Ansbacher list adds to wage talks difficulties

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday/Sunday

The Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Ken Maginnis, said the meeting of UUP Assembly members in Glasgow at the weekend was not an attempt to discuss a change of policy on IRA decommissioning. He insisted that tactics in the Assembly, not overall party strategy, had been discussed.

The dissident UUP MP for the Lagan Valley, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, took part in a "long march" through Belfast to Stormont.

The rally was attended by around 600 loyalists in opposition to the release of paramilitary prisoners, the Patten report on policing and the inclusion of Sinn Fein in an executive.

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Meath won the All Ireland Senior Football Championship, beating Cork 1-11 to 1-8 in an exciting match which saw the lead change hands throughout the game.

Eight people were killed in road accidents throughout the State over the weekend, including two gardai who died when their patrol car crashed in Co Wexford.

Monday

A confidential report by the Tanaiste's authorised officer, Mr Gerard Ryan, named 120 people who have had transactions with Ansbacher-related accounts.

The list includes politicians and senior business executives. The Irish Times named several of the individuals, including eight directors and former directors of Cement Roadstone Holdings, Ireland's largest industrial company.

A tribunal of inquiry into the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C opened before Judge Alison Lindsay.

The tribunal granted full representation to the Blood Transfusion Service Board, the Minister for Health and Children and the Irish Haemophiliac Society and limited representation to seven other parties. A full public hearing is to begin in December.

Preliminary hearings got under way in Derry's Guildhall towards opening a new Bloody Sunday inquiry to begin in March. The hearings, chaired by Lord Saville, are discussing the issue of anonymity for up to 500 security force witnesses of the shootings in 1972.

Tuesday

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in addressing the annual conference of the National Centre for Partnership, accepted that the Ansbacher controversy would add to the difficulties in securing a new agreement to succeed Partnership 2000.

The SIPTU vice-president, Mr Des Geraghty, said the captains of industry needed "to purge the system openly" if they wanted to gain the trust of trade unionists.

Dochas House, the new £13 million women's prison at Mountjoy, Dublin, was inaugurated by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.

The prison has five sections, with a separate facility for drug users. It includes a health centre and education block.

Wednesday

AIB Bank admitted using its staff pension funds to support the share price of Dana Petroleum rather than concede that its stockbroking firm, Allied Irish Securities, had failed to find investors to buy the stock.

Earlier the Public Accounts Committee was told of the share price support operation by Mr Tony Spollen, a former AIB head of internal audit.

Five former ministers for finance who had served since 1986, including the present Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, testified at the DIRT inquiry.

In turn, each former minister said the Revenue Commissioners had never complained about the lack of power to police non-resident bank accounts and expressed surprise and shock at the extent to which the banks facilitated such tax evasion.

Doctors at the Mater Hospital in Dublin voted unanimously for strike action.

The non-consultant hospital doctors are claiming £250,000 in unpaid overtime and are protesting against long working hours, poor accommodation and other related issues.

Thursday

Mr Joseph Murphy snr, of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineers at the heart of the Flood tribunal, started giving evidence in private.

Because of the poor health of the 82-year-old witness, the proceedings were moved to Guernsey at the beginning of the week. His evidence, presented in transcript form, will not emerge for some weeks.

A new Children Bill, to reform the treatment of children by the criminal justice system, was published. It replaces the 1908 Children Act, raising the age of criminal responsibility from seven to 12 years.

The Bill introduces the concept of family welfare conferences to ascertain what assistance a family may need with a child.

The National Ploughing Championships finished at Castletownroche, Co Cork.

The incessant rain produced the muddiest championship in memory, but the conditions did not dampen the good humour of the 150,000 who attended the event.