Sinn Féin is changing tack on its Government formation negotiations by meeting officials from State departments, its chief negotiator Pearse Doherty has said.

Mr Ó Fearghaíl received the present while visiting the United Arab Emirates in late 2018.

Leo Varadkar personally signed off on a plan to give former taoisigh perks — including VIP airport facilities, increased use of state cars, and the salary for a full-time secretary — just four months after he took office.

Ten years ago, in the teeth of the great financial crisis, the then finance minister Brian Lenihan moved to cut public sector pay.

Pay for the country's top civil servants should be reviewed given an ongoing difficulty in attracting talent despite earning €200,000 and more a year, the Public Service Pay Commission has found.

There has been a cautious welcome to the Taoiseach’s confirmation of “state funding certainty” to finally deliver the stalled €80m Cork event centre.

In the real world, our defences are adequate for about as long as we are lucky enough to be left alone, writes Gerard Howlin

Simon Coveney said today that efforts are ongoing to bring clarity to the funding

There are fresh fears for the future of the stalled Cork event centre project after confirmation that construction inflation is running at 7% as efforts to resolve its complex State-funding mechanism drag on.

The outgoing Lord Mayor of Cork has attacked the government over the city’s long-running events centre saga and said it’s now time for them to deliver.

The Cabinet is set to discuss the stalled Cork event centre project when it meets in the city next week.

The Taoiseach has admitted that the 2016 pre-election sod turning on the stalled Cork event centre was a mistake.

The Political Year 2018 was one dominated by two issues — Brexit and abortion.

Michael D mastered the speech of protest the better to deliver it from the palace balcony, writes Gerard Howlin

Trump would be envious of the untouchable status of a president from criminal indictment, writes Gerard Howlin

The chair of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has rejected criticism of its planned meeting today about spending by the office of the President.

WHAT a bun fight it has turned out to be.

Update 9.30am The cost of Michael D Higgins’ presidential term is set to be examined by an Oireachtas committee next week - despite being warned doing so may be "unconstitutional".

The cost of Michael D Higgins’ presidential term is set to be examined by an Oireachtas committee next week despite fears that the investigation will damage the integrity of the presidential election.

The Government is set to approve controversial wide-ranging powers to its new housing regeneration development agency to allow it purchase public and private land to build social houses.

Some 29 people — 26 men and three women — were considered for the Garda Commissioner job.

The Government is “open to” changing legislation to guarantee any investigation into the cervical screening scandal is carried out in public.

Business-class flights for the Taoiseach and members of his staff for the annual St Patrick’s Day visit this year cost the taxpayer over €32,000.

Sinn Féin is a party unfit for government and Fine Gael will not be going into power with it, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will defy a Dáil vote to disband the controversial strategic communications unit (SCU), insisting its existence is not the business of TDs.

The composition of a powerful interview panel tasked with selecting the next garda commissioner is being kept largely under wraps.

Leo Varadkar has conceded the €5m strategic communications unit (SCU) may be gone next year as he accused the opposition of hurling “venomous” slurs at him and his staff over the unit.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was “blindsided” by several of his ministers yesterday in the Cabinet after they called for the strategic communications unit (SCU) to be kept.

The Government’s most senior civil servant and the head of the strategic communications unit (SCU) must face Dáil committee questions over claims the decision to pay for Ireland 2040 “advertorial” in newspapers has blurred the line between news and spin.

An independent barrister is likely to be appointed, potentially as soon as this weekend, to oversee an external inquiry into why the Department of Justice failed to hand over key Maurice McCabe email files to the Charleton Tribunal.

Supreme Court judge Frank Clarke is to be appointed chief justice after the Cabinet signed off on his nomination in its last meeting before the summer recess.

The controversial appointment of Maire Whelan to the Court of Appeal dominated Leo Varadkar’s first Cabinet meeting as Taoiseach.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has launched an internal review into serious concerns that cabinet details are being leaked to the public before they make it to ministers.

Fresh legislation to empower a judge to fully investigate the sale of assets from the former Anglo Irish Bank could be ready next month, a meeting between party leaders was told.

Enda Kenny listed the key findings of the Fennelly Report in the Dáil yesterday but questions remain about the whole affair, writes Cormac O’Keeffe

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has refused to comment on a poll which found just one in 10 people believe his version of why former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan retired.

Having read the full 350-page Fennelly report, in which the Taoiseach and the Attorney General take a pasting, Cormac O’Keeffe concludes that it is clear politics took over from due process

IN THE world of our Taoiseach Enda Kenny if you wake up with the head of a dead horse in the bed beside you the thing to do is take it to a taxidermist and have it stuffed and mounted, writes Alison O’Connor. 

Caroline O’Doherty puts the spotlight on the events that took place in the hours leading up to Martin Callinan’s retirement as Garda commissioner, from an initial meeting at the Taoiseach’s office to review the issue of telephone recordings, to Department of Justice secretary general Brian Purcell’s visit to the senior garda’s home