Senator Fidelma Healy Eames was embroiled in controversy after claiming that extending civil marriage rights to same-sex couple could lead to the banning of Mother’s Day.

The publishers of the Irish Daily Mail have apologised to Senator Fidelma Healy Eames over articles it published about her voluntary work in Rwanda.

Radical reforms on reducing pay and pensions for politicians, term limits for ministers, and limiting Government powers have been proposed by a group of Independent TDs and senators.

The Seanad will today begin two days of debate on possible amendments to the abortion bill.

Fine Gael lost two more Oireachtas members from its parliamentary party yesterday as two senators voted against the abortion legislation as it passed through the Upper House.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill passed its first vote in the Seanad by 41 votes to 15.

The Government's proposed abortion legislation is facing yet another challenge in Leinster House today.

Dissident Fine Gael senators will attempt to block the passing of the abortion legislation through the Seanad on Monday.

The law will be examined for deficiencies in dealing with the use of social media, Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said yesterday.

The law only applies to the lower orders, not members of the upper house, Senator Fidelma Healy Eames seems to believe.

As late as yesterday Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore used the usual catch-all to repel a Sinn Féin attack.

A €500,000 plan of action on tackling bullying in schools will be published within weeks by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, amid growing pressure to deal particularly with the impact of cyber-bullying.

SHE would be just another nobody senator if it were not for Fidelma Healy Eames’ amazing ability to generate the worst sort of publicity via trains, drains, and automobiles.

A civil action brought by a contractor against Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has been dismissed, but an order for €12,412 was made against her husband Michael.

Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has said she will appeal an on-the-spot fine which she received for boarding a train without a ticket.

A senator was given a €100 fixed penalty fine for not having a train ticket, it emerged last night.

Fresh calls have been made for Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to stop taking money from schools.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has insisted any shake-up in the sector will reflect modern Ireland.

As its directors held further talks yesterday to try to save Galway Airport, a group of workers started a sit-in in the terminal out of fear they will not receive their redundancy entitlements.

A STAGGERING 600 CVs were received by one Galway secondary school that didn’t even have a job on offer, it has been revealed, as plans by the Government to give unqualified teachers a legal right to teach in schools have been roundly criticised.

FARMERS have been urged to set up additional bank accounts with alternative providers to avoid having their single payments offset against existing debt later this year.

FINE GAEL has hit out at claims by Fianna Fáil that adoptive parents are partly to blame for the hold-up in Russian adoptions.

TWENTY young people have been referred to an adolescent treatment centre in Cork after using legal highs – including a 15-year-old boy addicted to the controversial compound mephedrone.

EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe was unable to give a timeframe last night for full implementation of a law passed in 2004 to give educational rights to people with special needs.

THE recent budget brought into sharp relief the priorities of the Government and some of those independents who back them like Deputy Noel Grealish here in Galway West.