Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran has won a fight to keep his ministerial post after a power struggle with Independent Alliance colleague Sean Canney over who should be the junior minister.

Political Reporter

Independent Alliance TD and junior minister for training and skills John Halligan has said he will cover the cost of the €7,500 fine and associated legal bill over his “are you married?” interview gaffe.

If Storm Ophelia proves anything it is that once-in-a-lifetime extreme weathers events are no longer that.

The Office of Public Works is to consider extending the visitor season to Skellig Michael, the Unesco world heritage site in Co Kerry.

Government is pressing ahead with construction of an €80m Garda headquarters. It is part of an ambitious, nationwide plan to build and refurbish Garda stations.

An €8.2m-a-year office leased by the State is lying idle with no plans to move workers in until the middle of the year.

A ‘Luas’ linking Northern Ireland with Donegal and Sligo; budget airline-style fares on trains, and a special gardaí railway unit are among proposals put forward by ministers.

As they sit across a boardroom table, they eagerly agree with each other and, at times, finish each other’s sentences.

Any attempts to restore public workers’ pay to pre-recession levels risks dragging the country “back to the bad old days”, a junior minister has warned.

Relations between government partners Independent Alliance and Fine Gael are deteriorating further after a second public row in 24 hours, this time over the sale of alcohol in shops.

A lack of funding for coastal protection works is threatening homes and leading to worsening erosion along a vulnerable section of Co Kerry. 

Tourism interests as well as boat operators who ferry passengers to a Unesco world heritage site are dismayed at the refusal of the OPW to extend the visiting season there.

Public sector workers and those in semi-state agencies should be given “reward” payments if they work over and above their required duties, the junior finance minister has suggested.

The final phase of Waterford City’s flood alleviation scheme has been launched.

THE Government is to ring-fence money in the budget to shore up the country’s flood defences.

THE Government will never manage to encourage enough Ordinance Survey staff to make a proposed move to Dungarvan in Co Waterford viable, a union boss has warned.

ONLY 620 of the 10,300 civil servants due to be decentralised have been assigned to locations outside Dublin, 18 months after the scheme was announced, it emerged yesterday.

GARDAÍ have made millions of euro worth of calls on phones supplied by O2, leaving the OPW to pick up the tab.

IT was a case of ‘Cowen and Parlon Deliver again’ last night as it emerged that virtually all the jobs earmarked for Laois and Offaly would occur in the first phases of decentralisation.

THE Government has no plans in place to alleviate the consistent threat of flooding in Cork and Waterford, it emerged last night.