Plans for a general election next month were thrown into jeopardy today after two independent TDs revealed they had begun a High Court challenge over its legality.

The Government is today expected to consider the long-awaited report into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

THE Co Mayo house believed to be the birthplace of the Irishman who founded the Argentinean navy was demolished as a group travelled to Argentina to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Admiral William Browne.

THE Government last night issued a lengthy memo to defend the annual exodus of ministers to far-flung destinations for St Patrick’s Day.

RISK equalisation will still be needed in Ireland’s evolving health insurance market to support community rating because the two issues are so closely linked, the Society of Actuaries in Ireland insisted yesterday.

More than 3,000 laws passed before the Republic of Ireland achieved independence are being repealed, the Government revealed tonight.

DENSE fog yesterday prevented senior political and legal figures from attending the funeral of a High Court judge in Cork yesterday.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney is expected to find out later this week if she can use Dáil privilege to publish the controversial report on the Leas Cross nursing home.

Sinn Féin's Fingal Councillor Felix Gallagher has slammed this weeks decision by Dick Roche not to establish a constituency commission to look at his constituency of Dublin West as "purely self-serving".

THE Taoiseach has directed the Environment Minister and Attorney General to examine new ways of acquiring cheap land for development.

THE report inquiring into the failure of officials within his office to inform Attorney General Rory Brady about the constitutional case on statutory rape was yesterday dismissed as a “political whitewash” by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

The Attorney General (AG) Rory Brady has been cleared of any responsibility for the controversy surrounding last month's Supreme Court ruling on underage sex.

The Attorney General (AG) has reportedly been cleared of any responsibility for the controversy surrounding last month's Supreme Court ruling on underage sex.

PUBLICATION of the long-awaited report on the divisive row over blood doping in the greyhound industry has been further delayed because of legal difficulties.

THE Government will be put on the rack today over last week’s rape law crisis, as opposition parties demand a full independent inquiry into the Government’s and the Attorney General’s (AG) handling of the issue.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern was accused of “kite-flying” last night after suggesting that the statutory rape law could be restored by way of a public vote.

THE Government has described the breakdown in communication that led to Justice Minister Michael McDowell and the Attorney General (AG) both being completely unaware of the Supreme Court decision that plunged the Government into free-fall as a “communications issue”.

THE past 11 days in politics was like the hurricane season. The first big blow came. And then calm set in and, with it, complacency.

THE three most senior legal figures in the State now face intense scrutiny over their respective roles in the case that led to the section of the 1935 Act outlawing statutory rape of under 15s being struck down.

IRISH infertility experts are hoping that a legal battle over the custody of human embryos will also clarify where Constitutional protection to the unborn begins.

THE Government is assembling a team of international nuclear-industry experts to assist in its legal battle to have Sellafield closed.

A COUPLE who adopted an Indonesian boy and then abandoned him could be ordered to pay for his upkeep until he is 18, it has emerged.

DEFENCE Minister Willie O’Dea will announce details within the next month of the legislative change needed to allow Irish troops to be sent to world trouble spots with EU battle groups.

A VICTIM of clerical abuse centrally involved in pushing for a State investigation into Dublin archdiocese last night welcomed the publication of the inquiry’s terms of reference.

A TOP level investigation into whether paedophile priests have been allowed to remain in positions of authority despite serious accusations of child abuse against them will be ordered by the Cabinet tomorrow.

The Attorney General is to advise the Government on whether the State should pay legal costs incurred by the Ferns diocese in its dealings with the Ferns Inquiry.

THE Irish government is facing a court action as a result of its own legal efforts to close down the controversial nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

The Taoiseach has told the Dáil that the Barron Report into the murder of Co Louth man, Seamus Ludlow is likely to be published in the next few weeks.

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin has said the legal profession was aware of - and had powers to fully investigate - complaints that members had overcharged claimants to the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) for many months before the issue hit the headlines last week.

The Attorney General, Rory Brady, has received the report of the inquiry into clerical sex abuse in the Diocese of Ferns in the south-east region.

A High Court order blocking Irish Ferries from cutting more than 500 jobs on two of its ships was today struck out.

DRIVERS using mobile phones, even those that are hands-free, are four times as likely to be involved in a serious crash, a study has shown.

ROSEMARY Toole Gilhooley, the first person in Ireland known to have committed assisted suicide, is likely to have brushed aside legal advice when she named four high-profile right-to-die activists as beneficiaries of her will.

Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter

Justice Minister Michael McDowell must explain legal advice he gave the Government on charging patients for long term care in nursing homes, it was claimed today.

A SENIOR garda officer yesterday indicated that the force is willing to set up a whistleblowers’ charter that will allow officers to report malpractice.

FORMER Health Minister Micheál Martin is to be called before the Oireachtas Committee on Health next month to discuss the Travers Report.

THE range and quality of Irish food and drink will be promoted around the world by Bord Bia this week as millions of people take part in traditional celebrations organised around St Patrick’s Day.

THE Government will have to set up an independent national authority to check how RTÉ spends its money, including the annual €70 million it nets from licence fees.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, is due to hold talks with the Attorney General today as the Government attempts to sort out the fiasco surrounding illegal nursing home fees.

THE GOVERNMENT admitted yesterday that it may have to pay out billions of euro to people with disabilities and those resident in mental hospitals.

The Government must not be allowed raid the health budget to pay for its incompetence over nursing home charges, it was warned tonight.

THE £22 million Belfast heist raises the very apt question of whether it was civilian criminality, or paramilitary criminality.

THE Government’s nursing home payment crisis worsened last night when President Mary McAleese called a meeting of the Council of State to consider aspects of legislation rushed through last week.