The purchase and installation a new printer in Leinster House has cost €1.8m, a report reveals.

The public is facing worse services and higher rates as seven local authorities are set to lose €18.4 million in their funding, The Dáil has heard.

The greyhound racing industry has been accused of insulting vulnerable people on health service waiting lists by taking more than €16m a year in State funding - the equivalent of €46,000 every day.

Despite the surging costs, secretary general of Oireachtas services Peter Finnegan said the price tag represents "outstanding" value for the taxpayer.

More than 600 children under the age of four are living in Ireland's asylum seeker system.

The Government's plan to introduce directly elected mayors has been likened in the Dáil to the corrupt Mayor Joe Quimby in the popular cartoon series 'The Simpsons'.

"I especially think homework is bad for those with special needs, like me, who are really exhausted when they come home in the evenings."

Update 9.30am The cost of Michael D Higgins’ presidential term is set to be examined by an Oireachtas committee next week - despite being warned doing so may be "unconstitutional".

The lack of resources at the Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) has led to a “Manuel from Fawlty Towers” situation, with thousands of cases backlogged in the system.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has apologised for eight-week delays in people receiving new passports amid claims some people have missed weddings abroad because of the problems.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has apologised for eight-week delays in people receiving new passports amid claims some people have missed weddings abroad because of the problems.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. All 32 of you.

“A Friday morning 10am lecture?” tweeted one waggish colleague. “Dose.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is living in “some Russian creation” or “Trumpland” if he believes his strategic communications unit (SCU) can buy the news without any consequences whatsoever.

Transport Minister Shane Ross has been told to ignore the Government’s “all singing, all dancing” launch of the National Planning Framework and instead travel to Kerry to fix “dangerous” rural roads.

The decision to re-open Stepaside Garda Station has been branded “Del Boy politics” by a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which has criticised the move.

Since entering power in 2011, Fine Gael has spent almost €800,000 on photographers in what has been dubbed a “Republic of photo opportunities”.

The Government recouped just €3.2m from the sale of more than 40 Garda stations, a total described as “derisory”.

The Government’s “welfare cheats cheat us all” campaign ignored the fact the majority of its claimed 2% welfare fraud rate was due to Department of Social Protection errors and not those of recipients.

A leading Fianna Fáil TD has has objected to comments made by his party colleague that those behind Ireland’s failed Rugby World Cup bid “couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery”.

Fianna Fáil could now look to poach Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín after his party rejected his calls for a free vote on abortion.

The Government is set to make a second bid to replace the TV licence fee with a new charge to include Netflix and other online sites after admitting the existing system is “broken”.

Town councils are highly unlikely to return as the Government has received recommendations not to re-establish them, the Irish Examiner has learned.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin has said he will not seek the backing of Sinn Féin even if it is his only possibility of becoming taoiseach after the next general election.

The chief executive of IDA Ireland has labelled the European Commission’s threat to take legal action if Ireland fails to resolve the Apple tax controversy as “unwarranted, unfounded and contradictory”.

The chief executive of IDA Ireland has labelled the European Commission's threat to take legal action if Ireland fails to resolve the Apple tax controversy as "unwarranted, unfounded and contradictory".

A defiant Transport Minister Shane Ross has said the decision to reopen Stepaside Garda Station in his constituency was not “stroke politics”.

The acting Garda commissioner yesterday defended the reopening of Stepaside Garda Station, following accusations that it was a political stroke delivered by Transport, Tourism and Sport Minister Shane Ross.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien has denied that the caregiver of ‘Grace’ was unfairly or disproportionately treated, despite underfunding her care to the tune of €600,000.

The country’s largest university is to look at cutting places for Leaving Certificate students in the coming years unless funding problems are urgently addressed.

It was farcical. Just after 12pm, the 13 members of the PAC filed into the AV Room in Leinster House to address the media.

Nama has been accused by US investment firm Pimco of “repeatedly mischaracterising” its role in the controversial sale of its Northern Ireland loan book.

The controversial sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland loan book — known as Project Eagle — is under investigation by the State’s chief auditor, the C&AG.

Fianna Fáil has staunchly defended its deal with Fine Gael to suspend instead of abolish water charges, claiming an opposition motion to scrap the fees immediately is little more than “political point scoring”.

With such a large number of sitting TDs now ousted from Leinster House, the 32nd Dáil will be spattered with unfamiliar and fresh faces.

One of just eight constituencies to remain unchanged by the latest Constituency Commission, Meath West remains a three-seater.

Shane McEntee was a politician, a husband and father, and a Meath GAA man who rose to the higher ranks of Fine Gael after a crucial by election seat victory for the party.

Fine Gael's Damien English is top with 9,290 votes in Meath West but has not reached the quota of 10,045.

TWO sitting Fianna Fáil TDs were last night automatically selected to run for the party in the Meath West constituency in the next general election after a third candidate withdrew his nomination.

A minister and a sitting TD were tonight chosen as Fianna Fáil’s two candidates to contest the next election for the Meath West region.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was upbeat today despite his party failing to win the vacant seats in Meath or North Kildare, saying he was prepared to sacrifice by-elections in order to win the general election.

The prospects of a rainbow alliance presenting itself as an alternative to the Government at the next General Election has reportedly increased following the results of the Meath and Kildare North by-elections.