Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said building sites can continue to operate in Ireland despite calls for them to be shut to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The worst fears of the business owners and the tens of thousands of people they employed in cafes and the pubs and restaurants and retailers were realised as the shutters came down 10 days ago.

Unite trade union demands that all work should stop.

The Government looks set to unveil an unprecedented income-support scheme in the coming days in which it will pay 75% or 80% of the wages of the thousands of workers who have lost and will lose their jobs amid the Covid-19 crisis.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions says a further 200,000 people will lose their jobs in Ireland in the coming days because of coronavirus.

A cabinet subcommittee will consider income support for people who have to self-isolate because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Two males and two females confirmed with the virus in the west of Ireland

The idea of restructuring an economy with the aim of developing a more environmentally-friendly society isn't new, but is doable in Ireland, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

Fears that speeding motorists will not be caught on camera over the bank holiday weekend because of an industrial dispute have been downplayed by the operator GoSafe.

Trade union leader Patricia King delivered a withering criticism of the government's housing plans telling Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that his policy had “failed”.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ biennial conference in Dublin must mark “the beginning of a renewed effort to secure the right to collective bargaining for all workers”, according to general secretary Patricia King.

Working in the sun can be deadly - more than one person employed outdoors dies every week from skin cancer.

Students are being urged to consider apprenticeships as a career choice, as they prepare to sit their exams this week.

New legislation is planned to prevent landlords from evicting long-term tenants without a clear reason.

The Irish Exporters Association has said it believes the UK’s proposed tariff regime in the event of a no-deal Brexit is against World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

The Labour Court is to examine the nurses strike this morning, in an effort to avert widespread disruption to the health service next week.

Unions are seeking a Brexit Adjustment Assistance Fund to support people most at risk from the impact of the UK leaving the EU.

The rate was cut from 13.5% to 9% in 2011 during the recession to boost the sector.

The country’s second- biggest trade union, Fórsa, has divided sharply on the referendum on the Eighth Amendment during a discussion at its annual conference in Killarney.

There is an urgent need for the Government to take on a greater role in the provision of affordable homes, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Toll of 90 fatalities between 2008 and 2017 is highest of any county

A union representing 40,000 retail and bar workers wants its members to be paid a minimum of €15 per hour — more than 50% higher than the national minimum wage.

Precarious work is “pervasive”, with 109,000 fewer workers in full-time, permanent employment in 2016 than in 2008, according to a study by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

The Weinstein scandal has unleashed a tsunami of allegations about his, and many others, predatory sexual behaviour.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is calling on the Government to declare a housing emergency.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions have called for for a €1bn home-building fund, compulsory purchase orders and an expidited introduction of a Vacant Site Levy to address the homelessness crisis.

Last week, representative of civic organisations crowded in for the “National Economic Dialogue”.

Leo Varadkar’s radical plan to ban workers from striking has provoked a backlash among trade unions and parties and threatened to destabalise new pay deal talks with public sector employees.

The European Commission and the ECB have slapped the Government’s wrists over its spending of corporate tax windfalls and urged it to resist calls to spend more as part of any “recovery dividend”.

The Government is to crack down on employers’ exploitation of low-paid workers through zero-hour, low-hour and banded hours contracts.

Not so long ago, people regularly advised one to “wake up and smell the coffee”.

The head of the HSE’s acute hospitals division has apologised for the recent weeks of overcrowding.

The country’s leading trade union leader has said the new public sector pay deal must address the haemorrhaging of skills and staff, which has reached a “crisis” point in some professions.