Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s handling of the Grace case while he was health minister featured prominently at a meeting of Fine Gael ministers before Cabinet this week, the Irish Examiner has learned.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s controversial St Patrick’s Day meeting with US president Donald Trump will take place during an expanded trade mission, writes political correspondent Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

Fianna Fáil refuses to hold the Government to account, preferring to put its own calculated government ambitions before the good of the country, writes Michael Clifford

There is growing pressure on the Government to launch an independent inquiry into the exposure of members of the Air Corps to cancer-causing toxins at Casement Aerodrome.

The US Embassy in Dublin announced that Taoiseach Enda Kenny will visit the White House on St Patrick’s Day, reports Irish Examiner political reporter, Joyce Fegan.

Bus Eireann is losing €6m a year despite receiving a State subsidy of €40m, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the Dáil, writes Daniel McConnell of the Irish Examiner.

The HSE has called on the Government’s most senior legal official to provide it with evidence showing why it must publish two detailed reports into the Grace foster abuse scandal, amid an ongoing stand-off between the State bodies.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has become embroiled in a damaging row with the son of provisional IRA victim Brian Stack after insisting he received the names of four people involved in his murder from the grieving family.

Fine Gael backbencher John Deasy has claimed at least "10 to 15" Government TDs privately want Taoiseach Enda Kenny step down immediately, writes Fiachra Ó Cionnaith of the Irish Examiner.

A border poll may undermine relations with the North and would be “unsuccessful”, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar has insisted.

A GOOD number of the difficulties facing this society can be traced to an over-reliance on the market to solve problems.

A moratorium on home repossessions is among the recommendations due to be published by a cross-party Housing Committee.

Homeless children put up in a hotel are banned from playing in the garden but dogs are allowed, an Oireachtas watchdog has heard.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has set out five priorities for his minority Government's first 100 days with ministers tasked with creating plans to tackle the housing crisis, rural broadband and hospital overcrowding.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny's new government is facing its first controversy amid reports of radical health service reform which opponents have said are out of the "Tory handbook".

Former Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe has said that the Opposition will have more influence than ever over legislation that is debated in the Oireachtas.

Fine Gael has rejected Fianna Fáil demands to defer all water charges until every house in the country is metered as the move would effectively hand Micheál Martin’s party victory in ongoing talks on Irish Water.

Fine Gael ministers are privately warning that the Dáil will collapse in the coming weeks if there is no agreement on government and spending for departments cannot be agreed.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said he hopes to return to the Dáil with four TDs after the general election. He said that on a good day, he sees them coming home with a “team” to again establish the Green Party as a force in national politics.

Pat Rabbitte, Michael Kitt, and Joe Higgins are among the political stalwarts who have taken the opportunity to bid farewell to the Dáil before stepping down.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly is considering placing a levy on insurers after they refused to budge on the issue of flood insurance.

One of the biggest stars of Irish golf, Christy O’Connor Jnr, has been remembered as a gentleman and sporting inspiration after he died on holiday in Tenerife.

The European Space Agency and Enterprise Ireland have agreed to establish a business incubator to support space related companies in Ireland.

Growing criticism over the botched inquiry into IBRC’s transactions has prompted calls for the Government to prioritise a probe into the controversial Siteserv sale.

The Government’s high-profile investigation into the sale of Siteserv to businessman Denis O’Brien and a string of other controversial deals will not be completed before the election because of a legal brick wall over what it can examine.

Many of the projects listed are worthwhile but there was electioneering in the air, writes Juno McEnroe

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted fixing the housing and homeless problems in Dublin and elsewhere is not just a matter of money.

Sinn Féin has said it is “open” to the potential return of the Independent Monitoring Commission to ensure paramilitary groups no longer exist after Northern Ireland’s secretary of state said this may be the only way to resolve the current crisis.

Sinn Féin has criticised a meeting between the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the SDLP.

An independent monitoring commission-style group could be brought back to examine ongoing paramilitary activity in a bid to save Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government from collapsing, over the provisional IRA crisis.

People expecting former environment minister Phil Hogan to apologise for his key role in the creation of Irish Water will be waiting a long time, the Government chief whip has warned.

Irish Water has run from one controversy to another but now things have got a whole lot worse, writes political reporter Juno McEnroe.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been accused of staying "silent" on the IBRC deals controversy, Gardaí have launched a murder investigation after a 25-year-old man died in west Dublin, a 58-year-old Irish nun visiting Rome was trapped in an elevator for three days and John Delaney is urged to take a voluntary 50% pay cut. Here’s this evening’s irishexaminer.com catch-up.

AS exercises in optimism go, the decision – inevitably over-ridden – that an accountancy firm centrally involved in the Siteserv deal — KPMG — should lead an inquiry into that sale was on a par with one of Sepp Blatter’s move-along, nothing-to-see-here fantasies. 

Exporters’ reputation as the economic engine of the country was further cemented yesterday as figures revealed that exports hit record levels in 2014.

A Government TD has criticised the pace of efforts to market Cork as a single tourist destination.