News broke around lunchtime claiming that Trevor Sargent sent a letter to the Gardai on the subject of a prosecution.

The Evening Herald are running a story this evening that Sargent used ministerial headed paper to ask that charges against a constituent to be dropped. The constituent was charged with threatening and abusive behaviour.

The Green Party have been silent so far, but Sargent will address the Dáil today at 5:15pm. Rumours are rife that Sargent will resign. Will he?

Picture via David Cochrane at Politics.ie

The Belfast Telegraph is reporting that Iris Robinson is under suicide watch. A DUP spokesman has confirmed to the paper that Robinson is under watch.

“The truth is that Iris remains in hospital under acute psychiatric care and under 24-hour suicide watch… Iris publicly admitted her one indiscretion and has paid a high price for it,” the spokesman said.

Photo via DUP on Flickr  published via CC-Non Commercial-No Derivative Works licence

Gardai are investigating the fatal shooting of 35 year old man at a petrol station in Limerick city. A little after 6am, this morning a lone gunman shot the delivery man on his bread delivery rounds at the Topaz petrol station on the Ennis Road in Limerick.

The Gardai at Henry Street are investigating and haven’t released details on the shooting. Despite this, locals believe and the Limerick Leader reports that the victim may be a member of the Treacy family. The Treacy family is aligned to one of the feuding families in Limerick.

Update: Fixed headline

Sunday Tribune
The Trib leads with a story by Shane Coleman and Conor McMorrow that claims Brian Cowen will wait to reshuffle his cabinet until after Easter.

The Taoiseach is believed to be contemplating the options this weekend to fill thew gap caused by O’Dea’s resignation.

The piece goes onto to detail his options

• If a straight replacement for the portfolio is sought in the coming week, Coleman and McMorrow believe that Tony Killeen would the likely choice
• Let things die down for a couple weeks, before announcing a replacement and then reshuffling later in the year
• Holding off all decisions until after Easter and then do a complete reshuffle

The reshuffle, Coleman and McMorrow believe, would be the best option and would give Cowen the chance to appoint someone to help Finance Minister Brian Lenihan with his workload during his treatment for cancer. They note, also, the irony that this would have been the perfect job for O’Dea.

The lead picture on the Trib is of Senator David Norris who has expressed interest in running as president next time around.

The Sunday Business Post

Predictably, the SBP leads with O’Dea’s resignation. The lead by Niamh Connolly and Pat Leahy says that Cowen asked the Greens to allow O’Dea resign “in his own time” but the Greens insisted O’Dea resign immediately. The lead writers claim that the Greens “hardline stance” was adopted to “curtail damage caused by the Party’s support for the Minister in a confidence motion the previous day.”

Samantha McCaughren has a story on the front-page claiming that Denis O’Brien will net over half a billion euros from the sale of Digicel Pacific to its parent company Digicel Group. The deal which will take place between two O’Brien businesses, will allow O’Brien to realise €510m in cash into his pocket.

Sunday Independent

The Sindo leads with the fallout of the O’Dea resignation as well, but takes an interesting peek into the future. The lead by Jody Corcoran claims that the Moriarty report will drive the Greens to the brink of their support for Fianna Fáil within weeks.

Green Party leader John Gormley will come under intense pressure from within his party should he continue to accept further government support from the now-Independent TD, Mr Lowry, if the tribunal report proves to be as critical of him as predicted.

Willie O’Dea was interviewed on this lunchtime’s News at One by Sean O’Rourke on the fallout from AffidavitGate.

O’Rourke began by playing the audio of the (by-now) infamous interview by journalist Mike Dwane. The tape was released by the Limerick Leader just before lunch.

Listen in for O’Dea claiming that’s he’s a victim.

Photo from last night’s debate of confidence in Minister O’Dea