A near 6% monthly fall in home loan approvals is “indicative of a dysfunctional market”, an industry representative has stated.

The Irish love affair with their flexible friend continues through the recession as the use of debit cards quadrupled while cheques declined.

Debit card usage has more than quadrupled since 2005, with the use of cheques almost halving in the same period.

The Irish Banking Federation reported a 16% increase in the volume of mortgages approved but brokers claim that the market remains deeply dysfunctional.

Mortgage lending values are expected to remain stable at just over €3bn this year, with growth slowed by a shortage of available properties and the lingering arrears crisis rather than a lack of available credit, one market expert has estimated.

The number of mortgage approvals increased 4.1% in 2013, it has been revealed.

There has been an increase of more than 40% in the value of mortgages granted in the third quarter of the year, while the number and value of property transactions in Dublin have soared.

Gay Byrne has claimed that former Road Safety Authority chief executive Noel Brett left the post because he was “hamstrung” from getting things done because of negativity and the “civil service process” — as well as the pay cuts he endured in recent years.

A young couple from the UK who were in Ireland to attend a wedding died yesterday when their rental car was involved in a collision with a lorry in South Kerry.

A crowd of 80,000 will fill Croke Park today for the sell-out All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final between Cork and Clare.

A great guy … who will be sorely missed.

The number of roadside checkpoints mounted by gardaí has reached its highest level in many years over the summer, according to the latest Garda statistics.

Storm forecasters have predicted that tornadoes may hit Ireland today.

Road users were urged yesterday to take extra care as the number of tractors, trailers and other farm machinery using the roads increases with the start of the harvest.

The Chief Executive of the Road Safety Authority, Noel Brett, has reiterated his call for a second investigation into the penalty points controversy.

Ireland’s top traffic garda has insisted he has the manpower to fight dangerous driving on the country’s roads.

Hundreds of L-plate motorists were penalised every month last year for getting behind the wheel without a fully licensed driver in the car.

The number of motorists who obtained penalty points for road traffic offences fell by more than 7% last year amid fears that a reduction in the size of the Garda Traffic Corps has impacted on enforcement levels.

The Government has promised to introduce legislation for a “zero-tolerance” approach to illicit drug-driving as well as motorists whose driving is impaired by the use of prescription medicines.

While the dramatic fall in road deaths over the past six years has been impressive, we face a harder task to maintain progress under the latest strategy, writes Seán McCárthaigh.

A new road safety strategy has been launched, focusing on the effects of serious injuries, and including some hi-tech solutions to irresponsible driver behaviour.

Pupils from two Munster schools scooped the top awards in a national competition that encourages children to develop vital road safety skills.

Ireland is on course to meet an EU target of cutting annual road deaths in half by 2020.

The decision to award a monopoly to a Swiss multi-national to produce new credit card style driving licences will have a devastating effect on photo ID professionals here and could put up to 4,000 jobs in jeopardy.

Motorists are being reminded to take extra care on the roads this morning after sub-zero temperatures overnight.

Temperatures are expected to dip as low as minus five tonight, as we enter a late Spring cold snap.

Motorists in the south of the country are the worst offenders in relation to defective lights, a Garda study shows.

The Road Safety Authority has reassured elderly motorists and drivers with a medical condition that new guidelines on medical fitness are not designed to put them off the road.

Gardaí will begin targeting vehicles with broken or inappropriate lighting as part of Operation Light Up today and tomorrow.

The beautifully bred Speckled Wood seems to have a decent future, after coasting to victory in the Holy Cross Mares’ Maiden Hurdle at Thurles yesterday.

On a day when Aintree-bound Seabass made a hugely encouraging return to action, hurdling debutant Defy Logic and Rock Critic enhanced their credentials as exciting novices with victories in Fairyhouse yesterday.

Leitrim, Laois, Kildare, Monaghan and Clare showed the biggest reduction in road deaths in the five years that saw the country set new safety records.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar insists the new credit card-size driving licence is not open to fraud abuse.

A motion passed by Kerry County Council aimed at permitting people to drink and drive has been criticised today for dragging the country back to "darker days".

Motorists are being warned to take extreme care as icy weather is set to spread across the country over the weekend.

The centralisation of driving licence production was branded an attack on rural Ireland yesterday, as the Road Safety Authority defended the new system as the cheapest for consumers.

Fears are growing that lives will be put at risk as cash-strapped county councils put off road maintenance in an effort to keep within their slashed budgets.

A man in his 20s was killed in a car accident in the north-west on Christmas Day as he drove home having visited his girlfriend.

The annual Christmas exodus is well underway on the roads this evening.

Trainer Dermot Weld described the performance as “very satisfactory” after Waaheb, off the track since the 2011 Punchestown Festival, justified 8/13 favouritism in the Premier Jump Weekend Hurdle at Fairyhouse yesterday.

A 700-acre site will be transformed in to the hub of agricultural and rural life when the National Ploughing Championships opens.

Gardaí should be given powers to check the mobile phone records of motorists involved in fatal accidents to see if they were on the phone at the time of the crash.

The number of penalty point offences detected in the first half of 2012 has fallen by more than 8%, leading to fears that enforcement levels may be affected by a reduction in the size of the Garda Traffic Corps.

Without any fanfare, one of the country’s best-known journalists bowed out from his on-air career with RTÉ after almost 40 years with the station.