High-ranking Garda officers were involved in a ploy to coerce citizens into buying hard drugs to boost crime detection figures, the Dáil has heard.

The opposition boycotted the Dáil yesterday to protest at what they called a “jack boot” bid by the Government to ram through water charges.

Independent TDs Luke “Ming” Flanagan and Finian McGrath are entitled to orders stopping any further use of a large split-level car park alleged to have caused “chaos” in Tuam town, to be a safety risk to local children, and to have adversely impacted on the medieval town’s architectural heritage, the High Court has ruled.

Deputy Luke “Ming” Flanagan’s attempt to have cannabis regulated was up in smoke last night after it was soundly beaten by 111-8 votes in the Dáil last night.

A Fine Gael TD has revealed he is open to the decriminalisation of cannabis along the lines pioneered in Portugal.

Legalising cannabis and opening Amsterdam-style coffee shops all over the country could be worth up to €300m for the Exchequer and would take millions away from criminal gangs such as those which murdered crime journalist Veronica Guerin, Independent TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan claimed yesterday.

The final Dáil vote saw 31 TDs oppose the X case legislation as numbers were swelled by left-wing deputies protesting that the new law was not liberal enough.

The retired garda who made public the quashing of penalty points yesterday claimed Independent TD Clare Daly’s name was recorded on a criminal intelligence system when she attended a meeting at which the late Brian Lenihan was speaking.

A Garda report into the practice of quashing penalty points will be published today but will not identify drivers who have had fines cancelled or gardaí who were involved in the process.

The contents of the Micheál Martin tapes were shocking.

Four men accused of cutting turf illegally have been sent forward for trial to the Circuit Criminal Court.

Growing tensions within the Dáil’s block of Independent TDs looks likely to see it break up in the wake of the Luke “Ming” Flanagan penalty points controversy.

Leaving aside the inordinate pay, perks, pensions and long holidays of TDs and senators, the public are sick to the teeth of the kind of constitutional privilege which affords politicians protection from being arrested either when going to, or returning from, or being within, the precincts of either the Dáil or Seanad.

The country’s three largest sporting bodies all said that a proposal to ban sponsorship of major sporting events by drinks firms would have a devastating impact on the funding of their respective sports, especially at club and community level.

BACK in December I opened my weekly column in this newspaper with the following sentences: “Well done to independent TDs Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Luke “Ming” Flanagan and Joan Collins for trying to perform a public service in the Dáil this week.

Deputy Luke “Ming” Flanagan has become hopelessly ensnared in his own hypocritical web of deception.

WE ARE all dreading it.

It began as a pebble in the shoe of the ECB, but yesterday the refuseniks of Ballyhea rang up the 100th march against the bailout, continuing a display of defiance that shows no sign of stopping.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has warned four TDs to cancel plans to expose a dossier of evidence on people who have had penalty points struck out by gardaí.

The Dáil’s standards watchdog has ruled that Tipperary TD Michael Lowry “inadvertently” broke ethics rules.

WELL done to Independent TDs Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Luke “Ming” Flanagan, and Joan Collins for trying to perform a public service in the Dáil this week.

Unruly TDs could be forced to adhere to guidelines on their actions outside of the Dáil chambers following a row between deputies and the Ceann Comhairle in the corridors of Leinster House.

Shabby TDs will have to look smart if they want to be heard when the Dáil returns next month.

Mick Wallace has been forced to break ranks with a group of independents over his tax affairs.

Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan’s remarks that he wished he had not taken on part of his portfolio have been criticised by a conservation charity.

A decision on doubling the compensation to bog-owners effected by new turf cutting rules has been deferred pending a public forum on the issue.

Cannabis-based medicinal products, such as Sativex, could soon be available to people with multiple sclerosis and other medical conditions on prescription.

A GROUP of politicians, civil rights campaigners and lawyers have joined forces and called for a “no” vote in next week’s referendum on whether or not Oireachtas members should be given increased powers of investigation.

THE Government has broken promises it made to compensate turfcutters affected by EU laws which ban them from cutting on specified protected bogs, it has been claimed.

Sinn Féin is expected to formally endorse Martin McGuinness as its Presidential candidate at a top-level meeting in Dublin today.

THERE was no shouting, debating, vitriolic exchanges or even derogatory comments.

IF I run into Roscommon TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan in Roscommon next Sunday at the Connacht Senior Football Final he’ll find that I’ll be dressed in a suit, what might be called a “business suit”.

THREE little sexist piggies were caught squealing in the Dáil yesterday.

THERE was no room for basic civility. When Enda Kenny stepped from his vehicle in Athlone last Monday, he saw his fellow TD, Luke “Ming” Flanagan, and approached him. Flanagan was among a large group of people protesting at the scheduled downgrading of A&E facilities at Roscommon Hospital.

Some 16 independent and left-leaning TDs have formed a pact to ensure speaking rights in the Dáil.

AT least nine Independent TDs have agreed in principle to forming a Dáil technical group giving them similar speaking and other rights to political parties.

NEWLY ELECTED TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan has re-iterated his pledge to take a 50% pay cut when he takes his seat in Dáil Éireann in a few weeks.

INDEPENDENT TD for Dublin South, Shane Ross, has held out the prospect that Fine Gael could form a Government with the support of “like-minded” independents following the election of the largest ever number of non-party candidates across the country.

THE Roscommon Hospital Action Committee, which last August rallied up to 10,000 people to support its cause, has selected its chairperson John McDermott to run in the election.