahern was today considering a number of coalition options as the General Election entered its final stages.

The Labour Party's Liz Mc Manus and Fine Gael duo Billy Timmins and Andrew Doyle have picked up the final three Dáil seats in the Wicklow constituency this morning.

The Labour Party's Liz McManus has held her seat in Wicklow, bringing the party's total representation so far to 17 TDs.

As a clearer picture of the make-up of the new Dáil began to emerge this afternoon, Fianna Fáil looked set to make gains, with the possibility of gaining an overall majority.

A LABOUR election candidate has returned an unsolicited €500 donation from a property development company and queried whether the firm believes it can buy influence.

ON THE WAY IN: 10 tipped to win

LABOUR will not cut a deal with Fianna Fáil after the next election, the party’s deputy leader Liz McManus insisted at its annual conference.

Dublin’s move from 'fair city' to 'Fairtrade city' looks set to go ahead this week, with cross-party support for a bid to become Europe’s first Fairtrade capital.

Dublin City Council is due to vote tonight on a motion backing a campaign to make the city Europe's first Fair Trade Capital.

NOBODY can really claim to be surprised that Sinn Féin emerged as the largest nationalist political party in the Northern Ireland Assembly election last week. It has been on the cards since the 2001 Westminster and local election when the party out-polled the SDLP.

The Capital’s new Lord Mayor was elected overnight, for what may be the shortest reign in the history of the city.

The Labour Party has expressed confidence that it can increase its showing in the Dáil in this Friday’s election.

The Labour Party is staging a symbolic binning of the outgoing Government’s record on public services this lunchtime at the Mansion House in Dublin.

There are mounting calls for political action here to ensure that the race riots that are occurring in Bradford and other British cities are not repeated on the streets of Ireland.

All the main cities across the country have had new Lord Mayors elected to the city councils.