Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny MJ Nolan has announced he's quitting politics.

THERE have been grave warnings from the country’s largest utility companies that more than 110,000 householders haven’t enough money to pay their electricity and gas bills.

ENSURING the Six Nations and Heineken Cup will be shown on terrestrial TV will make the games available to a significantly greater number of people than if they are broadcast on subscription channels.

I USED to be an inveterate funeral goer – several per week. I hadn’t been to one for the past two years until the unexpected death of newspaper man and former schoolmate, Alan Ruddock.

There has been further criticism of the Taoiseach's Cabinet reshuffle from the Fianna Fáil back benches.

NEXT Tuesday the outgoing Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue will enter the Dáil, make a statement, step aside and join his colleagues to vote for his successor.

WIND energy has the potential to create more than 10,700 jobs including 7,000 in the construction sector, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

RTÉ is seeking an increase in the TV licence fee, despite predictions by the station’s management that it will break even financially this year.

MEGA-EARNING RTÉ stars were last night told to do their patriotic duty and take a pay cut.

MOBILE phone firms do not have the technology to protect children from abusive and inappropriate calls and text message.

The Oireachtas will introduce legislation to stamp out mobile phone bullying if operators in the market don’t find a solution, it was claimed today.

THE Energy regulator has been called to appear before an Oireachtas committee next month to explain big increases in energy prices over recent months.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has given consolation prizes of almost €20,000 apiece to the three junior ministers he sacked last month.

The Government tonight announced the 17 Coalition TDs who will chair Oireachtas Committees and pick up €1.7m in extra pay over the next five years.

The closely fought Carlow-Kilkenny contingency has returned two Fianna Fáil deputies on the first count.

THE Green Party’s Mary White is set to win a historic seat for the party in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency, according to an opinion poll to be published in today’s Carlow Nationalist.

The deepening crisis facing Taoiseach Bertie Ahern over cash payments he accepted when Minister for Finance in the 1990s was tonight sharply dividing his Government.

An outspoken Fianna Fáil backbencher has said he believes the Taoiseach has caused himself real damage as a result of the payments be received from businessmen in the early 1990s.

THE Oireachtas committee established to investigate issues raised by the striking down of the statutory rape law will hold its inaugural meeting today.

THE Oireachtas Committee which will examine if the Constitution should be changed following the Supreme Court decision on statutory rape may repeal the emergency laws on child abuse introduced last month.

GAA President Sean Kelly has backed Carlow club Tinryland GFC in their dispute with the National Roads Authority (NRA) and Kildare County Council.

Ray Ryan, Agribusiness Correspondent

THE decision by a group of TDs to skip the first two weeks of the Dáil term to play rugby in Australia was last night condemned as unjustifiable and “stupid”.

HEALTH MINISTER Mícheál Martin is facing increasing opposition from TDs within his own party over plans to ban smoking in pubs.

THE country’s first health park — a US-style hospital featuring a nursing home and sports injury clinic — is to be built in Carlow at a cost of €100m.

THE defence may have crumbled at Lansdowne Road, but one squad took on everything that England, Scotland and Wales could collectively throw at them — and still managed to send them packing.

The transfer of a production line to Hungary is being blamed for the loss of 225 jobs at the Braun plant in Carlow town.

Fine Gael's Deirdre Clune has lost her seat in Cork South-Central.

The Fianna Fáil election trail heads to the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency this morning in a final bid to win the hearts and minds of the electorate.