Enhanced powers for officials to govern the disclosure of interests and other ethical obligations of politicians have been delayed — after first being mooted by the Coalition over three years ago.

Fine Gael has decided to hold a convention to select general election candidates in the Kerry constituency earlier than planned.

A Fine Gael senator has had a summons for illegal parking against him dismissed after he told the court he never saw the notice placed on his windscreen or any follow up warnings — and his wife would have made him pay the fine if the notice arrived at the house.

Claims of ‘trading on the family name’ have been refuted by a TD whose sister has been selected to run for the Local Elections in West Cork.

A local election candidate has died unexpectedly, just a fortnight after launching his bid for a seat on Cork County Council.

Students of Coláiste Pobail Naomh Mhuire in Buttevant, Co Cork, have been told work should begin on their new school building early next year.

The Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte is to be told by a county council that Eirgrid’s plans for a major overhead powerline will be a blight on the landscape and may lead to serious health and economic implications.

The decision by a former Mayor of County Cork not to contest next summer’s local elections is the latest in a line of shock resignations to hit County Hall.

There are fears that a village suffering from a severe water supply problem may have to wait far longer than anticipated to have it rectified.

Cork County Council may be forced to sell some of its affordable housing stock to developers as its not getting offers anyway near the market value from the public.

A major row broke out after a member of Cork County Council accused his own authority of complying with a Fine Gael project which he labelled as being akin “to slave labour”.

Cork County Council is to consult with the Department of the Environment in an effort to resuscitate plans for a 5,000-house town after An Bord Pleanála refused permission for it.

A former Garda sergeant who was forced to quit the force because of injury, has been awarded almost €140,000 damages at a High Court Garda compensation hearing.

Fine Gael is expected to lose up to three senators today when the House votes on an amendment objecting to the principle of legislation allowing abortion in limited circumstances.

Dissident Fine Gael senators will attempt to block the passing of the abortion legislation through the Seanad on Monday.

County manager Martin Riordan is being urged to put forward a case for a proposed national beet factory to be built on a former Army firing range.

There is a sense of deja vu about all this.

The magazine of the Garda Representative Association has strongly criticised a Fine Gael senator for comments he make in the Seanad in which he referred to the tragic death of a garda and claimed a Sinn Féin member had allegedly said “they would have done a much cleaner job”.

Senior officials in Cork County Council remain confident a mothballed €50m superdump will eventually open.

As the Dáil takes its break, political correspondent Shaun Connolly looks back on a term of tax dodgers, ding-dongs, and declarations of love

A planning application for a €15m green energy system for Killarney is due to be lodged with the town council within six weeks.

Senior county council officials in Cork are to meet with Leo Varadkar, the transport minister, to impress on him the importance of building ring roads around Mallow to ease traffic gridlock.

It was a clear case of bye-bye Bertie, hello Troy Boy.

Eamon Ó Cuív has blasted as “scurrilous” a Fine Gael senator’s claim that Michael Collins was “shot in the back” by his grandfather, Éamon de Valera.

A Senator has compared Eamon Ó Cuív’s move to break party ranks to the shooting of Michael Collins.

Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny John McGuinness has thrown his hat into the ring to become the party's deputy leader.

Here’s a fine fruit to pluck for the spring market — a residential tillage and grazing farm at Churchtown in Co Cork.

Just two out of the 31 Fine Gael and Labour councillors on Cork County Council are outwardly opposed to the planned septic tank charge and inspection regime, which has generated massive resistance across the county.

THE owner of a popular Killarney pub faces losing his licence, a judge said after a solicitor for the HSE described how health inspectors saw patrons smoking in the bar area.

SUFFERING ratepayers in Co Cork will have to foot some of the cost of mothballing a €46.8 million state-of-the-art super dump.

THE state will pump up to €1 billion into the credit union sector to plug a financial black hole and save a number of credit unions from collapse.

SENATOR Tom Sheahan did not mince his words in the Seanad last week when citing a “cancer” in Horse Sport Ireland for the failure of Ireland’s show jumpers to qualify a team for the Olympics.

PEACE may be about to break out in the ongoing naming row over Dingle/An Daingean.

A FORMER leader of the Seanad brought a close to the election count by imploring newly elected members to fight for the continued retention of the Upper House.

Counting in the Seanad Election has ended after the fifth panel of Senators, the Administrative Panel, was filled late this afternoon.

HIGH-PROFILE election casualties Cork South Central’s Deirdre Clune, Kerry South’s Tom Sheahan and Wexford’s Michael D’Arcy are among those nominated by Fine Gael for the upcoming Seanad election.

A COMMUNITY which fought long and hard for a motorway connection is about to see “all its dreams come true” next Monday when plans for a junction connection are unveiled.

A STUNNING poll-topping triumph by first-time Fine Gael candidate Brendan Griffin was the big story of the general election in the key Kerry South constituency, but his success came at the expense of his party colleague Tom Sheahan who was gutted to lose his seat.

Final tallies from South Kerry show Fine Gael's Brendan Griffin topping the poll with 8,680 first preferences, or 19.9% of the vote.

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has told Cork supporters that the party was looking towards the centenary of the 1916 Rising and the re-branding of Ireland as the “best small country in the world”.

THE BULL is struggling and the Dolly won’t make it to the starting line. The mighty have not quite fallen yet but they are fighting for their political lives.

THIS Kerry South constituency poll, conducted by RED C for the Irish Examiner, confirms the national trends which point to gains for both Independent candidates and Fine Gael at the next election.

THE intriguing battleground that is the Kerry South constituency is likely go right down to the wire but it looks as if the death knell could be about to sound for two of the country’s high-profile political dynasties.

SEVERAL years ago, just minutes after he had been surprisingly eliminated from a general election race in Kerry South, a disgruntled Fine Gael politician was approached by a young reporter at the count centre in Killarney’s old town hall and asked for his reaction.