Your Tuesday evening catch-up

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

TOP STORIES

Enda Kenny has given his clearest indication that the General Election will take place early in the New Year. Scotching speculation that the country could be sent to the polls as early as November, the Taoiseach said voters will have a “clear choice” next year. On the motion of no confidence in the Government, the Taoiseach said: "The tabling of these motions has more to do with the competition between the opposition parties than any genuine interest in the conclusion of the commission’s interim report.

The €3bn Dart Underground project through Dublin city has been shelved, with new, cheaper plans to be drawn up. Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed the expected u-turn, insisting the new design would cost less but run along a similar route from Inchicore to the Docklands.

Revenue officers seized 445,000 cigarettes yesterday in Cork hidden inside several mannequins. Harvey, Revenue’s sniffer dog, found around 42,000 unstamped ’NZ Slim’ cigarettes at a commercial premises in Cork city raided by Revenue officers and Gardaí.

In our Farming Poll it was revealed that almost two thirds of farmers support the increased liberalisation of the abortion laws, with the majority backing changes to the eighth amendment of the Constitution.

For more news, data and analysis on the 2015 Farming Poll, click HERE.

WORLD

Oscar Pistorius’s case will be heard by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal on November 3, when prosecutors will again press for a murder conviction against the double-amputee athlete.

EU ministers are to meet and try to resolve a dispute over how to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers who have recently arrived in Europe. A group of central European states is resisting calls for 22 EU members to accept mandatory quotas.