Hate Speech Lucinda Creighton: Government should use summer recess to quietly bury barmy Hate Speech bill Curbs on open debate and free speech are being reformulated as positive, liberal steps, when in fact the opposite is the case
Politics Attorney General drafting protocol on how the state fights legal casesCalls for protocol increased after revelations the state had pursued an aggressive legal strategy on private nursing home charges
Legal State bodies reject Bar Council policy to brief more women barristersOffice of the Attorney General and the State Claims Agency have declined to sign up to the policy which aims to encourage fairer distribution of work
Legal Varadkar not against reforming Attorney General’s role ‘in principle’Responding to a bill drafted by the Labour Party that calls for the AG to have regard for the overall public interest, the Taoiseach said that he is open to more transparency around the position
Politics Varadkar says claims Attorney General’s office was used politically are ‘unfair’The Taoiseach also said there was nothing ‘sinister’ about how the government tried to minimise payments over nursing home care
Comment Conor Casey and Hilary Hogan: Government’s legal stance also raises questions about AG’s roleIt is fair to ask whether Rossa Fanning’s report into the nursing homes charges represents an expansion of the role of the Attorney General from legal adviser to a more openly political actor
Politics Pressure grows on government over ‘political’ use of Attorney General’s officeThe Labour Party is to bring forward a bill proposing reform in wake of the nursing homes controversy
Health Attorney General finds government’s legal strategy on nursing home fees was ‘sound’The government had been accused of minimising public payouts to nursing home residents who were wrongly charged for care
Politics ‘I am just surprised that there is such a level of surprise’ over state’s strategy Gareth Noble, a leading children’s lawyer, says the state’s legal containment strategy is also applied to cases including disabled children and adults