A Labour senator insists an online message he wrote congratulating candidates who won seats in his constituency does not have any hidden meaning, even though it failed to mention a party colleague who lost her TD position.

On foot of the last Boundary Commission, Cork North Central gained 11 electoral divisions and a population of 17,307 from Cork South Central. It also lost four electoral divisions with a population of 5,048 to Cork North West, and it remains a four-seat constituency.

A Cork TD is embroiled in controversy after it emerged he asked two on-duty gardaí to drive him to Dublin Airport to catch an early-morning flight to Brussels after his car broke down.

The Smiddy report on the amalgamation of the two local authorities in Cork has recommended the ratio of councillors to constituents be altered, especially in West Cork where their number has been reduced but the area of representation significantly increased.

“The city councillors will fight this tooth and nail,” whispered one of Cork’s longest-serving county councillors as Minister Alan Kelly unveiled the merger plan.

The Labour Party in Cork appeared in disarray last night amid growing indications that Junior Minister Kathleen Lynch may not contest the general election next year.

EU corporate governance officials have been asked to examine the Government’s Irish Water conservation grant over claims that it is simply an “inducement” to encourage people to sign up to charges.

A string of vile abuse including a threat to fill her “rat’s mouth with lead” and “blow her big fucking jew nose off” will form the basis of a complaint to gardaí this morning by Labour senator Lorraine Higgins who has again been targeted by online trolls.

Guinness has been credited with some of the world’s most iconic advertising and, says Ed Power, its quality hasn’t faltered since it launched its first advertisement, to the chagrin of its owner, in 1929

A Cork community is trying to comfort the family of a young woman whose life was tragically cut short when she drowned in West Cork on Tuesday night.

Planning permission is expected to be lodged in September for a €10m FAI regional centre for soccer excellence in Co Cork.

IS it just me, or has the political world gone mad? I’ve never seen so much invective heaped on a political leader, from outside and inside his own party. 

If she’d felt buoyed by the International Monitory Fund’s endorsement for her to lead the Labour Party, Joan Burton was brought back to earth last night by the grassroots concern about the party’s future.

Junior health minister Alex White’s late bid to lead Labour has been weakened after party TDs yesterday indicated their support for Social Protection Minister Joan Burton.

"The senior people get the senior positions. It’s the nature of politics," Labour’s chief whip, Emmet Stagg, mused on RTÉ radio the night of his party leader’s resignation. "The younger generation have to serve their time."

MEP Phil Prendergast has denied that her call for Eamon Gilmore to resign as Labour leader was an "act of desperation" and described as "reactionary" a comment by her colleague Seán Sherlock that she can not be taken seriously as a candidate.

Civilian staff exposed to potentially dangerous levels of asbestos told a senior navy officer during a heated meeting that their families may also be at risk of lung damage.

A senator who worked at psychiatric hospital which is at the centre of an asbestos row says that HSE plans to remove the material while patients are still in situ is simply not an option.

Data does not support the general perception that the incidence of suicide in Ireland is increasing, a senior official in the CSO has claimed.

Labour senator John Gilroy has dropped out of the race for an EU seat, and said his decision was based on “a lack of decision-making by the party”.

A flood-affected community has vowed to fight any plans to build on a sensitive site before a major flood prevention study is completed.

Plans for new commuter railway stations in Cork have reached “the end of the line” due to a lack of funding and the rejection of the county council’s plan to build a new town at Monard, near Blarney.

Cork County Councils’s grand plan to develop a new town near Blarney has been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.

A parish priest is among those disappointed over the refusal of planning permission for the first privately operated graveyard in Cork.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny pledged to uncover the truth behind “the axis of collusion” between Anglo bankers and Fianna Fáil but rejected calls for an independent banking probe.

Reducing the number of councillors in West Cork is a blow to local areas, says Sean O’Riordan

IS there, do you think, any real possibility that we will have a general election over the promissory note?

Failure to deliver a deal on the Anglo debt will impact badly on public sector pay, a Government minister has admitted.

A man, who passionately believes people should have the right to be buried in the area they resided, is seeking planning permission for the first privately-run cemetery in Co Cork.

A politician plans to swap lives with a single mother, trading seven days in the Seanad for a week in her shoes.

A former psychiatric nurse is hoping a series of nationwide workshops can provide the Government with the necessary tools to reduce a needless average suicide death rate of 500.

WORD from the rarified surrounds of Seanad Éireann, the crèche that cares for the oldest and boldest children in the country, that the rations are low and the natives are restless.

The public are being told to “suck up the austerity”, while senior politicians take home six-figure salaries, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.

More than 80% of people who died by suicide had been in contact with a GP or mental health service in the year prior to their death, a study has found.

GOVERNMENT policy on suicide is flawed and must be radically overhauled as it is not working, the Seanad will hear today.

AS VITA Cortex workers continue their sit-in, it has emerged that employees from another Cork company still have not received most of their entitlements, six months after a receiver was appointed.

THE political future of a Fianna Fáil tax defaulter is hanging in the balance after a call was made for him to resign his seat on Cork County Council.

THE system of special care is in chaos and needs to be thoroughly reviewed, a Cork-based senator has said following a damning Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report on Gleann Alainn.

A 23-YEAR-OLD man who has spoken out on radio about depression and social anxiety has set up a Facebook page to talk to people in similar situations and garner support for the taboo issue.

THIRTEEN recently elected members of the Seanad are to share a windfall of almost €440,000.

AN Irish journalist whose phone may have been hacked by the News of the World after he wrote a book on Provisional IRA informer “Stakeknife” has insisted there are more victims in this country.

A SENATOR has called on Irish authorities to investigate if the News of the World phone-hacking scandal was repeated here.

THE Government should investigate whether the News of the World hacked phones of people in Ireland, a Labour senator has said.

PEOPLE in crisis and at risk of taking their own lives have nowhere to turn and action community groups are being left to try and cope with them, it has been claimed.