Almost half of the candidates running in the Kerry local elections are sitting councillors, reports Anne Lucey.

THE culprit is so small that it’s difficult to see, but it can strike with deadly effect. Cases of Lyme disease are increasing in Britain and people here are again being urged to take precautions.

The Labour party National Conference gets underway in county Kerry later today.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly has said the Government has introduced measures as "far as we can go" to prevent the privatisation of Irish Water and that such an event would happen "over my dead body".

People with severe brain conditions are five times less likely to be able to access help now than they were three years ago as a result of the Government’s ongoing austerity policies.

Schools think issue dealt with but students disagree

Hoteliers and online touts are set to make a killing as a third Garth Brooks date for next July sold out in just 90 minutes.

A female senator was forced into revealing details of how she had carried a dead baby in a desperate effort to stop members using “absolutely disgraceful” language to describe abortion procedures.

Limits on rent supplement payments set by the Government are forcing thousands of families to make undeclared top-up payments to landlords to secure places to live.

With two Kerry constituencies merging and the loss of one seat, all eyes will be on the fallen Fianna Fáil, writes Donal Hickey

Senators of all parties work just as hard, if not more so, than their Dáil counterparts, says John Whelan

Wild deer may be a tourist attraction in Kerry but they also carry a potential public health risk.

A FORMER leader of the Seanad brought a close to the election count by imploring newly elected members to fight for the continued retention of the Upper House.

A STUNNING poll-topping triumph by first-time Fine Gael candidate Brendan Griffin was the big story of the general election in the key Kerry South constituency, but his success came at the expense of his party colleague Tom Sheahan who was gutted to lose his seat.

Final tallies from South Kerry show Fine Gael's Brendan Griffin topping the poll with 8,680 first preferences, or 19.9% of the vote.

THE BULL is struggling and the Dolly won’t make it to the starting line. The mighty have not quite fallen yet but they are fighting for their political lives.

THE intriguing battleground that is the Kerry South constituency is likely go right down to the wire but it looks as if the death knell could be about to sound for two of the country’s high-profile political dynasties.

THE Fine Gael party in Kerry South is expected to adopt a two-candidate strategy for the next election when it holds a convention in Killarney tonight.

THE country’s premier Irish cultural festival, Oireachtas na Samhna, which came to a close in Killarney yesterday, will return to the Co Kerry town next year.

POLITICAL parties and independents in Kerry County Council yesterday united to campaign for the retention of airline services to Dublin.

A SENIOR health manager apologised yesterday for delays which have left a new €16 million community nursing unit lying idle for over a year.

SEVEN full-time jobs and 24 trainee positions at a factory for people with mental disabilities are at risk because of HSE funding cuts, it was claimed.

A FORMER school principal has been elected Mayor of Co Cork, while for the first time in 40 years a Labour man holds the chain of office in Kerry.

I WOULD like to bring to the attention of your readers the huge debt of gratitude we owe public service workers during this time of national emergency.

FEAR of losing their seats may be giving sleepless nights to Fianna Fáil councillors countrywide but the party should have no such concerns in the enlarged Killarney electoral area.