Angry members of Ballyhaunis Chamber of Commerce are mounting a legal challenge against "the controversial manner in which Mayo County Council designated Town Renewal Scheme (status) to five towns in the county at the expense of seven other towns nominated for similar status," said the Connaught Telegraph.
"The Fianna Fail party, which holds a majority of 16 seats on the council, chose Ballinrobe, Belmullet, Claremorris, Foxford and Newport for the scheme which offers tax incentives applied on a targeted basis to encourage development. But that left Crossmolina, Charlestown, Ballyhaunis, Killala, Knock, Kiltimagh and Swinford out in the cold." ail party, who arrived at their decision at a meeting in Castlebar on Sunday night (October 10th), did take regard to the seven electoral areas in the county when making their selection." Four Cavan towns were chosen: Cavan, Cootehill, Bailieboro and Ballyjamesduff, much to the chagrin of Virginia and Kingscourt. The Anglo-Celt said: "There seems a great lack of clarity as to how the scheme is to be implemented, the benefits which are to accrue, and the exact criteria on which development plans and structural improvements will be judged".
On the nurses' dispute, the Waterford News & Star warned that the closure of Waterford Regional Hospital was imminent. The Roscommon Herald commented that behind the strike was "a public sector increasingly disillusioned with the distribution of national wealth".
The Nationalist and Munster Advertiser asked if people wanted to return to "the bad old days of countrywide industrial unrest, crippling strikes, runaway inflation, a spiralling public service bill that hangs like a millstone around the country's neck?" Rather, "we should hang our heads in disgust at ourselves" that "in the midst of plenty we still see the neglected homeless, the disadvantaged and the poor who are not sharing in the economic breaks".
Calling for civilised negotiations, it said a "nurses' pay strike, causing chaos and endangering patients' health and possibly their lives, is in nobody's interest".
The Sligo Champion mused that "the overflowing national treasure-trove could turn out to be a poisoned chalice in disguise . . . Given what the public now knows about what has been done behind their backs by fat-cats who preached restraint to the PAYE sector while milking the system themselves, it will be difficult for Minister McCreevy to fend off the unions, convince the nurses in particular that he can't afford what they want, and keep the public service payroll under tight management."
Like the Nationalist, the Champion was concerned about the emergence of a two-tier society. "An ugly underbelly of Irish society is becoming increasingly visible. It manifests itself in long-term unemployment, homelessness, rural and inner-city declines, deprivation and a whole hidden world where the underprivileged and those on society's fringe barely manage to survive," it said.
Waterford city is "in the grip of a housing crisis" with the waiting list soaring past 1,300, said the Waterford News & Star. The Westmeath Examiner said the waiting list of 40,000 people nationally was placing strain on marriages and "debilitating the quality of life".
The Nationalist and Leinster Times said a couple with six children aged between 13 months and 16 years were sleeping in their car. The Roscommon Champion reported a 40-year-old homeless man warning that he will end up in a mental hospital or dead of hypothermia if he is not granted council housing.
The Mayo News focused on the deteriorating quality of community life. "That call from the citizens of Castlebar for a curb on late-night rowdyism will strike a familiar chord in towns and villages across Mayo.
"The increase in anti-social nocturnal activity is not a Castlebar phenomenon alone; the insidious climate of menace which it spawns has now become yet another offshoot of a surplus of money and a deficit of discipline and self-respect . . . Cider parties, all night bedlam, intimidation, vandalism and thuggery [have] become the norm."
The Kilkenny People said a 27-year-old man's head and body apparently had been set alight after a cider party. He was found in critical condition, semi-conscious and almost naked.
The Leinster Leader had a "real cool customer" on its front page, Josephine Gibbons (92) and her 52-year-old fridge, bought from the ESB for £8 in 1947, in the days before planned obsolescence. Two 200-watt lightbulbs she installed 44 years ago are still burning brightly. The ESB shop in Athy has given Josephine a new fridge.