Enda Kenny’s new Cabinet has received mixed reaction with praise after he appointed more women to government, but also questions about the role he gave certain ministers.

Fianna Fáil has claimed it will freeze third-level student contribution fees for five years if it is elected to government, despite chronic under-funding affecting the system which could force costs to surge.

Parents of non-baptised children are being forced to travel for “two hours” to bring them to school, because overcrowded local facilities will not take them in on religious grounds, a TD has claimed.

Same-sex couples could benefit after Labour vowed to introduce two weeks’ paid paternity leave for fathers this year.

Children with special needs are effectively being blocked from entering some schools due to hidden discrimination that has yet to be fully tackled by the Government.

It may be slow, but action is being taken to address the blight of the Celtic Tiger, writes Jan O Sullivan.

A homelessness charity has started providing detailed advice packs to community centres after they reported a "surge" in requests for help from people at risk of losing their homes.

HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm earned more than €500,000 last year at a time when vital frontline services were hit with a series of crippling cutbacks not witnessed in more than two decades.

SENIOR officials at Cork University Hospital have raised concerns that the facility’s oncology service could be put under severe pressure if any cap on the number of oncology outpatients seen at Mercy University Hospital is introduced.

INTENSIVE CARE staffing levels at one of the country’s largest children’s hospitals are being targeted as part of the drastic Health Service Executive (HSE) cost-cutting demands, the Irish Examiner has learned.

THE Rotunda Hospital has witnessed the “busiest month” in its 263-year history, with 857 babies born in just four weeks at a time when the country’s maternity services are struggling to cope with soaring birth rates.

Political parties are set to begin a series of soul searching sessions ahead of the resumption of the Dáil and Seanad later this month.

A protest demanding the end of the use of Shannon by the US military, organised by the Irish Anti War Movement (IAWM), is to take place at Shannon airport on Saturday.