Opposition TDs are questioning the relationship between property developers, the Office of Public Works and the National Assets Management Agency after it emerged that the government spend on rents increased 25% last year. By Vincent Ryan.

Figures uncovered by Fine Gael deputy Brian Hayes show that over a three and a half year period €400m was spent renting government offices. The expenditure on rents increased by €22m from 2008 to 2009 rising from €109m to €131m.

Fifty people from across the country answered a letter in the Irish Times to attend the establishment of a new political party last night. By Vincent Ryan in Kilkenny.

Dan Brennan's farm in Castlecomer, Kilkenny overlooks the Ormonde Brick factory where shale from a local mine is converted to building materials. Trees on Mr Brennan’s farm are dead and his cattle don’t gain weight. A report by the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency was commissioned to find out why. Mr Brennan has long alleged that the brick factory is the cause of these problems, though there is no proof of this. Department officials were not allowed to investigate the brick factory as a source of pollution in this latest report.

Cost-saving measures implemented by the Department of Defence leave Ireland vulnerable to drug smugglers, an anti-drugs group says. By Vincent Ryan.

Citywide has criticised the government's decision to reduce the number of patrolling days that the Irish Navy carry out as a deterrent to drug smugglers.

Ireland is already seen as a weak spot by international drug traffickers looking for an easy route to the lucrative UK and European markets. The government now plans to cut a further 100 routine patrolling days from the Navy’s operations as part of a cost saving measure.

A scientist and economist have linked the current financial crisis to an increase in oil consumption. Ireland's energy strategy is utterly inadequate, says Eddie Hobbs. By Vincent Ryan.

Global daily oil consumption could be represented thus: an unbroken thread of oil barrels, standing lip to lip, looped around the equator, embracing the globe. It would take only 80 million barrels, three million less than is consumed daily. Humanity has bound itself to oil, and as production falls and consumption rises the bind will tighten.