A round-up of today's other home new in brief ...
Dublin Bus can cut fleet, says Labour Court
The Labour Court has said that Dublin Bus can go ahead with plans to take 120 buses from its fleet, writes Martin Wall.
In settlement terms advanced yesterday in the row over a controversial cost-saving plan, the court also proposed that weekend overtime earning potential for drivers be increased.
It also said that there should be no dilution of shift pay arrangements. However it proposed changes to paid meal-break arrangements for drivers which the company believes could generate about €350,000 in savings.
Dublin Bus is seeking cuts in a bid to address a potential €31 million deficit this year. However, last week drivers rejected compromise proposals drawn up by the Labour Relations Commission and warned of strike action in the event of management introducing unilateral reforms.
Dublin Bus said last night that it was considering the court’s recommendation.
Siptu said last night that it would be holding a meeting of members in Dublin Bus at Liberty Hall to discuss the court’s recommendation.
Two questioned over drugs haul
Gardaí in Co Clare were last night questioning two men following the seizure of 1.5kg of cocaine at Shannon airport on Tuesday night.
A Romanian national in his 40s was stopped by officers from Customs after he had arrived on a flight from London. The man is understood to have travelled to London earlier on a flight from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
The drugs, with an estimated value of €140,000, were discovered concealed in a false compartment in the man’s luggage when it was searched by customs officers. Meanwhile, a second man was also arrested at Shannon airport. It is thought that he was there to meet the passenger who had been detained earlier.
The men, believed to have an addresses in Limerick city, were taken to Shannon Garda station where they were still being questioned last night.
Anglo chief to go before Dáil group
Anglo Irish Bank chairman Donal O’Connor is to appear before the Oireachtas finance committee at the end of May.
Mr O’Connor wrote to the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service on March 20th, declaring he had “a strong wish to appear before the committee” and suggested he appear in May.
Three years in jail for Iraqi national
An Iraqi national who watched his parents being executed as a teenager has been jailed for three years for setting fire to a Dublin city centre flat occupied by his ex-partner’s new boyfriend.
Sahir Altamimi (27) showed the ex-partner and mother of his two children a photograph he had taken of her boyfriend’s Portland Place apartment and rang her before the incident to say he was going to “sort him out”.
Altamimi of Botanic Road, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to arson resulting in €80,000 damage to two Portland Place apartments on January 26th, 2007.