Fianna Fáil TD Sean O Fearghail has been elected to become the new Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil.

New sanctions are unlikely to be introduced for unruly TDs after an Oireachtas committee criticised Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald for abusing Dáil privilege.

Re the article “Ministers to be quizzed on UK ‘airspace deal’” (Irish Examiner, February 13),

The ministers for defence and foreign affairs are to be asked if there is secret deal between the government and the British which allows their military aircraft fly over Irish airspace whenever they want.

Howlin pledges to raise the issue of finding the €600k to keep the helpline serviced 24 hours a day

Éamon Ó Cuív faces expulsion from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party if he refuses to refrain from advocating a no vote in the EU fiscal treaty referendum.

THE state is not adequately providing for aspects of asylum seeker welfare, according to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, whose members visited two controversial direct provision centres yesterday.

Members of the Oireachtas Health Committee will visit the Mosney accommodation centre in Co Meath after it emerged more than 150 asylum seekers are being moved from the facility.

FAST-TRACK training for GPs must be rolled out to boost the number of local doctors and ease pressure on hospitals, an Oireachtas committee has said.

Only a fifth of recommendations from a major suicide prevention plan have been properly acted on three years after it was first published, it emerged today.

Less than a fifth of all farmers are under the age of 35, while more than half are over 55, it emerged today.

Alan Dukes has become the latest Fine Gael candidate to lose out in the election.

A parliamentary supporter of Fianna Fail today urged RTE to snap up Big Brother favourite Brian Dowling.