The Taoiseach says borrowers who have mortgages owned by so-called "vulture funds" will have greater protections from early 2019.
A bill, which has been brought forward by Fianna Fáil's finance spokesperson Michael McGrath, is to be enacted in the new year.
Leo Varadkar says it will mean the funds will be regulated by the Central Bank for the first time.
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SIPTU members employed in hospitals as support staff will be balloted for strike action in the New Year.
The union claims the Government has refused to concede a pay increase awarded to its members through an independent job evaluation process.
SIPTU has around 7,000 support-grade staff in hospitals and other healthcare centres.
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Mary Robinson has described an Arab princess who had been feared missing as a 'troubled young woman who needed psychiatric help'.
The former Irish president has been pictured with the 33-year-old - who hadn't been seen in months - and says she's in the loving care of her family.
Princess Latifa failed in an attempt to escape Dubai earlier this year, and human rights groups had raised concerns about her safety.
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Extreme heat warnings are in place in Australia where temperatures have passed 40 degrees Celsius.
Health authorities have issued alerts and fire-crews are on standby as the post-Christmas heatwave sweeps through parts of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
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The US Coast Guard has suspended the search for a missing British entertainer who fell overboard from a cruise ship.
20-year-old Arron Hough, from Sunderland, went missing from the Royal Caribbean vessel on Christmas Day.
Search teams have spent 83 hours looking for him, covering 10,000 square kilometres.
