TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has said he did not wish to see the ministerial pension debate extend beyond serving members of the Oireachtas.

Fianna Fáil's Brian Crowley has been elected after the fourth count of the votes in the European elections of the Ireland South constituency.

Nessa Childers is still in the lead after the third count in the Ireland East constituency to win a European Parliament seat for Labour.

Counting was resuming today for the remaining eight seats in the European elections.

Deirdre de Burca of the Green Party has been granted a recount however Labour's Prionsias de Rossa and Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell are on course to take the first two seats.

Dublin's Lord Mayor has announced that she will be running for Fianna Fáil in the European elections this summer.

IN a judgment which could have far-reaching implications, the EU has ruled that Ireland had wrongly interpreted the requirements for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for certain planning projects.

THE letter from Prionsías de Rossa (‘EU treaty: SF and le Pen on the same side’, January 23) was very instructive in that he did not put forward even one reason why Irish voters should support the Lisbon Treaty.

THE Government has been accused of being “worse than useless” for its lack of support for thousands of Irish people who lost major portions of their pension savings as a result of the near-collapse of British insurance society Equitable Life.

THE Government has been accused of being “worse than useless” for its lack of support for thousands of Irish who lost a major portion of their pension savings as a result of the near-collapse of British insurance society, Equitable Life.

Labour MEP Prionsias De Rossa has said that some of the nominees for the EU Commission team are unsuitable for their proposed job.

Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald is today celebrating her win of a seat in the Dublin constituency.

While the electorate turned out in force to make their presence felt at the polls on Friday, the same impetus was lacking at today’s count in Dublin.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte arrived in Clondalkin, west Dublin, to cast his vote and joked with reporters as to why he was receiving so much media attention on the day of the poll.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Royston Brady, was invited today to a full debate on European issues by Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna.

The current Government is the most despised and distrusted in the history of the state, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte claimed today.

THE Government is to press ahead with a controversial referendum on citizenship on the same day as the local and European elections, despite widespread calls to defer it due to concerns that it could heighten racist fears.

The Labour Party’s European election candidates in the Dublin constituency have officially launched their campaigns.

Officials at the US Embassy in Dublin have been called on by the President of the Labour Party to pass on the message that the Irish people are vehemently against a war on Iraq.

Labour MEP Prionsias de Rossa is one of 20 members of the European Parliament leading a peace delegation to the UN and US Congress this week to discuss the Iraqi crisis.