A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Mayor 'Ming' urges politicians to follow him in taking expenses cut
A west of Ireland mayor intends to cut his own allowances next week and has called on national leaders to follow suit.
Roscommon county mayor Luke “Ming” Flanagan (Ind), known for his long-running campaign to legalise cannabis, intends to table a motion at next week’s local authority budget meeting which would half his mayoral allowance and his domestic mayoral travel allowance.
He also intends to propose a 100 per cent cut in his mayoral foreign travel allowance, and a 100 per cent cut in his conference allowance. He estimates this will save his local authority €26,400 next year. “This may not sound like a large amount, but I believe . . . it will have an impact,” he said.
Deal in sight on M7 wages row
A settlement was said to be in sight last night in the dispute over wages for men working on the M7 motorway in counties Laois and Offaly, reports .
The men, who threatened to dig up parts of the 36km motorway, have not been paid since November 1st.
Senior engineer with Laois County Council Michael O'Hora said talks were under way between the council, its funding agent the National Roads Authority and the main contractor on the project, Bowen Somague Joint Venture. The talks relate to a payment of about €200,000 directly to the workers, representing the wages due.
Coast Guard gets digital upgrade
The Irish Coast Guard's ability to co-ordinate marine search and rescue will be improved significantly by its new digital technology communications platform, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has said.
Mr Dempsey was speaking at yesterday's opening of a new Irish Coast Guard national marine operations centre at its headquarters in Leeson Lane, Dublin.
"We now have a single 24/7 international contact point on ship and port security, coast guard to coast guard requests, marine assistance services, satellite alerts and crisis response in the maritime domain," he said.
Gardaí arrest 45 in drugs operation
Gardaí have arrested 45 people in the past 48 hours as part of a crackdown on the sale and supply of heroin and "crack" cocaine in the Dublin region. The operation, which involved Garda drug units from Kevin Street, Pearse Street and Store Street stations, has resulted in 150 charges being brought.
The arrests follow a six-month covert operation in which gardaí and the Garda National Drug Unit have gathered evidence against those who they describe as "significant targets", all of whom are expected to face multiple charges.