The head of the Garda Representative Association has strongly hinted its 10,400 members will consider some sort of industrial action if they are not given a negotiating role at planned pay talks between unions and the government.

AS EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg yesterday, the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean escalated.

In hindsight, decisions on messages to newly-elected or crowned heads of state often raise an eyebrow.

Campaigners for a ’Yes’ vote in the forthcoming Lisbon treaty referendum got on their bikes today to take their message across Ireland.