European election Green Party candidate Eamon Ryan has warned the next parliament "could end up deeply divided between mainstream parties who stick to the status quo, and new political groups whose only aim is to tear things apart".

Speaking in Berlin at the launch of the European Green party election launch, Mr Ryan said urgent change in the EU was required to develop a new economic model that worked for the periphery, including Ireland, in reducing the increasingly pervasive income inequality, and "which halts the environmental destruction that the current economic model is leaving in its wake". He warned that "without radical change the centre of Europe will not hold".

Labour MEP Emer Costello officially launched her campaign to retain her seat in the 751-member parliament. At the launch attended by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and party deputy leader Joan Burton, Ms Costello said "who we choose as Dublin's MEPs really matters, more than ever before. It matters whether they will work for Ireland – or just shout for Ireland.

“It matters whether they will join, and stick, with an influential political group, with allies all across Europe, or consign themselves to the margins.”

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins is to complain to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland about RTÉ's coverage of the Sunday Business Post Red C poll. Mr Higgins, director of elections for MEP Paul Murphy, said the broadcaster excluded Mr Murphy and People Before Profit candidate Bríd Smith from coverage when they had 16 per cent between them in the polls "enough to challenge for a seat".