The Dáil returns today after the Christmas break with Brexit, drink driving and the trolley crisis topping the agenda at the start of a busy political year.

John Halligan, in detail, set out how he and other members of the group met Leo Varadkar and how at that meeting the then-Taoiseach elect said he would get certain issues "over the line" for the Alliance.

Here's your lunchtime news bulletin.

Latest: Transport Minister Shane Ross says it is up to Fine Gael to decide how its own backbenchers should vote on contentious new proposals on drink driving.

A member of the Public Accounts Committee has said the Gardaí cannot be seen to be "an island that makes its own rules".