A round-up of other news in brief...
Extra prison officers recruited
Forty new prison officers were recruited last month, under a special exemption from the public sector recruitment embargo, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said yesterday.
The Minister said that while the Prison Service was not exempt from the moratorium on public sector recruitment, he had been given special permission to recruit the additional officers.
This week, Mr Ahern officially opened the new accommodation block, with 100 places, in Castlerea Prison. He reiterated the Government’s commitment to develop a new prison campus at Thornton Hall, Co Dublin.
Two in court over tourist death
Two men appeared in court yesterday over the death of Irish businessman Paul Houston in Portugal.
Police arrested the men, aged 19 and 26, on suspicion of homicide and robbery on Wednesday.
Mr Houston, 51, was attacked as he made his way home from a bar in the seaside town of Alvor on the Algarve. The father-of-four, who was on holiday with his wife and two friends, was found with severe head wounds in the early hours of Sunday September 6th
English woman in critical condition
An English woman was in a critical condition in intensive care at Kerry General Hospital last night after sustaining serious injuries in a cliff fall on the Dingle Peninsula.
The 31-year-old woman fell about 30 feet at Bín Bán just south of Dingle town on Wednesday evening, suffering head and back injuries.
A local doctor attended the woman and ordered her to be removed to hospital in Tralee.
Examiner appointed to hardware firm
The High Court has approved the appointment of an examiner to a firm that supplies hardware, timber preservative and bathroom products. It employs 45 people.
Mr Justice John MacMenamin appointed Kieran Wallace of KPM as examiner of Protim Abrasives Ltd, Northwest Business Park, Ballycoolin, Dublin, on the basis of an independent accountant’s report showing the company had a reasonable prospect of survival. National Irish Bank (NIB) is owed €4.9 million and the Revenue €235,000.
Man in custody over armed robbery
A man arrested after a high-speed chase up the M6 motorway on Wednesday, after the armed robbery of a cash-in-transit employee in Athlone, was remanded in custody yesterday when gardaí opposed bail.
John Harris (45), with an address at Beechmount Avenue, Kilcoursey, Co Offaly was appearing before
Judge Elizabeth McGrath, and was remanded back to Athlone District Court next Tuesday.
40 Martyn Turner works for sale
An exhibition of original cartoons and limited addition prints by Irish Times cartoonist Martyn Turner will be held at the Designyard Gallery on Dublin’s Nassau Street next Friday, September 25th.
About 40 pieces will be available for sale on the night and all proceeds will go to the Irish Hospice Foundation.
This is the first exhibition of the artist’s work, which is not generally available for sale, in 10 years.