A CALL to curb the powers of the Irish Sports Council (ISC) was met with broad support by public representatives from across the political spectrum at Leinster House yesterday.

The Fianna Fáil party will today begin picking up the pieces after a bruising leadership challenge which saw Brian Cowen survive as leader, and Micheál Martin resign as Foreign Affairs Minister.

IMPERVIOUS to polls and pundits Taoiseach Brian Cowen is determined to stagger into the General Election as leader of his party.

WILLIE O’DEA has become the latest senior Fianna Fáil figure to criticise the exodus of ministers from the party, saying the situation resembled “the flight out of Egypt”.

ERIC CONWAY’S letter of December 17th asserts that an ill defined group he termed the “liberal/feminist commentariat” were, amongst other things, “quite sanguine/blase over Bethany House”.

POLLS come and go, and often tend to show divergent results.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey tonight denied he feared a backlash from angry voters in the general election as he became the second Fianna Fáil heavyweight not to contest the poll.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has today become the latest Fianna Fáil Minister to announce that he is not to stand in the upcoming General Election.

THE last vestige of credibility evaporated from the Progressive Democrats from the moment Michael McDowell hoist the petard that the PDs were exiting government — only to subsequently change their minds.

TROUBLES continued to mount for Fianna Fáil last night with confirmation that two of its Dublin TDs have decided not to put themselves forward for the next election.

BRIAN COWEN’S wife should tell him “it’s not worth it” and persuade him to step down from office, according to veteran Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke.

A Fianna Fáil TD says he is actively seeking signatures for a motion of no confidence in Brian Cowen, as the Taoiseach continues to defy calls for his resignation.

THE Government has asked the Attorney General to examine a groundbreaking report by the state’s human rights watchdog which calls for a statutory enquiry into the Magdalene Laundries.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen and his wife Mary Molloy were among several hundred people who sympathised with Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin and his family last night as they began the heartbreaking process of saying goodbye to their beloved Léana.

BRIAN COWEN has been told he is a “Taoiseach on notice” by one of his own TDs.

A special meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party to discuss the Taoiseach's communications strategy is to be held, it was revealed today.

FORMER junior minister Tom Kitt has criticised government human rights policy just days after the Fianna Fáil TD called for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to consider standing down.

BRIAN COWEN has insisted he is not a “Taoiseach on probation” in an effort to quell a growing threat of backbench revolt and ease political uncertainty ahead of today’s auction of Government bonds.

THE Taoiseach and his Finance Minister produced a highly unorthodox show of unity to try to convince the country and their Fianna Fáil colleagues it was business as usual in Cabinet.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen’s desperate attempt to show he was still in charge came in the midst of an unprecedented expression of mutiny from his back benches.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen tonight insisted he was not "on probation" as speculation over his leadership reached fever pitch.

A Government backbencher has today called for a meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party to discuss a possible change of leadership.

THE Galway tent may have been blown away in the bust but things equine still dominate Fianna Fáil gatherings in the city – only these days it is the four horsemen of the economic apocalypse racing towards them.

IRISH music should be used to lift people out of the economic gloom and “engender a sense of wellbeing” around the country, according to chairman of the Oireachtas Arts Committee, Tom Kitt.

THE JUSTICE for Magdalenes group (JFM) has asked the Irish Human Rights Commission to conduct an inquiry into the state’s refusal to acknowledge their role in the laundries.

I USED to be an inveterate funeral goer – several per week. I hadn’t been to one for the past two years until the unexpected death of newspaper man and former schoolmate, Alan Ruddock.

THE Government’s Drugs Minister said the head shop industry had the “best legal representation that money can buy” and will certainly challenge planned laws to put them out of business.

THE new carbon tax should have a portion ring-fenced to fund a replacement for Bus Éireann in rural areas, an Oireachtas Committee has said.

FAI chief executive John Delaney said yesterday the worst of the financial difficulties facing League of Ireland clubs were in the past but warned there will be “further difficulties” to come.

AN Oireachtas committee has been established to examine the issue of redress for women who were held in Magdalene Laundries.

JOHN DELANEY will give a state of the football nation address in Leinster House today as the FAI chief executive is set to be quizzed on a tough year for Irish soccer.

THE FAI and IRFU were yesterday forced to defend their agreement with Aviva that ties them to an exclusive playing deal at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road for 10 years and rules out the prospect of any games at Croke Park.

NEXT Tuesday the outgoing Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue will enter the Dáil, make a statement, step aside and join his colleagues to vote for his successor.

I CHALLENGE Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s use of the word “employee” in relation to women who were incarcerated in the Magdalene Laundries.

IRELAND owes former leader Albert Reynolds a great debt for his contribution towards peace and prosperity, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said last night.

IN the Dáil yesterday, Fianna Fáil TD Tom Kitt read an extract from an Irish Examiner story by Caroline O’Doherty which he said captured the essence of the horror of the Ryan Report.

'Billy Elliot' danced away with a host of Tony Awards today, including the title for best musical.

FOR all the giddiness in the Fine Gael camp, there has been only one constant in Dublin South since it was constituted in 1981 – a Brennan seat.

Conflict-ravaged Gaza is still being starved of food and medicines but its children offer fresh hope for the future, an Irish UN official said today.

THE Dublin seaside town of Howth is celebrating being named as the cleanest place in Ireland.

THE €800,000-plus paid to TDs and senators for teaching jobs they have not worked in over the past decade has been described by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe as not significant.

ALMOST one-in-five of Government TDs who voted for massive education cutbacks this week are serving or former teachers.