The widow of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane today dismissed the report into his death by Desmond de Silva as "a sham... a whitewash... a confidence trick", telling a London press conference: "This report is not the truth."

The policies of the alternative Government parties are a recipe for disaster and will squander Ireland's prosperity, the Taoiseach warned today.

The Irish and British governments will sign a joint agreement next week to stop sex offenders secretly travelling between both jurisdictions.

Fine Gael and Labour were today accused of performing a U-turn and scoring cheap political points on the issue of minimum prison terms for criminals.

Random breath testing is legal and constitutional and will be introduced soon to cut road carnage, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil today.