Billy Kelleher has expressed his delighted at being added to the ticket by Fianna Fáil to contest the forthcoming European elections in the Ireland South Constituency.

“The song was written from a personal point of view ... it's a human point of view"

Doctors who are opposed to abortion will not be forced to dispense the abortion pill, according to Health Minister Simon Harris.

Galway East TD Sean Canney has today resigned as the government’s assistant chief whip, a post which came with a €15,000 salary.

The Dáil is set to gain two more TDs from the next election as Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is a major winner in the redraw of constituency boundaries announced tonight, writes Daniel McConnell.

At least one extra Dáil seat will be up for grabs in the next general election as the growth in population has pushed the number of people per TD over the 30,000 legal threshold.

A group of young students, motivated by the death of a woman from a sudden heart attack, has won a prestigious youth prize for its in work promoting the message that defibrillators save lives.

Several of Enda Kenny’s loyal senators lost their seats or were last night fighting for their survival.

Not many of the 2,151,293 who voted in the election were working hard on the Sunday evening of the St Patrick’s Day weekend.

Anti-Treaty leader’s personal steel was cloaked by his inoffensive character, writes Conor McNamara

A record number of women will form part of the new Dáil as gender quotas put more females on the ballot papers.

Fine Gael’s senior party figures look set to go into ‘bunker’ mode and shy away from any blame game yet as the outgoing coalition as the party dissects the drubbing it received from Irish voters in the election.

Dozens of previously high-profile politicians are waking up to the reality today that they are no longer TDs after a second successive general election saw a seismic shift in the Dáil landscape.

With huge tracts of this constituency hived off into the new Roscommon-Galway region, a number of TDs have seen their home bases ripped asunder.

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.

Private solicitors working for the Director of Public Prosecutions were paid almost €6.5m last year.

“And look where they put us. Stuck up here on the fifth floor.”

Behold the birth of Ireland’s new future force, the PDs — the Politically Desperate.

Veteran Fianna Fáil TD Michael Kitt has said he was “very surprised” that former Labour TD Colm Keaveney was joining his party and admitted that half his local party was in revolt over the decision, which he found out about from local radio.

If the declaration by Bertie Ahern that he was one of the few socialists in the Dáil provoked a degree of mirthful scepticism, then yesterday’s announcement that former Labour Party chairman Galway East TD Colm Keaveney had joined Fianna Fáil confirmed again that our three main parties are more or less interchangeable, centrist and conservative.

The former chairman of the Labour Party has applied to join Fianna Fáil, the party has confirmed.

The Taoiseach said he was "naturally, personally disappointed" by the defeat of the referendum to abolish the Seanad, as attention now turns to the need for political reform.

The No side has remained ahead throughout the afternoon in the referendum to abolish the Seanad - but with a very tight margin.

Four men accused of cutting turf illegally have been sent forward for trial to the Circuit Criminal Court.

The year which saw two governments fall is best summed up by the phrase coined that August: Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented. Ryle Dwyer reports

Rebel Labour TD Colm Keaveney last night highlighted the deepening rift between him and his party by claiming Pat Rabbitte “played the man and not the ball”.

A staunch defender of Labour, in touch with the mood of the party’s grassroots, and a trade union supporter. Those were some of the descriptions of Galway East TD Colm Keaveney, who rebelled and voted against his party’s budget measures.

Rebel Labour TD Colm Keaveney is expected to be removed as party chair over fears he will use his position to create further disunity and undermine the leader, Eamon Gilmore.

Senior Labour figures have clashed over the introduction of harsh budget measures as coalition partners Fine Gael look set to stand over the cuts being voted on this week.

The first constituencies to return a result, Tipperary South and Galway East, have declared an overall 62% majority in favour of the Fiscal Treaty referendum.

The Galway West tally is 58% yes in favour of the Fiscal Treaty referendum, and 42% no.

Fine Gael has been left licking its wounds as junior coalition partners Labour celebrated a double whammy at the polls.

LABOUR backbenchers rolled in behind party leader Eamon Gilmore after he rejected suggestions by fellow Cabinet members for a wide-scale debt relief scheme for distressed mortgage holders.

Colm Keaveney has taken the last seat in Galway East, the first Labour candidate to hold a seat in that constituency.

Three of four seats in Galway East have been decided following the eighth count just concluded.

Fianna Fáil deputy leader Mary Hanafin has become the latest high-profile casualty of the General Election, as just 16 seats now remain to be filled as counts continue in four constituencies.

With all bar four of the 43 constituencies in the General Election finished counting, the country’s political scene has undergone a sea change.

The Deputy leader of Fianna Fáil Mary Hanafin has become the latest high profile casualty of the General Election.

Counts are resuming at nine constituency centres around the country.