The State has paid almost €1bn to private operators to run Direct Provision centres for asylum seekers since 2000, an RTÉ Prime Time report has found.

Former President of the European Parliament Pat Cox has said the stress tests being carried out on Irish banks are "the most important judgment call on numbers that has ever been made in the history of the State".

The Government has given the decentralisation debate a massive airing, a junior minister insisted today, despite civil servants complaining their views were going unheard.

Former President of the Irish Farmers Assocation Tom Parlon, has been elected in Laois-Offaly for the Progressive Democrats.