A junior minister says criticism of him by Gay Mitchell of Fine Gael is not appropriate to the Presidential debate.

Mr. Mitchell lashed out yesterday at Willie Penrose saying he should “stop playing petty party constituency politics”.

The housing minister is threatening to resign from Cabinet if plans to close Columb army barracks in Mullingar are approved by government.

Minister Penrose says he is not really upset by the comments though wonders if they are appropriate.

“I didn’t feel that maybe the comments were appropriate or germane to the Presidential debate” he said.

“I’ve been called worse; I was a competitive footballer and I had to fight my corner and I was never afraid to wear the jersey on behalf of the team”.

“That’s only a figure of speech and I’m sure Gay just meant it in that direction” he added.

Minister Willie Penrose has said today he cannot compel NAMA to release properties to help take long-term homeless people off the streets.

However he says it may be possible to acquire a significant number of extra houses through consultation with the National Assets Management Agency.

The Housing Minister made the remarks at a conference to mark world homeless day organised by Focus Ireland which wants the government to set new targets to end long term homelessness.

Mike Allen from Focus Ireland says it is a growing problem.

“The official figures are out of date – but we estimate from what we know and see on the ground there’s about 5,000 people – or just over 3,000 households – are homeless across Ireland; that’s the sort of number” he said.

“Given the amount of housing that’s a available and empty – not all of it is suitable but some of it is certainly suitable – we think that a very substantial proportion of that should be possible to be made available for social housing for people moving out of homelessness” he added.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) is launching a new campaign to tackle dangerous driving among young men.

It has carried out research which found 1-in-5 young men aged between 17 and 25 have raced another driver on a public road.

They are also more likely to engage in frequent speeding, reckless driving and use of their mobiles while driving.

Chairman of the RSA Gay Byrne says young men are among the most high risk drivers despite any lessons or training.

“As soon as they get behind the wheel of a car, all of that goes out the window” he said.

“They resort to the deadly, deadly combination of being inexperienced and hugely over-estimating their own prowess at the wheel of a car”.

“Now that’s a lethal combination – and that is why they get into so much trouble” he added.

Cheryl Cole has been voted the favourite fantasy companion on a long-haul flight.

The pop star picked up more than a third of the votes with Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet and Emma Watson all tied in second place.

When it came to the men it seems we’d most like to travel with Oscar-winner Colin Firth followed by David Beckham.