Penalty points loophole

The Minister for Transport, Paschal Donohoe is publishing emergency legislation today, to close a loophole which could potentially have seen thousands of penalty points wiped.

A technical issue was identified by the Department of Transport and the new legislation will resolve it.

It's not yet known what offences are involved.

The legislation is designed to ensure that there is no interruption to the enforcement of road traffic offences under the penalty points system.

Irish Water

Thursday night saw heated scenes in the Dáil as the government was confronted with the allegation that it had underestimated the cost of Irish Water grants to each home in the country by a total of €35m.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly was saved by the 10pm adjournment, but the Dáil will return at 10 tomorrow morning.

Double-burial practice revelations

The HSE is being asked to establish the full extent of a practice of double burials.

It has emerged that a number of babies bodies were buried with deceased adults, although the practice is thought to have ended in the 1980s.

Friday will see more questions for the embattled HSE.