The Department of Justice has received a hammering before, but few can recall a time when its own minister and the Taoiseach gave it such a public tongue-lashing, writes Cormac O'Keeffe.

The Department of Justice has received a hammering before, but few can recall a time when its own minister and the Taoiseach gave it such a public tongue-lashing, writes Cormac O’Keeffe.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan are under considerable pressure over their handling of the Maurice McCabe email scandal which claimed the scalp of Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald who resigned.

There was a giddy atmosphere around the Dáil.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan is set to become the target of renewed opposition pressure after echoing Frances Fitzgerald by claiming he did not realise the significance of the May 15, 2015, Maurice McCabe email.

Department of Justice secretary general Noel Waters has retired with immediate effect and brought forward his planned departure from February 2018 today "entirely of my own volition" amid the McCabe e-mails scandal fallout.

Leo Varadkar has left open the possibility of accepting the resignation of his Tánaiste, Frances Fitzgerald, to avoid the country going through a bitter Christmas general election.

The justice minister is now facing serious questions as it emerged he was told of an the email at the centre of the latest Maurice McCabe scandal a full week before the Taoiseach was informed.

Transport Minister Shane Ross is facing fresh claims that he pulled a “political stroke” by ensuring Stepaside Garda Station was re-opened after a senior garda officer said the facility “would not have been my number one priority”.

It does not look good for Frances Fitzgerald.

The Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Noel Waters is set to retire next February.

IT is, sadly, easy to argue that An Garda Síochána cannot withstand another scandal; the force’s credibility is shot.

Just how much did the Department of Justice and the minister of the day know about attempts to silence a whistleblower, asks Special Correspondent Michael Clifford

Acting Garda Commissioner Dónall Ó Cualáin is to be paid the full €180,613 salary his predecessor Nóirín O’Sulivan got, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

Only around half of the 138 garda stations closed during the recession were considered to be in a position to be reopened in a special report to be presented to the Government.

The head of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Sean Fleming, has claimed the Government "infected the garda process" of deciding what Garda stations should be re-opened.

A defiant Transport Minister Shane Ross has said the decision to reopen Stepaside Garda Station in his constituency was not “stroke politics”.

Acting Garda Commissioner Dónall Ó Cualáin has apologised to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for misleading it over the release of a report into the controvesial re-opening of Stepaside Garda Station.

Former Garda commissioners including Martin Callinan, Fachtna Murphy and Noel Conroy could be hauled before the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over the deepening garda college financial scandal.

Three out of every four prisoners has a drug problem; one in seven are on methadone treatment; 30 are “psychotic” and waiting to be transferred to psychiatric hospitals at any time; and dozens would immediately become homeless if they were released.

A new prison working rules system that officials said would save the State almost €300m over the past decade by replacing overtime has cut costs by just €8m.

Inadequate and outdated facilities, as well as an upsurge in gangland crime, is putting forensic scientists’ abilities to process evidence under threat.

The State’s forensic science chief has described as cynical the Government’s decision to delay funding for a much-needed forensic laboratory until 2019.

Ireland’s forensic science chief has warned the Government that the State faces the risk of “very large expense and untold reputational damage” from the collapse of a court case due to contamination of DNA samples caused by poor laboratory conditions.

Authorities cannot say they were unaware of the potential for catastrophe in forensic science as

The Policing Authority has decided that it may require access to “a certain level of operational detail” on organised crime and related garda intelligence to fulfil its role. The move by the agency follows a letter it received from a deputy garda commissioner regarding the authority’s wish to discuss these issues with the garda commissioner.

The crisis-hit Department of Justice is facing a second year with no permanent senior civil servant at its helm as candidates run scared of taking over the job.

Two small makeshift grenades were used in the explosions outside a building housing the British Consulate in New York today.

Two explosions outside the British Consulate in New York caused slight damage to the building early today but no one was injured, officials said.

Two explosions were heard outside the British Consulate in New York early today.