What makes this constituency interesting is the amount of newcomers and first-time general-election candidates.

Credit unions have more than €8bn in surplus funds which could be used to help address the social housing emergency, but have been prevented from doing so by the State, it was claimed yesterday.

Senior Department of Health officials were warned almost a decade ago that private firms were using “hospitality” to influence hospital workers and doctors — but instead of acting shelved the detailed Oireachtas report.

Fine Gael TD and former health spokesperson Dr Liam Twomey is to step down at the next general election due to private “family reasons”.

The Red Mills Unraced Bitch Stake series, run in conjunction with the individual track supporters’ clubs, continues be a great success, and last Friday night’s victory for Badminton Rossa, in the Youghal renewal, was further testament to that.

Four family doctor practices each received €600,000 in payments from the HSE in 2013, including one practice that received over €800,000.

EU officials who have a major say on Ireland’s national budget should be questioned by the Oireachtas finance committee, its chair, Dr Liam Twomey has said.

EU laws to stop countries tax dumping should not affect Ireland and its multi-nationals, the chair of the Oireachtas finance committee has said.

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

The European Central Bank is not “overly concerned about the Irish situation” and its members have little or no interest in participating in the banking inquiry despite repeated requests for them to do so.

Bank of Ireland will be pressed to follow the lead of AIB and KBC Bank later today by offering long-term solutions to those in mortgage arrears.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is set to face criticism yet from his own backbenchers when Fine Gael members meet this evening.

Five family doctor practices each received HSE payments totalling over €600,000 in 2012, including two practices that received payments in excess of €700,000.

It was no accident that the banking inquiry — already well behind schedule and six years on from the banking collapse — was announced by Government yesterday with such haste.

New figures from the State’s ethics watchdog reveal that €17,000 in political donations were declared by TDs, senators and MEPs for the whole of last year.

CAN you imagine Richard Bruton’s reaction when he got the call? The instruction from Enda Kenny may have been: “Richard, I want to get rid of this Seanad thing, and you’re the best man for the job.”

Fine Gael TD and GP Liam Twomey has defended the decision to add Swords and Balbriggan to the primary care centre list, saying they had been identified on the broader list of 200 sites.

Two Hot Whiskeys may not be ideally served by his rails draw, but he has the early pace to go clear in tonight’s closing race at Curraheen Park and that should be enough to set up victory.

A bill is to be brought before the Dáil today which is to propose changes to legislation to give people who are ill more control over their treatment.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said that the salary paid to Bank of Ireland Chief Executive Richie Boucher does "jar" with him.

A call from the head of the Central Bank for banks to repossess more buy-to-let properties would cause “chaos” in the market, according to a national housing charity.

Maverick Fine Gael TD Peter Matthews is likely to escape disciplinary action despite helping plunge his party into ridicule.

DOCTORS and academics risk “professional suicide” if they reveal the adverse side-effects of anti-depressants and other psychiatric medicines, a leading academic psychiatrist has claimed.

With all bar four of the 43 constituencies in the General Election finished counting, the country’s political scene has undergone a sea change.

Former Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin has failed to retain her seat in Dun Laoghaire. Richard Boyd Barrett won the seat, bringing the haul of seats for Independents and others to 17.

The election of Fine Gael's Mary Mitchell O'Connor in Dun Laoghaire brings to 141 the total number of seats filled so far (from a total of 166).

John Browne of Fianna Fáil, as well as Dr Liam Twomey and Paul Kehoe, both Fine Gael, have been elected on the seventh and final count in Wexford.

Independent Mick Wallace has been elected on the first count in Wexford.

“Ahhhh, sure the dogs on the street know that the fella who smelt it, dealt it.”

FIANNA FÁIL would support a Fine Gael minority government with Enda Kenny as Taoiseach, according to its new leader Micheál Martin.

An Taoiseach Brian Cowen will decide this weekend whether to bring down the curtain on his political career.

THE GAA’s management committee has given the green light to a feasibility study into Hawk-Eye technology being used in the All-Ireland senior football and hurling championships.

AS the woman opened the bedroom door to let the two young doctors in to see her sick husband, one of them put his arm out to halt the other.

FIANNA Fáil’s feeble showing in recent opinion polls can at least be explained by having been in power for much of the past 20 years.

LIKE Derek Cregan (Letters, August 19), I also respect Senator Liam Twomey’s right to express his point of view.

THERE were no floods, forked-lightning, hellfires or seismic shifts.

IN response to Denis Moloney’s letter (August 16) I, as a member of Fine Gael, was also disappointed to read Senator Liam Twomey’s point of view with regard to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan addressing the annual Michael Collins commemoration at Béal na mBláth.

PATRICK Martin’s excellent letter (August 17) proves how things have changed since that sunny Sunday morning 50 years ago when I heard a former member of the Defence Forces being referred to as an “Irish Black and Tan”.

I WAS tempted to check the date of your edition that carried the report from Senator Liam Twomey (‘Lenihan slammed as speaker for Collins commemoration, August 12’) objecting to a “Fianna Fáil minister like Brian Lenihan” giving the oration at the Michael Collins commemoration in Béal na mBláth next Sunday.

AS an Irishman whose ancestors were prominent advocates of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, I am appalled by the sentiments expressed by Senator Liam Twomey (August 12).

BRIAN LENIHAN’S brother has criticised a Fine Gael senator who questioned whether the finance minister should continue in his job as he battles cancer.