Health services and the creation and loss of jobs always attract attention in the regional papers. The debate on the Treaty of Nice is also beginning to appear regularly.
The Kildare Nationalist, in its editorial, declares it is "time to inform ourselves about the Nice Treaty" and follows up by saying: "If you walk down the street today and ask people if they are going to vote in a few weeks' time, they will probably stare at you blankly and wonder to themselves why they were asked the question.
"It is a sad fact of reality that the vast majority of the people are not aware that we are going to be voting on a very important referendum on the Treaty of Nice."
The same paper leads its front page with the headline: "Kildare may be location for new city". The story says: "Dublin's sprawl into Co Kildare should be managed through creation of a new city in the county, says developer William A. Thomas."
The paper goes on to report: "The president of the New City For the West Ltd [Mr Thomas] says Ireland needs three new cities and not just one to cope with population increases."
Several regional papers are concerned about jobs. The Echo and South Leinster Advertiser has two reports on its front page on the subject. Under the headline "Disaster as Wexal closes its doors", the paper says: "The community of Enniscorthy is being left to pick up the pieces following the closedown of operations of one of the town's largest employers. The formal announcement that Wexal International is to close puts its 150 employees on the dole."
The same paper, however, has a headline saying "All systems go for 30 new jobs". It says the turnaround in Enniscorthy's fortunes came "with the first public announcement of the formation of a new, highly-specialist company for which recruitment has already started".
The Wexford People also carries the same bad news about Wexal, with the headline "Workers stunned by knockout blow".
THE Roscommon Herald gives a front-page headline to the fact that Roscommon has lost an opportunity for new jobs. It says: "Forty potential jobs have been lost for Roscommon town. A company interested in setting up in the town - Rhenatec Ltd, based in Dublin and a subsidiary of the Germany-based Nova-Chem Corporation - has now decided to site the operation in Germany."
The Argus, which circulates in Co Louth, reports that the "Dundalk-based PC manufacturer and IT distributor, Romak Computers, announced a £3 million expansion programme which will create an additional 30 jobs in Dundalk".
Sadly, the same paper reports: "The endgame is under way for the closure of Dundalk Packaging Company [formerly Macardles] and the 140 jobs that will be lost, with production likely to cease next week."
The Armagh Observer has the headline "£2 million boost to cross-border economy". The report says an "extension and refurbishment investment to Dundalk's Carrickdale Hotel" has been carried out. It adds: "The Carrickdale Hotel is ideally positioned to attract from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, situated at a halfway location on the main Belfast-Dublin economic corridor."
The Donegal People's Press reports: "Steps are being taken to address the pressure on beds at the accident and emergency department of Letterkenny General Hospital." It goes on to say that there was criticism of the hospital at the "annual meeting of the Irish Nurses' Organisation last week. Claims included that patients had been housed in the hospital's coffee dock overnight."
The Munster Express headlines two front-page reports thus: "Urgent need for more `medical beds' " and "Hospice service to be examined".
The first of these reports says: "The Southern Health Board does not have sufficient acute hospital-bed capacity to meet demand and there is an urgent need for additional capital and revenue to cope with rapidly rising numbers of admissions."
The other report says the "Southern Health Board is to examine hospice services in the region in light of cancer cases rising as people live longer".
THE Guardian, which circulates in counties Tipperary, Clare, Galway, Limerick and Offaly, reports that over £20 million is needed for health facilities in the area. "North Tipperary health projects, already sanctioned, are unlikely to be completed until well into the second half of this decade," the paper says.
The same paper reports: "On a week that north Tipperary faces the possible prospect of almost 600 job losses, a claim has been made by a top-ranking union official that the county has totally lost out on the employment boom sparked by the Celtic Tiger economy."
It says the "area faces the loss of 230 job in the GMX plant in Thurles, and the threatened loss of 350 jobs in Antigen in Roscrea". Mr Michael Long, Limerick SIPTU branch secretary, is reported as saying "north Tipperary is the most neglected county in the mid-west".