Following reports in the Sunday Business Post, Sinn Fein's general election candidate for Meath, Councillor Joe Reilly, has called on the Minister for the Department of the Environment and Local Government, Noel Dempsey, to rescind his decision to appoint his brother's business partner to the board of the National Roads Authority as the proposed appointee's business could be the cause of a "conflict of interest" Free article

Cavan/Monaghan Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin raised in the Dáil last week the situation in the Accident and Emergency units of hospitals that has led to forthcoming strike action by the Irish Nurses Organisation and balloting for industrial action by SIPTU. Free article

People on the minimum wage are still in the tax net as a result of the Budget, the Dáil was told by Cavan/Monaghan Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin last week as TDs debated the Finance Bill. Ó Caoláin also criticised as a "gimmick" the special tax rebates for retiring professional sportspeople. Free article

Gerry Adams was this week highly critical of the Dublin government's plan not to nominate a representative of the No campaign to represent the state at the EU Convention - which is made up of representatives from all the member states - and which will begin work on 1 March to consider the next EU Treaty and the constitutional future of the EU. Free article

Sinn Féin Health Minister Bairbre de Brún was in Miunster last weekend, lending her support to the election campaign of Martin Ferris and other Sinn Féin candidates. Free article

Sinn Féin election candidate for Sligo/Leitrim, Councillor Seán MacManus, has described the new Medical Card income guidelines for the North Western Health Board as "an insult - a clear reason why two-tier health care must end, and free access to health care for all must be introduced as a matter of priority by the next government". MacManus condemned the current system as "nothing but a poverty trap. Free article