385 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 146 are in wards elsewhere in hospitals.

Independent candidate Matt Shanahan had a promotional display projected onto the gable end of a Waterford hospital building.

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Trade and Employment Louise O’Reilly said that opinion polls were reflecting what she had experienced on the campaign trail.

Here are the lead stories making Thursday’s newspapers.

The General Election will be held on Friday.

The housing portfolio is held by Fianna Fail’s Darragh O’Brien.

The Dun Laoirghaire TD was speaking after the final leaders debate, which seen Mary Lou McDonald, Micheál Martin and Simon Harris fail to land a final blow before Friday. 

A man aged in his 50s was pronounced dead at the scene.

Finance Director at O’Neills, Paul Towell said that the company plans to further increase sales in Australia and the UK due to the impact the shortened inter-county GAA season is having on domestic sales.

Harris has argued Ireland and other EU countries need to prepare for the possibility of trade shocks as he criticised the scale of Sinn Féin’s spending pledges as well as their saving plans.

Mr Lynskey, a former monk from Belfast who later joined the IRA, was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972.

He urged the public to “vote left and transfer left”, adding that 100 years of the two big parties should end.

The Criminal Assets Bureau conducted a search operation in west Dublin as part of ongoing CAB investigation into targets linked to a Dublin-based organised crime group.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, Dee Devlin said: "No one is entitled to comment on our relationship - we trust one another and love one another. Nothing or nobody will change that."

Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty said the child's fear of dying was not based on established facts

The accused man is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght

Mr Justice David Holland said he was quashing the decision to rezone the site near the Chapelizod Bypass because of the failure of the council's chief executive to list in a report a submission from an objector who owns a plant firm next door to the site.

The Green leader said it was ‘looking likely’ Fine Gael and Fianna Fail would be returned to government but would need support to make up a majority.

Mr McGahon was ordered by the High Court to pay damages earlier this year following an alleged assault.

Simon Harris has denied any Fine Gael staff contacted the broadcaster to remove the clip of a much-criticised encounter with Charlotte Fallon.