FINE Gael’s decision to form a pre-election pact with Labour will prove “a monumental political blunder”, Táinaiste and PD leader Michael McDowell has predicted.

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has said the Táinaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney has failed to grasp the fundamental issues at the heart of the crisis in our hospitals.

The Government today maintained that those reported to have broken the law in the Ansbacher reports will eventually be brought to justice.

The former leader of Fine Gael, John Bruton, has criticised the Tainaiste’s dismissal of tax harmonisation across the European Union, describing her stance as "anti-Euro rhetoric".