There are fresh fears for the future of the stalled Cork event centre project after confirmation that construction inflation is running at 7% as efforts to resolve its complex State-funding mechanism drag on.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has rejected the Taoiseach’s claim that the Dáil debate during which Leo Varadkar compared him to a sinning priest was “bitter and “personal”.

Fianna Fáil is on course to retain its position as the largest party on Cork City Council with Fine Gael a close second after the “green wave” swept Sinn Féin aside over the weekend.

Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring has warned "anything could happen" in the battle for the final two seats in the Midlands North West European election when the official counts start to be announced tonight.

The developers of the National Children’s Hospital have submitted claims for additional costs worth some €12m since February.

The Government may have to pay up €150m for missing its greenhouse gas emissions target.

Attempts by Kerry County Council to curb the height of new headstones in about 150 public graveyards are meeting with resistance.

Cork’s City Council agreed last night to change its rules on the replacement of certain councillors following a resignation, election, sickness, or death.

Opposition TDs who have raised concerns around vaccinations have defended their actions.

A special committee of Cork County Council is to look at the possibility of setting up women’s refuges and ‘safe houses’ after an impassioned plea was made by a councillor who described how she was once a victim of domestic abuse.

The Government is “treating the public like children” and deferred the review of the Local Property Tax (LPT) for naked electoral reasons, Fianna Fáil says.

County councillors have said it is “sinful” and “unbelievable” that 57 acres of local authority-owned land has lain unused in a Co Cork town for more than 20 years.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten is set to be grilled over the planned closure of rural post offices as TDs threaten to pull support for the Government.

Emergency Department nurses and their families who took part in a lunchtime protest outside University Hospital Kerry in Tralee were joined by hospital staff and the public.

A mother has offered her house as collateral in a desperate bid to raise €100,000 to sponsor her daughter’s life-saving operation in Spain

Calls have been made for an independent review of Irish Water’s plans to spend €1.3bn building a system to pump drinking water from the Shannon to the greater Dublin area.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is being urged to stop the Commissioner for Irish Lights (CIL) downgrading the range of beams emitting from the country’s most iconic lighthouse.

Homeowners in Kerry with private drinking water wells have been warned to check their groundwater for potentially lethal radon gas.

Forts and Martello towers dotted around Cork Harbour and what was once the biggest gunpowder factory in the British empire could soon be designated as Unesco World Heritage sites.

Famed for its lakes and high peaks, scenic Kerry county has an unwanted mountain — of litter. Over 220 tonnes of general litter and household waste was fly-tipped on roadsides, and at bottle banks, in the country’s top tourist county last year.

Seven vulnerable Magdalene laundry survivors have died without receiving a penny of the redress they were granted in 2013.

The number of patients recalled at University Hospital Kerry for repeat scan procedures has increased substantially in a week, and the number of missed diagnoses has also gone up.

The Government’s “welfare cheats cheat us all” campaign ignored the fact the majority of its claimed 2% welfare fraud rate was due to Department of Social Protection errors and not those of recipients.

Ireland is losing out on billions of euro every year because eight of the 100 most lucrative Irish-based multinationals pay no corporation tax and five more have a tax bill of less than 1%.

They must be worried, says Daniel McConnell. The booze companies I mean

A four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee has called on developed countries to ban paedophiles and suspected sex offenders from foreign travel in the same way as suspected terrorists.

The future of one of the country’s iconic houses, which has been repeatedly damaged by vandals and arsonists, is likely to be decided shortly when consultants report to Cork County Council on how much it will cost to stabilise the building.

The HSE’s chief financial officer has admitted the organisation does not have enough staff to prevent a repeat of the Central Remedial Clinic and Rehab top-up scandals after the latest multi-million euro financial crisis to hit the system.

Plans for a spate of student apartments could strangle traditional residential areas of Cork City.

Safety markings on one of the busiest roads in Co Cork have been described as extremely dangerous by councillors and council engineers.

The legacy of the late Owen O’Callaghan can be seen throughout his native Cork and beyond.

A Seanad amendment to ban profitable companies from winding up workers’ pensions schemes has been ruled out of order.

There are fears the provision of essential rapid response emergency ambulance services could be discontinued in Tipperary and Clare.

A rural community in north-east Cork faces serious traffic disruption if an invasive plant, spreading throughout the county like wildfire, has caused structural damage to a road bridge.

There are calls for more community based Gardaí in rural areas.

About two thirds of winter storm-damaged roads in east Cork have been restored, especially national primary and secondary routes, but local routes remained untreated due to a shortage of funding.

An automated queuing system is to be introduced in a Cork harbour town for taxis, along with new designated taxi ranks and bylaws to govern their use.

The Independent Alliance has defended its decision to back Fine Gael’s Apple ruling appeal by stressing it will now be able to carry out a widescale review of all multinationals’ tax status in return for the support.