Mattie McGrath

One in five TDs are landlords as Michael Healy-Rae boosts property portfolio to 25

Returns of politicians’ interests for 2023 show 29 of the 160 TDs declared that they were landlords or owned rental property

Miriam Lord’s Week: Fine Gael chinwag gives clues to timing of next election, as David Norris prepares to bow out

Lashings of ginger beer and one-armed bandits can do nothing to stop the steady leaks within the Chamber walls... and ceilings

Use of ‘nasty’ language by some politicians when engaging with Roscrea protesters criticised

Labour TD says use of term ‘colonisation’ when talking about asylum seekers ‘appalling’

Roscrea protest: Third night of demonstration over plans to house asylum seekers in hotel

Racket Hall closed on Thursday with plans to house 160 international protection applicants in Tipperary hotel

Miriam Lord’s political awards for 2023

Gongs go to Timmy Dooley, Mary Robinson, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, Louise O’Reilly, Thomas Pringle, Michael Collins, Mary Lou McDonald and Helen McEntee, but will they be thrilled?

‘Ireland is full’: How a far-right phrase went mainstream

Due to deliberate efforts by extremists, such slogans are everywhere

Cork Fianna Fáil councillor criticises Government over housing of asylum seekers as TD calls for referendum on issue

Galway councillor at centre of immigration comments says he has had ‘zero communication’ from Fianna Fáil over disciplinary action

How John Magnier’s Coolmore bloodstock operation is buying up Co Tipperary

The highly profitable horsebreeding operation is estimated to have bought 170 farms in the county, the equivalent of more than five times the size of the Phoenix Park

Heated Dáil debate on Rural Independent Group’s motion calling for cap on ‘influx of asylum seekers’

Dáil told that the total cost for people in IPAS accommodation between 2016 and 2022 is in excess of €1 billion

Welfare hikes, music lessons and €1.9bn for roads: Rural Independents’ draft budget wish-list

The Rural Independent Group’s draft pre-budget submission was released in error

Miriam Lord’s Week: TDs and Senators eager for their close-ups in The Tubridy Show

Committee hearings into RTÉ payments controversy provided stark contrast between top performers and those who scaled soaring heights of incoherence

Miriam Lord: Where is Dee Forbes? Under the bus, was the general consensus in the committee room

‘When the wheels came off the bus,’ is how the interim director general chose to describe the moment Tubsgate exploded in Montrose

RTÉ witnesses endure pointed but mostly respectful questioning at Oireachtas committee

Senior figures from national broadcaster subjected to hours of detailed questioning by politicians about payments to Ryan Tubridy

Miriam Lord: Leo makes touching plea for TDs to behave themselves

Calls made for a return to the respectful discourse of the past

Kieran Cuddihy asks if ‘Ireland is full’, a phrase now seemingly normalised on Newstalk

Cuddihy’s showy spirit runs through the Hard Shoulder: no sacred cow is safe

Angry reaction in the Dáil as Varadkar invokes Siege of Jobstown

Taoiseach’s remarks about 2014 water charges protest ‘scandalous’, says People Before Profit TD

Diarmaid Ferriter: The ‘opposite of the Greens’ party will serve no one

Farmers have mobilised for years around the theme of rural neglect. Any new rural political party has to offer something more than simply 'opposite to the Greens'

Closer co-operation with UK authorities needed to stop illegal border crossings, Varadkar says

Increase in people seeking International Protection in the State after coming from Britain or North

Elderly GAA fans excluded by cashless policy, TD warns

People who ‘gave their life’ to the sport may not have wherewithal to pre-book tickets, says Mattie McGrath

‘No issue’ with creating Oireachtas committee on immigration and asylum, Taoiseach says

Rural Independent TD says State cannot sustain numbers seeking international protections from State

Miriam Lord’s Week: Reliving the anorak years as Bertie Ahern launches Charlie Bird’s book

Former taoiseach fondly remembers being ‘chased around the bloody country’ by former RTÉ journalist

AIB’s cashless banks U-turn: ‘It’s such a relief, it will save us so much extra time and effort’

Banking sector is changing, with branch closures becoming increasingly common

Coalition decision to bring budget day forward two weeks mere ‘token exercise’

Ged Nash says tax revenues ‘powering ahead’ and windfall must be given to most needy

Minister ‘finger wagging’ over Dáil question on services for refugees, McGrath says

Independent TD accuses Darragh O’Brien of being ‘condescending’ and attempting to ‘demonise’ Carol Nolan

Manchester University to undertake part of review into State’s abortion laws

Contract for key plank of review awarded following public procurement process

National Maternity Hospital: Green Party suspends two TDs for voting with Opposition

Coalition abstained on Sinn Féin motion calling for hospital to be built on land owned by State

Carbon budgets to help halve emissions passed in Dáil without a vote

Emissions ceilings to be decided for economic sectors once budgets come into effect

Taoiseach had ‘no hand, act or part’ in Tony Holohan job move

Chief Medical Officer’s secondment to TCD criticised in Dáil as ‘evidence of a cosy cartel’

Miriam Lord: As Taoiseach eggs him on, Mattie gets rasher

Picking a breakfast roll battle with healthy Micheál is silly even by Dáil standards

Miriam Lord: Taoiseach keeps toolbox hidden despite pressure over prices

Mary Lou McDonald determinedly leads the charge in Dáil in seeking action on fuel costs

Miriam Lord’s Week: Stephen Donnelly returns from UAE to a nasty surprise

Backslapping Fine Gael Senator puts his foot in it while Russia gets lost in the boogie

Miriam Lord: Feathers fly as Mattie McGrath rips into Coalition’s cushion

Roaring Independents blame ‘evil’ Green Party for rising fuel costs and carbon taxes

Miriam Lord’s 2021 Awards: Coalition had to Sinn and bear it in the year of Mary Lou

Danny Healy-Rae left to his own device as Zapponegate saw Government rocked by a role

Dáil rejects abortion Bill from Rural Independent TDs

Issues such as foetal pain relief can be raised within review, Minister for Health says

Opposition TDs call for extra sittings of the Dáil in run-up to Christmas

Mary Lou McDonald asks for House to sit next week to legislate for electricity bill credit

Miriam Lord: TDs fume as Antigen 4 All in the Dáil gets noses out of joint

Elsewhere this week, Bertie Ahern’s comments on the North go completely south

When is the history of the Holocaust relevant today?

Hugh Linehan: There may be times when the lessons of the genocidal past are worth recalling, but not this time Mattie McGrath

Miriam Lord’s Week: TD’s charity cycle scuppered by SUV

A touch of perspective wouldn’t have gone amiss in the Dáil this week

Miriam Lord: Dr Feelgood needs his Project Happy now

Micheál gets ratty in slugfest over housing, CO2 monitors and Belarus comparisons

People who receive vaccines not approved by EMA must enter hotel quarantine, Dáil told

More than 8,000 people have been through system since March, with 376 positive tests

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