TEACHERS elected to the next Dáil and Seanad will no longer be entitled to build up their teacher pensions while serving in the Oireachtas.

TWO defiant independent TDs forced the Government into its final climbdown after a week of humiliation to ensure the Finance Bill can pass before the general election.

MEDICAL card holders have had their tax burden reduced, but key independent deputies demanded more concessions to allow the Finance Bill overcome its first major hurdle at midday.

THE last vestige of credibility evaporated from the Progressive Democrats from the moment Michael McDowell hoist the petard that the PDs were exiting government — only to subsequently change their minds.

Opposition politicians tonight vowed to renegotiate the €85bn bailout after next year's General Election.

FIANNA FÁIL deputies have been accused of cowardice after taking shelter in a private parliamentary party meeting rather than speaking in the Dáil to support the controversial cuts to social welfare payments.

The Social Welfare Bill, which will cut the dole, child benefit and other payments, has passed all stages in the Dáil this evening.

A SMALL group of isolated deputies made the most decisive votes of their Oireachtas career as the Government squeezed out a majority for its budget and social welfare cuts.

THE low-paid and the poor have been hardest hit by a savage budget that spared no one except the TDs needed to vote it through.

“THEY gave me nothing and I owe them nothing” was how Jim McDaid summed up his relationship with Fianna Fáil back in 2007, just after he regained his seat on the party’s ticket in Donegal North East.

Ceann Comhairle Seamus Kirk has confirmed the resignation of former minister Jim McDaid from the Dáil.

Renegade TD Jim McDaid is to quit politics, it was confirmed today.

WHEN the Dáil attendance record was changed to accommodate TDs who could not turn up because of the Icelandic ash cloud, the deputies argued the correction was incidental.

The Government has survived the first test of the new Dáil term, winning a vote on the length of time set aside to debate the extension of the bank guarantee scheme.

A PLEA for Fianna Fáil rebels to rally behind the Government was issued by Brian Cowen last night as he faced into a succession of knife-edge votes when the Dáil returns.

SIXTY-EIGHT customers a day – 14,450 in total – had either their electricity or gas cut off in the first seven months of this year.

MAJOR planning and banking bills have been passed by the Dáil in contentious circumstances.

The Government has won the first in a series of votes on legislation to ban stag hunting by a margin of four.

The Government faces a battle to pass controversial legislation on stag-hunting in the Dáil today.

Campaigners opposed to a new bill to ban stag hunting say they believe up to four Fianna Fáil TDs could vote against the legislation.

Independent TD Joe Behan has today stated that Government TDs supporting the Social Welfare Budget cuts should "hang their heads in shame".

SINGLE mother Alison McKim was disappointed that just five TDs turned up at her door to see how she copes with her blind teenage son who has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and asthma.

The Carers’ Association invited ministers, Dáil deputies and senators on the new “Care Bus” to visit the home of family carer Alison McKim, a single mother who provides full-time care for her son Zack in Terenure. Seventeen-year-old Zack has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, asthma and is blind.

A CONCILIATORY Taoiseach Brian Cowen has invited four renegade TDs who left his Government in protest at policy decisions to come back to the fold.

Politicians deeply abhor and detest general elections. All recoil at the personal horror of their own uncertainty. TDs are always in a constant state of denial about the prospects of a pending contest. The profound level of private insecurity has to be felt to be believed.

A horrific murder/suicide that left two people dead and two others seriously injured may have been sparked by jealousy over a woman, it emerged tonight.

BRIAN Cowen faced a deepening leadership crisis last night as Fianna Fáil TDs expressed despair at his failure to hold the party together.

THE resignation of two Fianna Fáil TDs from the Parliamentary Party has brought Taoiseach Brian Cowen within a vote of having to dissolve the Dáil.

UNDER-FIRE Tánaiste Mary Coughlan yesterday made what amounted to a public plea to keep her job as speculation she would be made to carry the can for the Government’s election rout intensified.

IT DAWNED on him pretty quickly.

INDEPENDENCE Day has come once again as the importance of the Dáil’s non-party TDs continues to grow while the Government’s majority diminishes.

SPORTS Minister Martin Cullen has said an undeclared payment made to him by a business in his constituency was above board.

AN expert report on the possible reintroduction of third-level fees should be before cabinet by September.

IT may seem a paradox, but the Government has had a good week, despite introducing the harshest budget in living memory.

THE budget will be criticised from within the Fianna Fáil ranks in the Dáil today when rebel backbencher Ned O’Keeffe speaks out against plans to introduce a toxic assets agency.

Constituency profiles offer some fascinating insights into who elects who and why, finds Political Correspondent Conor Ryan.

THE Dáil voted to sweep away the right to medical cards for over-70s last night as the Government forced the controversial measure through against bitter opposition.

FIANNA Fáil backbench TDs are being challenged at the eleventh hour to vote against “profoundly unjust” laws to bring to an end the automatic entitlement to medical cards for over-70s.

EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe has pledged to push ahead with controversial cuts in the education sector — including a reduction in substitute teacher payments — pointing to figures which reveal how teachers called in sick nearly 60,000 times last year without sick notes.

An average of 12,500 teachers across the state pull 'sickies' on every Monday and Friday, an Oireachtas Committee heard today.

FIANNA FÁIL last night denied Brian Cowen’s authority as Taoiseach had been dented by the third Government rebellion in three weeks.

ALMOST one-in-five of Government TDs who voted for massive education cutbacks this week are serving or former teachers.

REBEL TD Finian McGrath last night branded his removal from a key Oireachtas committee as a “sinister attack on free speech”.