• G8 leaders back calls for Syria peace talks in Geneva

  Leaders at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland have backed calls for Syrian peace talks to be held in Geneva as soon as possible. After adopting the statement, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the leaders had managed to overcome fundamental differences. The statement, however, does not mention what role Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could play in the future. According to the BBC, the G8 ...

• Central Bank to introduce fitness and probity regime to credit unions

  Central Bank is to introduce its fitness and probity regime for credit unions this August with the initial phase to cover those with assets of more than EUR10 million. It said the move was designed to improve governance standards at board and management level. The regime will be introduced on a phased basis to allow time for the implementation of internal controls and procedures in compliance ...

• James Gandolfini star of ‘The Sopranos’ has died

  Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his portrayal of a conflicted New Jersey mob boss in "The Sopranos," has died while vacationing in Rome. Photograph: ...

• Marriage query halts Colombian liposuction death inquest

  Ricardo Lancheros , the plastic surgeon who carried out the operation, is refusing to give evidence at the inquest. Mr Lawlor died on the operating table as he underwent liposuction and extensive plastic surgery to his face at Dr Lancheros' Bogota clinic on September 3rd, 2007. His death had been the subject of a previous inquest at the Dublin County Coroner's Court. However, the ...

• Final regulations on personal insolvency practitioners due “within days”

  Alan Shatter is set to sign off on regulations surrounding personal insolvency practitioners (PIPs) "in the coming days", clearing the way for thousands of people to tackle insurmountable personal debt. However, the move has done little to alleviate criticism from the Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) which claimed continuing delays in the process has caused great distress for those ...

• Ireland backs EU deals for Serbia and Kosovo ahead of key talks

  Mitrovica, Kosovo: Serbian prime minister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci will meet in Brussels this evening to accelerate implementation of a landmark deal signed in April to improve relations, amid fears that the process is stalling ahead of the June 27 th -28 th EU ...

• Clare too cool to drool as slobber jibe hits home over Obamas

  We'll send out to Boots for some, so as not to upset the sensibilities of Clare Daly. And maybe an extra large one for Enda, because he sits opposite Clare in the Dil chamber and she can't be putting up with his slobbering since he joined the big boys at ...

• Ireland’s example as a peacemaker celebrated in Kennedy lecture

  The Irish-American governor - who has been tipped as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 - was at Iveagh House to deliver the "Kennedy Lecture: Reflections on Ireland and ...

• Japanese prime minister praises Ireland’s efforts to reduce debt

  He said that it was encouraging that Mr Kenny had endorsed his controversial plan to revive the Japanese economy, known as Abenomics, which involves massive government economic stimulus, buying government bonds, printing more yen and restructuring the ...

• Man to be sentenced for breaking into Minister’s home

  Eugene Stapleton told Ronan Kennedy, prosecuting, that Heavey was caught in possession of a sawn-off shotgun and shotgun cartridges on March 16th, 2011. He was charged two days later and granted bail. He was on bail when he carried out the burglary on the Minister's house while Mr Shatter was out of the country on Government business. On July 30th last he received a sentence of four years ...

• Adrian Bayley sentencing revulsion seeps out of every page of judgment

  Jill Meagher's father George McKeon makes a statement to the media on the steps of the supreme court after the sentencing of Adrian Ernest Bayley for his daughter's rape and murder. Photograph: ...

• Garda search phone and online records of murdered woman in hunt for killer

  Enrika in a frenzied attack at their rented house at Langford Downs, Killorglin, where they had lived for seven years. Garda have started examining Ms Lubiene's activity online in the hope of identifying anyone she befriended with a view to establishing who might have visited her at the house where she and her daughter lived after her ...

• Students upbeat about music

  "The students were upbeat about the higher level paper, It was perceived as fair. Dictation . . . is always the most challenging section but this year was as manageable as always. A question on Irish folk music was particularly interesting." She described the ordinary level paper as "very ...

• Health Minister not to oppose Bill on defibrillators

  James Reilly has accepted the principle of a Private Member's Bill from Independent Senator Feargal Quinn requiring the public availability of defibrillators. "Advances in technology and reduced production costs now mean that defibrillators are more affordable and as a result should be far more widely available,'' he said. Mr Quinn, who was speaking during the second stage ...

• Philanthropy provides chance to move from ‘failed Celtic Tiger era’ says Robinson

  Phil Hogan and Mary Robinson at the Philanthropy Ireland launch of the 1% Difference Campaign at Wood Quay, Dublin, yesterday. Photograph: Gareth ...

• Kenny labels Daly remarks ‘disgraceful’

  Clare Daly TD: "We were speculating this morning on whether you were going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with . . . stars and stripes to really mark abject ...

• ‘Voyage’ songwriter takes complaint against solicitor to the Law Society

  was made popular by Christy Moore and was performed by the tenors on the video and CD, made the complaint about solicitor Eddie McGarr of McGarr Solicitors in Dublin. He claimed Mr McGarr failed to supply him with an outline of his costs when he was offered a settlement of EUR50,000 in March 2008, failed to respond to correspondence and steered him toward going to a trial when he wanted to ...

• Garda cost of Obama security operation put at €3m-€4m

  US First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, Malia and Sasha, with tour guide George McClafferty, at Glendalough on Tuesday. Security surrounding their visit cost millions of euro. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish ...

• Unions refunded €1m to State on foot of partnership payments controversy

  HSE over recent years into controversial payments made by various parts of the health service under social part nership initiatives. The director general-designate of the HSE Tony O'Brien is expected to tell the Dil Public Accounts Committee that between 1998 and 2009 more than EUR3.3 million in funding was paid into an unauthorised bank account by the Office of Health Management, the ...

• IMF warns against using promissory note deal proceeds to ease budget

  International Monetary Fund has warned the Government against using the proceeds from the deal to scrap the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note to reduce the planned rate of fiscal retrenchment next year or in ...

• Cycleway for old rail way route between Glenbeigh and Renard in Co Kerry

  The 26km route will run parallel to, but over, the Ring of Kerry roadway, offering spectacular views. The Department of Transport has allocated EUR50,000 towards the ...

• Drive to attract students undermines academic education says professor

  Prof Richard Arum was speaking ahead of a keynote address he will give at the NUI Maynooth education forum today. Photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish ...

• Shatter novel prompts censorship reform

  Alan Shatter 24 years ago when he was a backbencher has prompted him to transfer responsibility for censorship out of his department. A complaint to ...

• Fine Gael TD voices concern over Seanad abolition

  Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell: "I would most certain ly urge caution until we have a clear and coherent overall vision of where we are going." Photograph: Eric ...

• Stand-off over turf cutting in Co Galway

  A group of people have gathered at a roadway leading to a bog designated as a Special Area of Conservation in Co Galway tonight. They are concerned that machinery used to cut turf may be seized. Ardgraigue bog near Killimor is one of 53 bogs where a ban on turf cutting is in place. Earlier today, turf was cut on banks belonging to more than 50 local people. The process began at 5am and was ...

• Lesbian couples relationship plans put on hold by Northern Irelands gay adoption ban court hears

  A lesbian woman seeking to raise a child with her partner has had their relationship plans put on hold by the ban on gay and unmarried couples adopting in Northern Ireland, the Court of Appeal heard ...

• Peter Mathews says Fine Gael gave committment to allow conscientious objection

  Fine Gael TD said party signed up to international agreement last October as moral and ethics experts address TDs and Senators on conscientious objection to proposed abortion ...

• Time not right to sell Aer Lingus stake - Howlin

  The Government does not think the time is right to sell its 25% stake in Aer Lingus, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said tonight. The Government said it would consider the sale of its remaining stake in the former State carrier two years ago. In its state asset sales plan in February last year it said it was determined to find a buyer once market conditions ...

• IMF says Ireland may exit bailout this year

  Ireland has a good chance of exiting its bailout this year, the International Monetary Fund said this afternoon. It would benefit from more European support in cleaning up its indebted banks and the safety net of precautionary funding, the IMF said. In contrast to much of the eurozone, Ireland’s economy has expanded for much of the past two years, and the IMF kept its growth forecasts ...

• British Bankers Ireland Bound

  commission was convened in the wake of Britain's LIBOR rate-rigging scandal and was mandated to examine British banking culture. The result is a 571-page report likely to play a role in ongoing banking reforms. Included is a proposal that banker bonuses be delayed ...

• Irish school chairman resigns after complaints about pro-life leaflet

  The chairman of a primary school in Dublin has resigned after being caught up in a controversy over the distribution of flyers advertising a pro-life event. Eddie Shaw stepped down from his post at the Harold School, apologizing for the fact that some young students were sent home with leaflets promoting the "Vigil for Life" on June 8. Shaw said: "I want to repeat my unreserved ...

• Two arrested after €150k drugs seizure in Cork

  Two men have been arrested following a drugs seizure in Co Cork.Garda stopped and searched a car close to an area known as Halfway in Ballinhassig outside of Cork city earlier today and recovered 25kg of cannabis resin with an estimated street value of EUR150,000.The two occupants of the car, a local man in his early 40's and a man in his 30's from Dublin, were arrested at the scene. ...

• Over 1000 attend special mass for murdered mother and daughter

  Upwards of 1,000 people gathered in Killorglin this evening for a special mass to remember a murdered mother and daughter.27-year-old Jolanta Lubiene and her 8-year-old daughter Enrika were stabbed to death between 2 and 6pm last Saturday; their bodies were discovered at their home in Langford Downs, Killorglin on Sunday night at around ...

• Exclusive - Forest mulls bid for Irish drugmaker Elan sources

  , the specialty drugmaker that counts investor Carl Icahn as a major shareholder, is among a handful of companies interested in bidding for Irish drugmaker Elan Corp ...

• Wind farm development process lacking transparency Martin says

  Michel Martin: "There is an absence of a legislative framework to deal with the step change in technology and scale of development." Photograph: Alan ...

• EU asked for help in battle of fluoridation

  Ms Pocock was representing her father the late Robert Pocock, a long-standing campaigner on the issue, who passed away unexpectedly less than two months ago. She told the committee residents of the Republic were the only residents of an EU state to be "mandatorily fluoridated by our ...

• Robinson and McGuinness see investment opportunities in Japan

  Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe joins First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness during a visit to the Titanic visitor centre in Belfast yesterday. Photograph: Peter Morrison/AP ...

• Censorship moves to Arts after Shatter complaint

  Responsibility for the Censorship of Publications Board is to be transferred from the Minister for Justice to the Minister for Arts. The change comes after a member of the public lodged a complaint about a novel by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter. A Government spokesperson said the move was being made in part because it was more logical to have the Department of Arts in charge, and in part ...

• Two held over Togher drugs seizure

  Two men have been arrested following the seizure of drugs worth over €150,000 in Co Cork. The men were detained and two cars seized when detectives intercepted them near the village of Five Mile. Around 25kg of cannabis resin was recovered. The men are being held at Togher Garda ...

• Uncle says ‘parole or no parole the man should never have been walking the streets’

  The length of the sentence is in some way "just incidental in the sense that he [Bayley] was the man that he was; he should never have been let out. So it doesn't really matter what amount of time [he got] . . . parole or no parole, the man should never have been walking the ...

• Poor professional conduct finding against paediatrician ‘unproven’ court told

  A finding of poor professional performance against a paediatrician over an incorrect "tongue-tie" procedure on a young child in his care was unproven, irrational and disproportionate, ...

• Daly says Govt and media slobbered over Obamas

  Clare Daly has accused the Government and the media of "slobbering" over the Obama family during their two-day visit to Ireland this week. US First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters visited Dublin and Wicklow while her husband attended the G8 summit in Co Fermanagh. Ms Daly told the Dáil that RTÉ had commissioned extra programmes to tell people what the family had ...

• In pictures Belfast roads re-opened following gas leak

  Two Belfast city centre streets have re-opened following a gas leak earlier. Great Victoria Street and Dublin Road were shut and a number of buildings were evacuated during the gas leak which a spokeswoman for the PSNI said there had been in the area of the old Shaftesbury Hospital."Phoenix Gas has been informed and are attending," she said.At around 6pm on Wednesday, the PSNI said ...

• Three jailed for substantial Belfast cannabis operation

  Three Chinese men who admitted involvement in a "substantial" operation to sell cannabis on a commercial scale have been jailed for a total of seven-and-a-half ...

• Assault victim speaks of anger at attacker being ‘rewarded’ by reality TV show

  Ciara Kiernan (18), who with her sister Sabrina Archbold (25) received a two-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to assault causing harm. Kiernan was taken to Paris as part of John Lonergan's Circus. Photograph: Collins ...

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