In Opposition, Pat Rabbitte, facing Ireland’s most reckless, incompetent, and corrupt government, performed with vigour and style. He was articulate, robust, and incisive, making them shift uneasily in their Dáil seats.

IT was GK Chesterton who said about the Irish that "the great Gaels of Ireland, Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad". I don’t know about the wars, but the mournfulness of the songs is the reason I’ve never been a huge fan of Irish traditional music, if the truth be told.

New Labour leader Joan Burton has been appointed as Tánaiste, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has confirmed.

ESB and Vodafone are to invest €450m in a "100% fibre-to-the-building" broadband network offering speeds from 200 Mbps to 1000 Mbps.

On the face of it, the Government’s decision yesterday to increase the tax take for the State from all future commercial oil and gas discoveries in Irish waters is a good one.

Ireland’s tax regime for oil and gas exploration is to be reformed, with future discoveries taxed according to their scale and value.

Calls to the Samaritans are now free.

The Government may be forced to seek additional funding or add the costs of setting up Irish Water to the national debt if EU auditors rule the State cannot purchase equity from itself.

The sale of a division of Bord Gáis has been abandoned after no buyer was willing to stump up the asking price.

Two senior Government Ministers have described the threatened industrial action at ESB as "unnecessary".

Following the withdrawal of one of the three bidders from the sales process, it now looks unlikely that Bord Gáis’s retail and power generation division will be sold before 2014.

Does the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, TD, regret the comments he made on The Weeks in Politics TV show last December.

The Government wants to make renewable energy one of Ireland’s key exports in order to capitalise on European regulations on the percentage of renewable energy a company is required to produce.

A senior source within the Department of Public Expenditure has said that the €250,000 pay cap will not be breached in order to attract a new CEO to Bord Gáis.

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte has today defended his use of outside consultants.

A new 260km electricity interconnector linking Ireland and Britain has opened in Co Meath.

The first ever electricity connector between the Republic of Ireland and Britain will be officially opened later today.

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources said today that he stands by his comments on the Catholic Church's role in the abortion debate.

The founder of One in Four, Colm O'Gorman, has said that Cardinal Sean Brady's defence of his role in a 1975 abuse inquiry is "just not good enough".

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte has said he would prefer to see more money go towards investment from the sale of state assets.

One third of a potential €3bn sell-off of State assets will be used for job creation and economic stimulus.

A new €14m research lab will help make Ireland a global leader in marine renewable energy research, the energy minister was told yesterday.

EMC is building a cloud computing innovation centre to be called Cloud4Gov, which could save the state anything up to 50% on its IT costs.

The Government has today unveiled a plan aimed at creating 200,000 jobs by 2020.

BORD na Móna is to invest €6 million creating 91 jobs over the next three years at the company’s headquarters in Newbridge, Co Kildare.

A SCOTTISH university is to undertake a state-ordered report into a controversial gas extraction method known as “fracking” to determine potential environmental impacts and will be completed early next year.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte has announced funds of €76m (including an additional €13m carryover) for 4,500 direct and indirect jobs for energy efficiency measures under the Better Energy: Homes Scheme.

Pat O’Doherty has been appointed as new chief executive of ESB in succession to Padraig McManus who is retiring.

The search for oil off the Cork coast is to be stepped up next month.

IRELAND has upped its efforts to discover offshore oil by yesterday awarding 13 new licensing options.

A MOVE by Pat Rabbitte, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to grant a prospecting licence for gold and silver to a Dublin-based firm for land in east Clare, has created great local excitement.

Environmental advisers have been called in to brief Government on the impact of the controversial method of gas extraction known as "fracking".

Irish and UK Energy Ministers will share a podium for the first time in Ireland at the 4th Annual Conference of the National Offshore Wind Association of Ireland this November.

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

THE Government is to introduce a new energy policy within the next year to reassess the country’s needs and to ensure security of supply, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte said yesterday.

Labour's Pat Rabbitte has admitted that some statements made by his Government colleagues during the General Election campaign on the issue of debt restructuring may have gone further than was "prudent".

The Government has no immediate plans sell off the energy networks in a bid to raise money for the economy, it was confirmed today.

The Department of Communications will begin a process today to identify which parts of the country are without access to broadband.

THE IRFU’s bean counters breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when the government decided not to impose free-to-air restrictions on the European club and Six Nations competitions.

A DECISION on whether to reopen a controversial draft net salmon fishery in Co Kerry is due to be made in the coming weeks.

WE had yesterday a very worrying glimpse of how some very powerful groups have not yet accepted the great and pressing challenges facing the viability of this society.

Mobile broadband provider, Three, is to create 50 new jobs.