Post offices are closing because people have bank cards and internet, while garda stations are closing because they were built before there was a fleet of garda cars, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

The failure to set up a separate evaluation process for orphan drugs and the lack of opportunity for patient engagement when considering their reimbursement has been criticised by politicians from all parties.

Environment Minister Denis Naughten has urged opposition parties to fully support the Government’s pay-by-weight bin charges reforms after claiming some people are using the existing system to put “dead animals” in recycling bins.

Banks in Ireland had sought since 2009 to play down the tracker mortgage scandal which has had a “catastrophic” effect on customers, an expert in tracker mortgages has alleged at the Oireachtas Finance Committee.

Seanad members have said they are not at fault for the decision to allow the Upper House to break for another week, after meeting for just three hours during its first business since the election.

In 2011, the ascension of Enda Kenny from opposition leader to Taoiseach and the possibilities this offered his county was for some people in Mayo, home of the Knock shrine, like the second coming of Christ.