The Government and the Central Bank have no plans to force banks to reduce their sky-high variable rates for over 300,000 mortgage borrowers. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said that the Central Bank has no new proposals to regulate mortgage interest rates.

The voting age should not be lowered because 16-year-olds are too “hormonal” to vote in elections, a TD has warned.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been told to apologise to Magdalene laundry victims for a second time in just two years, after failing to live up to promises to women who were effectively forced into State “slavery”.

Tomorrow the Dáil will have the opportunity to support what could be an epochal change in constitutional democracy. 

The launch of a new political party is due to be announced this morning by former Minister of State and Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton.

A Red C poll measuring the popularity of potential political leaders has found Independent TD Shane Ross to be the public's favourite, ahead of Lucinda Creighton.

A row in the Dáil over speaking time for independent TDs saw business for the day suspended as three deputies were ordered out of the chamber.

During the recent European elections, Fine Gael candidates wouldn’t answer the following question: what will happen to the €300,000,000 the Central Bank gets when it sells the first of the promissory note sovereign bonds later this year. Will that money be destroyed?

Members of the Ballyhea Says No campaign are to meet the Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan today to discuss Ireland’s debt burden.

The special liquidator Kieran Wallace has strongly rejected any claims that there is a conflict of interest that has resulted in him not suing his ultimate employers, KPMG as part of the liquidation of IBRC.

Peter Mathews who was kicked out of Fine Gael for voting against the party on abortion wants a referendum to abolish the party whip system.

The Reform Alliance’s window of opportunity to set up a political party may be receding after an opinion poll has showed support for such a move was significantly down.

THE dark arts of politics came to the fore as Labour leader Eamon Gilmore effectively took Joan Burton hostage as his human shield.

If media exposure equalled political success then surely Lucinda Creighton would be fast-tracked to the office of the Taoiseach by now.

New political grouping The Reform Alliance, which is due to be registered with the Standards in Public Office Commission in coming days, is holding a conference at the end of this month.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has insisted his party is no longer a toxic brand and is “moving on” from its troubled recent history and “into a further phase of recovery and renewal”.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has accused ex-party chairman Colm Keaveney of political opportunism and said he would join terrorist group Hezbollah if it helped his career.

“Fine Gael TDs relieved at Peter Mathews departure,” reports Michael O’Kane (Irish Examiner, Oct 4). They were relieved when George Lee left, as well.

WOULD we even notice if the Irish government shut down?

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 abortion rebel TD Peter Mathews quit the party yesterday as other Fine Gael TDs expressed “relief” the Dublin South maverick had gone.

Former banker consultant Peter Mathews has resigned from the Fine Gael party.

The fallout between Taoiseach Enda Kenny the seven rebel “Reform Alliance” TDs and senators showed no sign of abating yesterday after Mr Kenny said he wasn’t interested in “superfluous conversations” which had nothing to do with the problems Ireland faces every day.

Fine Gael rebel Lucinda Creighton has said her new grouping, Reform Alliance, which is holding a think-in in Dublin today will “speak its own mind in the Dáil” and “vote in the best interests of the country”.

‘Catch us if you can’ appeared to be the motto of Jobs Minister Richard Bruton as he set off on a whirlwind canvass of bemused voters like a little Duracell bunny.

The prospect of disaffected Fine Gael and Labour elected TDs joining forces to secure greater Dáil rights has grown stronger after two from either group held discussions.

Fine Gael rebels kicked out of the party over the abortion legislation have vowed to join forces on the opposition benches as the Coalition scrambles to win important votes in the Seanad.

The Labour Party has taken in almost €100,000 in Dáil allowances in respect of the five TDs who have lost the party whip and moved to the opposition benches.

Rebel TDs kicked out of Fine Gael for opposing the abortion legislation could be let back into the parliamentary party after a period of time, according to a junior minister.

Expelled Fine Gael TDs resisted efforts by Leinster House ushers to move them out of their party offices and into different locations following their expulsion from the parliamentary party.

When Enda Kenny used the ‘crosier’ of the parliamentary party whip to bully Fine Gael TDs into supporting his abortion Bill, and he ‘excommunicated’ from the Fine Gael parliamentary party Deputies Lucinda Creighton, Terence Flanagan, Peter Mathews, Billy Timmins and Brian Walsh for honouring Fine Gael’s general election pledge not to introduce abortion legislation, there were very few criticisms of his actions by media commentators.

The final Dáil vote saw 31 TDs oppose the X case legislation as numbers were swelled by left-wing deputies protesting that the new law was not liberal enough.

Lucinda Creighton insisted she had stayed true to Fine Gael’s values after she was kicked out of the parliamentary party for voting against the abortion legislation.

A final Dáil vote on legislation allowing abortion in certain circumstances is expected to take place later today after TDs failed to conclude all stages despite a marathon all-night sitting.

Rebel minister Lucinda Creighton faces a vote for her political future today when she must decide whether to back the abortion legislation.

The Health Minister has denied politicians were bullied into voting for the new contentious abortion legislation.

Up to 30,000 protesters took to the streets of Dublin today against the contentious new abortion legislation.

European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton has proposed far-reaching changes to the abortion legislation in a move that signals she will oppose the bill during a final Dáil vote next week.

The Taoiseach has promised that a number of amendments to the abortion legislation will go through in the Dáil next week.

Former Minister of State for Primary Care Róisín Shortall has described the lack of gestational time limits in the proposed abortion bill, in cases where the woman is suicidal, as "abhorrent".

The expulsion of anti-abortion TDs from Fine Gael has been compared to a death in the family by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill has passed its Committee stage tonight.

A Government minister has compared the expulsion of Fine Gael TDs for their revolt against contentious abortion legislation to a death in a family.