The Social Democrats believe that a left-leaning minority government is "unlikely" to be formed.

The Greens will also meet with Sinn Féin today and set out their crucial issues for sharing power while Labour and Fianna Fáil will this week hold their first post-election party meetings.

Affordable homes, better supports for parents, and a fairer and more equal society are among the promises in the Social Democrats manifesto.

Affordable homes, better supports for parents and a fairer and more equal society are among the promises in the Social Democrats manifesto.

A post mortem on the remains, due to start soon, will also check for any identifying features, such as tattoos, birthmarks or scars, garda sources said.

Mary Williams from Tallaght joined other bingo players outside Leinster House to protest against proposed gambling legislation.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty's position in the Cabinet has been called into question by the Social Democrats over the public services card scandal.

The ongoing Brexit crisis is keeping a "very poor Government" in power and preventing it from being toppled by the housing, cervical check, broadband and public service card scandals.

The Government’s priority in dealing with Brexit has to be that the cost of it is not paid for by ordinary people, warned the co-leader of the Social Democrats Róisín Shortall.

Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall has said that she believes the cost of building the National Children's Hospital will eventually reach €2bn.

The Government is under mounting pressure to scrap planned road upgrades in the National Development Plan in favour of measures to tackle climate change.

It took two recounts and four days but Holly McKeever Cairns has secured the final seat in Bantry West Cork LEA amid high drama on the 16th floor of Cork County Hall.

Latest: It took two recounts and four days but Holly McKeever Cairns has secured the final seat in Bantry West Cork LEA amid high drama on the 16th floor of Cork County Hall.

The families of two children who lost their cases over tax rebates for cars for the disabled will have to pay the legal costs of their cases, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

The Government’s Sláintecare action plan has been blasted as “deeply underwhelming” by the woman who chaired the committee that produced the Sláintecare report.

There are calls for new laws on data retention to be brought forward before Christmas in response to yesterday's judgement in relation to Graham Dwyer's case.

Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin is to review all transcriptions of a cancer gene test after what it believes was a "transcription error" in one case.

The Social Democrats have branded the tit-for-tat exchanges between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail ahead of the budget as “auction politics”.

All publicly funded hospitals will be expected to provide legal health services, including women’s health services, says Health Minister Simon Harris.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have become embroiled in an argument over which party is closer to Sinn Féin.

There has been an 85% drop in the number of behaviour warnings issued to children by gardaí in the last 10 years.

New laws to change how judges are appointed should not be kicked about like a “political football”, warns Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Several ministers have rejected calls for Attorney General Seamus Woulfe to be shown “the red card” over his comments at a lunch last Friday.

A junior minister has described the record-breaking hospital trolley count as “outrageous”.

The email accounts of former minister for justice Frances Fitzgerald and her political advisers were not examined in the recent trawl for documents relevant to the Charleton Tribunal.

Health Minister Simon Harris has branded as “brazen, immoral, and unfair” the consultants who treat private patients during their publicly contracted hours.

Serious maladministration, identified in public hospitals where patients are skipping the queue at the expense of other possibly urgent cases, must be tackled immediately, Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall has urged.

The Revenue Commissioners may have to appear before an Oireachtas committee and answer questions on tax-avoidance revelations about offshore accounts used by Bono, banks, and others.

Almost 8,000 patients were admitted to hospital on trolleys in August, an increase of 27% on the same period last year.

Lessons must be learned from the “dysfunctional” drugs selection process, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association has said.

Lessons must be learned from the “dysfunctional” drugs selection process, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association has said.

Where does the time go?

Two decades after the first Harry Potter book, the spell is unbroken, says Jonathan deBurca Butler.

Shifting care out of hospitals and into the primary care, community setting is at the heart of a plan to radically transform Irish healthcare.

Free GP care will be extended to 500,000 people each year for five years, under an ambitious plan to reform the health service.

Health Minister Simon Harris says he does not want to penalise people who took out private health insurance to protect themselves and their families.

Five years ago, Kevin Shortall and his wife Tracy didn’t know if their daughter would be alive to make her Communion.

The trial of a Wicklow man accused of murdering a woman in 2015 has heard she googled the price of an abortion just days before she was killed.

A murder accused told gardaí he went home for dinner and fell asleep in front of his TV after beating a woman to death with a hammer, his trial heard yesterday.

After a woman threatened to reveal all about a sexual encounter she had with a married man, he beat her to death with a hammer, a prosecution barrister told a jury at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.

Enda Kenny said the treatment of Grace was ‘a disgrace to us, as a country’.