A roundup of today's other Ireland stories in brief
Policing board votes to sell off 26 stations
The Northern Ireland Policing Board has voted to close and sell off 26 of the PSNI’s 108 stations despite DUP and Ulster Unionist Party members on the board opposing most of these closures, writes Gerry Moriarty.
Police commanders had urged the board to sanction the closures saying that of the 26, only one – Bessbrook, Co Armagh – was fully operational, with 21 already closed and five opened for limited periods.
The DUP and UUP members opposed 20 of the 26 closures but lost all the votes, sometimes on the casting ballot of the chairman of the board, Barry Gilligan. Eighteen of the board’s 19 members attended yesterday’s private meeting.
The future of a further 26 stations are up for review with a number of them also likely to be closed.
Mr Gilligan said the board would have been “remiss in its duty if we continued to fund the upkeep of stations which have been closed for some time and are not delivering a service to the community”.
Protest at 0.5% hike by Permanent TSB
A demonstration was held outside the headquarters of Permanent TSB bank in Dublin yesterday to protest against the financial institution’s 0.5 per cent increase in mortgages interest rates.
About 10 people, from a new campaign group Enough is Enough, took part in the 90 minute protest.
Campaign spokesman Fergal Scully said that on top of tax increases and levies, taxpayers were being asked to bail out the banks for billions of euro. That meant cuts in public services and social welfare and the response was “a kick in the teeth” for mortgage holders.
Permanent TSB was “flying the flag” for mortgage increases. “Only yesterday AIB said it was not ruling out a mortgage rate increase,” he said adding that it would affect people renting as well as home owners.
“If mortgages go up, rents go up,” Mr Scully said.
Man (73) dies while swimming in sea
An elderly man died while swimming at Portmarnock, Co Dublin, yesterday afternoon.
The alarm was raised shortly after 4pm and a search got under way. The 73-year-old man’s wife was at the scene.
Emergency services involved in the sea search were the Howth, Portmarnock and Malahide lifeboats, the Dublin Coast Guard and a private boat.
Howth Coast Guard and Malahide gardaí were involved in a search of the shore.
The man’s body was recovered at about 5.30pm by the Howth Coast Guard unit. The body was then taken away by the coroner’s ambulance.
Bank raided while staff on premises
Thieves dressed in boiler suits have escaped with €200,000 in untraceable cash after breaking into a village bank through a back window while staff were on the premises, it has emerged, writes Conor Lally, Crime Correspondent.
The three-man gang sawed through iron bars on the window and then taped the sawn sections back into place. Staff at the Bank of Ireland branch in Oldcastle, Co Meath, did not notice the bars had been tampered with.
The raiders then returned to the branch on Wednesday evening, removed the sawn sections of bars and climbed in the window. They took €200,000 before escaping via the back window.
At least one member of staff was still on the premises when the three man gang struck at 5pm. The staff member was upstairs and rang gardaí when noise was heard downstairs.
A uniform patrol was on the scene within minutes but the gang, who were armed only with crow bars, had already fled. Garda sources said they believe the raiders had assessed security at the bank and had cut the bars just days before Wednesday’s raid.