A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
€2m allocated for rural transport needs
Four rural communities are to benefit from €2 million funding for new transport schemes to bring isolated rural dwellers into their local towns during the day - but not to the pub at night.
The communities are in Louth, east Cork, the Inishowen peninsula and one cross-Border community yet to be decided.
The funding is part of the rural transport scheme established in 1997 to address social exclusion arising from a lack of public transport. It focuses on transporting disadvantaged groups such as the elderly, disabled and those on low incomes to shops, hospitals and post offices during daytime hours.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said yesterday: "This funding is for day-time transport needs; essentials such as taking people to hospitals, or whatever else is needed in the community. A night-time service would be a separate thing."
Conference to tackle rural issues
Critical issues facing rural communities and new research to assist rural groups and planners in the future will be presented at the Teagasc National Rural Development Conference in Galway today.
"Embracing Change", to be held in the Clayton Hotel, Galway city, will examine the rapidly changing face of rural communities and the challenges they meet.
Some of the issues will be addressed by Séamus Boland of the Irish Rural Link organisation while Pat O'Hara from the Western Development Commission will address the development strategy for the region. Other speakers include Aileen Gilchrist, Mark O'Brien and Cathal Buckley.
Rise in marriages at Knock bureau
Knock Marriage Bureau is on the crest of a nuptial wave. The latest statistics for the bureau show it achieved 14 marriages in the year ending December 31st last, six more than the corresponding 12-month period.
Bureau director Canon Joseph Cooney welcomed the increase yesterday saying it proved the service could more than hold its own against modern dating agencies.
It was founded by Fr Michael Keane in 1968, a time of widespread emigration, in order to try and offset a scarcity of women of marriageable age in rural Ireland. It has been responsible for 860 marriages in the last 40 years.
Villagers to fight development plan
Residents of a tiny Donegal village on the border with Derry say they will fight proposals to build a new commuter town there.
Plans are to be lodged with Donegal County Council shortly for 500 residential units as well as a hotel and school grounds in the centre of Killea.
Belfast-based McAllister Holdings has confirmed it is preparing a master plan to develop a new "village centre" on a 47-acre site which is part of Toland's potato factory. Killea is a small village 7km southwest of Derry city on the Letterkenny road.