Former junior minister Willie Penrose has applied to rejoin the Labour Parliamentary Party, 23 months after he resigned the whip over the closure of Mullingar barracks.

Independents and Sinn Féin are likely to be the biggest winners come next year’s local elections in Co Cork.

Cork County Council will prune its own services next year rather than raise money from increased charges to businesses and householders.

Hundreds of Cork County Council tenants will see their rents more than double as the local authority moves to standardise a countywide minimum rate.

The Irish Red Cross has helped more than 40 Cork households affected by last month’s massive flood.

Cork county councillors have requested county manager Martin Riordan to write to all household charge defaulters advising them they are in danger of jeopardising local authority services if they don’t pay.

OVER 150 houses and some 200 commercial properties were severely damaged in Co Cork during recent flooding.

Slashing mobile phone bills, postage, overtime, conference expenses, banning first-class travel, and reducing its wage bill enabled Cork County Council to save nearly €9m in the past year.

COMMUNITY groups in Co Cork will be able to enhance their local areas with financing from a €1 million a special fund set up by the county council.

NO casinos or gaming arcades can be opened in a Co Cork town after a local authority moved for the first time to rescind legislation on gambling.

THE political future of a Fianna Fáil tax defaulter is hanging in the balance after a call was made for him to resign his seat on Cork County Council.

A FIANNA FÁIL county councillor was under pressure from council colleagues last night after he featured high on the Revenue Commissioners’ latest quarterly list of tax settlements.

ELECTION candidates may soon be confined to putting up election posters in designated areas of Co Cork.

SUFFERING ratepayers in Co Cork will have to foot some of the cost of mothballing a €46.8 million state-of-the-art super dump.

THE announcement that a new all-Irish, second-level school is to open in Carrigaline, Co Cork, in 2014 has been welcomed by county councillors.

Micheal Martin has been elected on the first count in Cork South Central.

MICHEÁL MARTIN believes Fianna Fáil can win two seats in his own constituency despite a poll suggesting support would dwindle from 44% to 27%.

SINCE his election as leader of Fianna Fáil this constituency focus has all been on Micheál Martin, and what he can do to hold up the share of the vote.

THE geographical and past party ties of some candidates in Cork South Central could play a key role in how transfers decide the last one or two seats.

HOW times change. Micheál Martin has topped the poll in Cork South Central in three successive general elections — 1997, 2002 and 2007.

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin has just over two weeks to save his party’s second seat on his own turf in Cork South Central.

THE Labour party and Fine Gael are reporting a surge in people interested in canvassing with election candidates in Cork, while Fianna Fáil claims Micheál Martin’s elevation to leadership is warming the reception they receive on doorsteps.

LABOUR PARTY leader Eamon Gilmore told voters yesterday he will “be tough on anyone who stands in the way of reform” in the public sector.

CORK County Vocational Education Committee (VEC) is to be asked if it paid €1.9 million for land for new schools in Carrigaline which has not been zoned to accommodate them.

BUSINESSES in Co Cork will not face an increase in commercial rates for the next four years.

WHAT would one of the most fabled leaders of the 1920s Republican forces think of this country being baled out by the British?

CORK county manager Martin Riordan has told a high-powered committee dealing with the future of a toxic dump that it must finalise its work as soon as possible so remediation can take place on the site.

CORK county manager Martin Riordan says he wants to see all allegations made against his planning staff and is confident he will be able to refute every one of them.

THE fallout from the local elections prompted some barbed comments at the annual general meeting of Cork County Council.

A ROW has broken out between Fine Gael and Labour over a proposed pact to control Cork County Council.

FINE GAEL’S ambition may have cost them seats on Cork County Council, according to Deputy Simon Coveney.

THE major talking points in this area centres on a split in Fianna Fáil which saw the unprecedented defection of Deirdre Forde to Fine Gael.

PLANS are being drawn up to create a tourist attraction out of a fort built in Cork harbour in the late 1700s.

THE leader of the Labour Party on Ireland’s largest local authority is to marry for the second time.

ANGRY county councillors are demanding that the Department of Education reveal how many children are being educated in prefabricated buildings in Cork.

Cork Airport Authority allowed itself to become a shield to protect the Government from its broken promises, according to the Mayor of Cork County.

LOCAL government officials are to examine the possibility of creating sheltered housing schemes for elderly people in villages throughout Co Cork, after it was claimed this could save “massive money” for the State on nursing home bills.

MEMBERS of the public were urged yesterday to tell Government parties they will vote against them unless they do a U-turn on Cork Airport’s €100 million debt.

THE Mullingar Accord, a pre-election pact agreed between the leaders of Fine Gael and Labour, has come unstuck in Cork County Council.

COMMERCIAL rates will be increased by 3.9% in Co Cork next year, netting the local authority an estimated €84.2 million.

THE rift between Labour and Fine Gael — has widened in Cork even further since sparks flew at the recent annual general meeting (agm) of Cork County Council.

CORK County Council is to take on 70 additional staff to update the electoral register, amid claims from a number of politicians that several voters have inexplicably found themselves disenfranchised.

IRELAND’S first openly gay councillor has made a drastic change in his political preferences.