Trimble tells Sinn Fein they may be left behind

Saturday/Sunday

Northern Ireland's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, warned republicans that he intends to press for the transfer of powers to a new executive, even without Sinn Fein participation. The man gardai believe directed the Omagh bombing in August last year, in which 29 people died, was reported to have disappeared from his home in the Border area and to have fled the country.

A surveyed showed that only half of the State's primary schools said they will teach the RSE sex education programme in the current school year.

The Relationships and Sexuality Education programme was started two years ago and all 21,000 primary school teachers completed training for it.

However, preliminary survey returns from more than 1,000 schools showed that only 54 per cent had indicated their intention to teach the programme in some or all classes.

Monday

The Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Robert Molloy, announced that he had Government backing to proceed with a "special loans initiative" to help people earning less than £20,000 a year to purchase homes at low interest rates.

The Government failed to agree proposals to allow work permits for asylum-seekers, after a three-hour discussion at its weekly Cabinet meeting.

There is stalemate on the issue between the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, and the Progressive Democrats. Ms Liz O'Donnell, Minister of State for Justice, said her party could see no reason "why asylum applicants should be forced into a life of complete dependency on the State."

Dublin City Council decided by 34 votes to 14 that O'Connell Street would get its 120-metre Millennium Spire on the site of Nelson Pillar, despite criticisms that it was "meaningless", "nihilistic" and "a waste of time."

Tuesday

The Moriarty tribunal was told that a £10,000 cheque made out in 1985 to the former chairman and chief executive of Aer Lingus, Dr Michael Dargan (80), ended up with Celtic Helicopters.

The cheque was made out to Dr Dargan by Mr John Magnier, the multi-millionaire bloodstock breeder and former senator.

Dr Dargan said he had never made any contribution to Celtic Helicopters or to "any of the affairs of Mr Charles Haughey. I was not asked to do so and it was never suggested that I do so."

Dr Desmond Connell, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, linked the use of contraception to broken families, promiscuity and a blindness towards "the injustice of abortion." He said it had led to the denial of respect and equality to women.

He also told a meeting of the Life Society that when a child is planned through the use of contraception the relationship between the child and its parents is profoundly altered and the child may be unhappy and resentful.

A Yeats Museum has been opened at the National Gallery in Dublin, providing a permanent exhibition of paintings by Jack Butler Yeats and his father, John.

Wednesday

Irish negotiators in the EU farm reform talks in Brussels welcomed comments by the German Agriculture Minister, Mr Karl-Heinz Funke, indicating that his government's attempts to force national governments to pick up part of the cost of farm compensation payments, so-called "co-financing", would not succeed.

Dr Dargan told the Moriarty tribunal that he had an offshore account with Ansbacher bank in the Cayman Islands during the 1980s, when he was on the Bank of Ireland board, and that he had used it to move funds between Ireland and other countries. He did not believe he required permission to do so under the exchange control regulations.

Dr Mo Mowlam, the Northern Secretary, signalled her willingness to delay the triggering of devolution until the end of March, although she warned against excessive delay in creating an executive.

Her comments came as the North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, called on the IRA to make a statement indicating that its campaign of violence is over.

This would help to break the logjam over the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, he suggested.

The Red Hand Defenders and the Orange Volunteers, loyalist paramilitary organ isations responsible for attacks in recent months, including two murders, were banned by the Northern Secretary.

Dr Mowlam also announced that she has accepted the INLA's six-month ceasefire as complete and unequivocal.

Thursday

Final details of four new British-Irish treaties were agreed between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Mr Trimble.

The treaties provide for the establishment, in principle, of North-South bodies and other institutions in the Belfast Agreement.

The principal treaty sets up the six North-South implementation bodies which were agreed before Christmas.

The other one-page treaties allow for the setting up of the North-South ministerial council, the British-Irish council and the new British-Irish inter-governmental conference.

The Director of Public Prosecutions lodged an appeal against the 14-year sentences imposed on two of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe, on the grounds that they were too lenient. The Court of Criminal Appeal is expected next month to examine the sentences handed down to Kevin Walsh (42) and Pearse McAuley (34).

Mr Wim Duisenberg, president of the European Central Bank, said that the recent slide in the value of the euro against sterling is not fuelling inflation in Ireland. Since its introduction two months ago the currency has fallen by 8 per cent.

Mr Duisenberg said the euro was trading at the same level as the deutschmark did for much of last year.