Outspoken TD Luke Ming Flanagan claimed nearly the full mobile phone allowance available to politicians, but did not use taxpayers’ funds to purchase a hands-free phone kit for his car.

Almost 15% of all houses in Ireland were empty on the night of the census.

ANALYSIS of Central Statistic Office (CSO) figures from the past 20 years paint a picture of a rural Ireland with an increasingly ageing population and one haemorrhaging young people.