As bullying is widespread in both urban and rural schools, education committee calls for anti-bullying inspections to reassure parents and teachers and backs the creation of an online safety commissioner to receive and investigate specific complaints

Deadline for submitting nominations for the elections is reached: over 600 candidates are on the ballot in 43 constituencies; this is the first election in which political parties must achieve a 40% gender quota, or risk losing half of their state funding

The Dublin Fire Department experienced the busiest Halloween night of the decade, with the number of calls more than double compared to last year, with a total of 494 fire calls, 421 of which were Halloween-related

"It was like a bomb was dropped on us" declared the parents in protest against the plan to move the secondary school 8 km away, from Ongar, in northwest Dublin to Hollywoodrath

It will be a criminal offence to destroy or allow to be damaged the records of 250.000 survivors of historical institutional abuse, under legislation that was fast-tracked this week by Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman