Grassroots Progressive Democrats members opposed to winding up the beleaguered party are expected to unveil a survival strategy at tomorrow’s special conference.

AH, the elderly. They’re such gentle folk. Quiet, slow, timid creatures; not terribly clued in, bless them, and so contented with their little lot.

OLDER people have vowed to tear up forms for medical card means tests and not give a single vote to Fianna Fáil and the Green party in next year’s local and European elections.

SEMI-detached PD TD Noel Grealish was given a blunt ultimatum by despairing party colleagues last night: quit if you’re quitting.

TDs and Senators clamed almost €6 million in tax-free expenses during the first half of this year.

Senator Ciaran Cannon has been appointed the new leader of the Progressive Democrats, it was announced today.

SENATOR Fiona O’Malley gave an unconvincing performance as she launched her campaign for the PD leadership yesterday, saying she could rely on advisers for economic advice.

THE Progressive Democrats will have a leader in seven weeks’ time, after the party’s national executive agreed election arrangements for the post last night.

SENATORS Fiona O’Malley and Ciaran Cannon will contest the race to succeed Mary Harney as leader of the Progressive Democrats.

Moves to elect a new leader of the Progressive Democrats are expected to move up a notch today.

The Progressive Democrats today faced down its critics and vowed to stay in Government to make a difference.

I FIND it hard to imagine how the discredited PDs can claim to have a future.

MARY HARNEY last night gave the strongest hint yet she will quit frontline politics at the next election.

ACTING PD leader Mary Harney is pressing Senator Fiona O’Malley to contest the next general election in her native Limerick.

AN internal committee of the Progressive Democrats has recommended changing the party rules to allow senators and councillors to become leader.

THE Progressive Democrats have lost another senior figure in the shape of former senator Tom Morrissey, who confirmed to the Irish Examiner yesterday that he has quit politics.

The Progressive Democrats took just 2.7% of the first-preference vote in the election. They need a new brand, policy and leader, says political reporter Paul O’Brien.

NINE defeated general election candidates were yesterday appointed to the Seanad in a line-up which produced many unexpected winners and losers.

THE Taoiseach is expected to announce his 11 nominations to the Seanad, within the next 48 hours, with the Greens and Progressive Democrats each securing two coveted seats.

DEFEATED Green Party leadership contender Patricia McKenna came sixth in a ballot of Green Party councillors on who should obtain a Seanad nomination, it emerged yesterday.

THE Progressive Democrats are facing a three-way contest for the party leadership, with frontrunner Tom Parlon facing challenges from both Fiona O’Malley and Senator Tom Morrissey.

THE Progressive Democrats are facing a three-way contest for the party leadership, with frontrunner Tom Parlon facing challenges from both Fiona O’Malley and Senator Tom Morrissey.

THE PD leadership race looked like it would be an easy victory for Tom Parlon last night as his biggest rival stepped aside.

THE coalition deal worked out between Fianna Fáil and the Greens may extend to the Seanad elections, with both parties seriously considering an electoral pact.

THE talks between negotiating teams from Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have concentrated on policy areas only and will not turn to the actual composition of the government until the end of the process.

FORMER junior minister Tim O’Malley yesterday revealed he is quitting political life, ending a political dynasty dating back to the foundation of his party.

The Progressive Democrats devastated by their poor election showing today revealed Mary Harney has been asked to resume the party leadership.

It could be the first time in almost half a century that a TD from the O’Malley dynasty will not be in the Dáil, while other political families prospered in the General Election.

Outgoing Minister for Education Fianna Fáil’s Mary Hanafin has been elected following the first count in the Dun Laoghaire constituency.

A SWING to or from a particular party in 16 bellwether constituencies will tell us a lot about the national trends, and could determine the overall shape of the 30th Dáil.

ON THE WAY IN: 10 tipped to win

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney confirmed yesterday that the Government would not be introducing legislation to overcome some of the issues raised in the Miss D case.

All the major political parties are tonight limbering up for the kick-off of the General Election campaign – on a soccer pitch.

WITH two totally unrelated strokes of a pen, the Government has managed to do what it has failed abjectly to do in the past decade, and that is to put domestic violence seriously on the political agenda.

A UNITED front of women’s welfare groups yesterday helped to secure Government funding to save the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency (NDVIA) from closure.

A final regional meeting for nurses demanding better pay and working conditions will be held in Dublin tonight.

SIX years ago the Shell to Sea campaign warned there would be severe conflict if the oil giant and the Government persisted in bringing unrefined gas to land in north Mayo.

IN the spring of 2002, Michael McDowell climbed a ladder to hang posters in his constituency as that year’s general election drew ever closer.

THE Progressive Democrats are staying in Government for the time being, despite the damaging revelations about Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday attempted to close the saga over his payments’ controversy when he tersely refused to continue “rehashing the same questions”.

Whether or not the quality of accountability from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern relating to payments from businessmen more than a decade ago is enough to meet the criteria of the Progressive Democrats remains to be seen today.

AN INAUGURAL showing of Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, took place at Dublin’s Screen Cinema last week.

THE momentum behind Michael McDowell’s campaign for the leadership of the Progressive Democrats was beginning to look unstoppable by mid-morning yesterday.

ROLL up, roll up for your seats on the mystery train ride that takes you through the long and dramatic journey of Michael McDowell’s political career. Yes folks, we can guarantee a spectacular rollercoaster ride.