HOW do you solve a problem like the public? That’s the dilemma for the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, as he faces into a seriously challenging political year.

A group representing frontline emergency staff has warned lives will be lost unless the Government reverses its decision on a new national postcode system due to be rolled out next spring.

He was lauded as a “leading expert” on the financial crisis by Fine Gael when it announced Peter Mathews would be running in the 2011 general election.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell says some of the comments made by Junior Minister Lucinda Creighton during the Dail debate on the new abortion legislation were "offensive".

A Fine Gael TD has spoken about his disappointment that proposed laws allowing abortion in limited circumstances will still force women to travel abroad for a termination if they are carrying a foetus that has no chance of survival after birth.

A member of the Government has accused the Taoiseach of being anti-democratic, anti-politics and of populist nonsense over reforming politics, including planning to abolish the Seanad.

Disgruntled Fine Gael TDs are set to put pressure on the Government to amend legislation on the property tax, as demands for the charge are sent to homeowners this week.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has taken a swipe at TDs who he said have holiday homes in Spain and France but are opposing property tax here.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is facing a growing revolt within Fine Gael over the Coalition’s flagship property tax initiative.

Coalition TDs have said the property tax is unfair and anti-urban, with Fine Gael politicians saying the planned levy was a danger to social cohesion and could lead to revolt.

Politicians have “colluded in making this country inhumane for women” for more than 20 years, Labour TD Ciara Conway said during last night’s emotive Dáil debate on abortion.

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly has publicly offered his support to bankrupt tycoon Seán Quinn who owes €2.8bn to the state-owned Anglo Irish Bank.

If the recommendations of the Constituency Commission are implemented in full, it could spell deep trouble for the following TDs:

Dublin sees some of the most far-reaching changes of the shake-up which will provide re-election headaches for many sitting TDs.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell has described the changes to constituency boundaries as a "butchering".

SHAMELESS — sometimes that is the only word to sum up the Dáil.

Disgraced TD Mick Wallace looks set to escape any Dáil censure move against him while fellow deputies decide if they can probe his financial affairs.

The conduct of tax-evading TD Mick Wallace is to be probed by a Dáil committee with powers to refer the matter to the DPP.

A Fine Gael councillor who lost the party whip over accepting a political donation has claimed she was used as a “scapegoat” by the party.

Birth certificates will have to carry the father’s name by law, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has told the Dáil.

A Fine Gael councillor named in the Mahon Report has claimed she is being used as a Quarryvale payments “scapegoat” while more senior officials facing “identical” questions are cleared of wrongdoing.

Now that Olivia Mitchell has been cleared of wrong-doing, maybe Michael Lowry should re-join Fine Gael and be cleared also.

Senior Fine Gael ministers have heaped praise on party colleague Olivia Mitchell despite the Mahon Tribunal finding that she received an “inappropriate” payment.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell has welcomed the findings of a party disciplinary committee which exonerated her after criticism in the Mahon Tribunal report of an "inappropriate" £500 donation she received from lobbyist Frank Dunlop.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell has been exonerated by a party disciplinary committee over the Mahon Tribunal and declared a member who remained in “high standing”.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell has been exonerated by the party's disciplinary committee in relation to findings made about her in the Mahon Tribunal report.

For 15 years we listened to politicians refusing to comment on those under investigation by the Mahon Tribunal on the grounds that such comment could undermine the work of the tribunal.

Olivia Mitchell is the only person in the Dáil against whom adverse findings were made by Mahon. While she was not corrupt, the system was, writes Michael Clifford

The Government is, by its own hand, mired in a communications disaster approaching something like Cowenesque darkness.

Fine Gael has yet to decide on the fate of TD Olivia Mitchell, ministers have indicated.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton has said Fine Gael has yet to make a decision on whether disciplinary action should be taken against party TD Olivia Mitchell in the wake of the Mahon Tribunal report.

Fine Gael has denied excluding party TD Olivia Mitchell from its ard fheis following criticism in the Mahon Tribunal of “inappropriate” payments she received.

Two more Fianna Fáil members criticised in the damning Mahon Tribunal report resigned from the party yesterday ahead of a motion to expel them later this week.

Anne Devitt, who has quit Fine Gael in the wake of the Mahon Report, has said she never did anything that had “impinged” on her duty to constitutents.

Fianna Fáil have confirmed Bertie Ahern has resigned from the party in a letter received this morning.

The tribunal commended current minister and Labour TD Pat Rabbitte for giving back a £2,000 donation he received from lobbyist Frank Dunlop in 1992.

In last year’s general election, or so the Leinster House lore goes, a banker in a pinstripe suit would knock on the doors of homes in Dublin South and introduce himself by saying “you might know me from the Vincent Browne show”.

HIGH-PROFILE election casualties Cork South Central’s Deirdre Clune, Kerry South’s Tom Sheahan and Wexford’s Michael D’Arcy are among those nominated by Fine Gael for the upcoming Seanad election.

DEAR Joan

INDEPENDENT TD for Dublin South, Shane Ross, has held out the prospect that Fine Gael could form a Government with the support of “like-minded” independents following the election of the largest ever number of non-party candidates across the country.

ENDA KENNY has steered his party to its best election result in history, more than doubling the number of Fine Gael seats since he became party leader after the 2002 general election.

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).