"The Kerrymen are down from the mountains" was the greeting from a smiling Taoiseach Enda Kenny for some life-long Fine Gael supporters who turned out yesterday to welcome him to Killarney.

The Government has named the day for the Longford/Westmeath and Dublin West by-elections.

It has been confirmed that writs for the by-elections to fill the two vacant seats in the Dáil will be moved tomorrow.

The former minister Mary O’Rourke is likely to find herself back on the campaign trail after her son, Aengus O’Rourke, was chosen by Fianna Fáil to contest a Dáil seat in next month’s by-election in Longford-Westmeath.

It is now almost certain that the Longford Westmeath by-election will be held on May 23 with the local and European elections.

Prior to the last general election Taoiseach Enda Kenny made a commitment to the Irish people that if Fine Gael was returned to power they would dispense with parish-pump politics, sleaze, cronyism and political nepotism, so long associated with the body politic in this state.

It has been reported that two Dáil by-elections will go ahead on the same day as next month's local and European polls.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was visibly as he delivered a graveside oration for Longford/Westmeath TD Nicky McFadden yesterday.

Fine Gael TD Nicky McFadden will be laid to rest in Athlone this afternoon.

Aine Collins has branded the incident in which she was pulled onto a male TD’s lap as “disgusting”.

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.

Charges are expected to be brought against the bosses of an international sex trafficking gang arrested in Ireland last month.

Nama approved 212 applications for rent reductions from businesses last year, with an annual aggregate rent reduction value of €13.5m.

The building on Sean Costello St, Athlone, has seen many days and many uses.

Government TDs have urged Defence Minister Alan Shatter to revisit the decision to disband the army’s Western Brigade.

Fine Gael TD Nicky McFadden said she was “shocked and distressed” following her diagnosis with motor neurone disease, but vowed it would be “business as usual” as far as her work was concerned.

The Fine Gael TD for Longford/Westmeath Nicky McFadden has said she will continue to serve her constituents despite being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease last week.

The prospect of parts of the Midlands being turned into a “Shanghai on the Shannon” has been greeted positively in a region considered one of the country’s unemployment blackspots.

The tight-knit community of Rindoon Park and Hazelwood in Athlone was last night coming to terms with the tragic drowning of two-year-old Liam Keogh.

WILLIE Penrose disputed figures provided by the Taoiseach on the cost savings associated with the closure of Columb Barracks, saying the numbers “don’t stand up”.

ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Hogan has confirmed that planning and development regulations which he is putting through the Oireachtas will reduce the exempted development threshold for drainage of wetlands, from 20 hectares to one tenth of a hectare (about quarter of an acre), and reduce the threshold for a mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA) of drainage of wetlands from 20 to two hectares.

Athlone-based pharmaceutical company Elan is selling its Westmeath unit to US biotechnology firm Alkermes.

With all bar four of the 43 constituencies in the General Election finished counting, the country’s political scene has undergone a sea change.

Former Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin has failed to retain her seat in Dun Laoghaire. Richard Boyd Barrett won the seat, bringing the haul of seats for Independents and others to 17.

The election of Fine Gael's Mary Mitchell O'Connor in Dun Laoghaire brings to 141 the total number of seats filled so far (from a total of 166).

LANDLORDS and developers are sitting on properties and refusing to hand them over for long-term social housing schemes because they expect a better deal from NAMA, the Department of Environment admitted yesterday.

ANGRY TDs yesterday expressed concern over the abolition of the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) and its merger within a government department as it was revealed that 40% of the agency’s staff have been lost.

THE decision to end all breast cancer services in Mullingar last night has been strongly criticised by prominent politicians in the midlands.

A SERIAL sex attacker is believed to be on the loose in Athlone after a third violent sexual assault on female victims at the same location inside eight weeks.

Labour's Willie Penrose has been elected in the new Longford-Westmeath constituency.

Fine Gael has selected a third candidate to contest the next general election in the Longford-Westmeath constituency.

The road fatality figure for the year climbed over the 100 mark yesterday morning when Declan McCormack and Kathryn Devaney died following an accident in Athlone in Co Westmeath.

Females across Ireland will today mark International Women’s Day by celebrating the economic, social, cultural and political achievements of those who have made history.

The Fine Gael Party Leader Enda Kenny TD announced today details of the party's candidates for the Senate elections.

The Fine Gael campaign moves to the Midlands today.