The Leitrim Observer leads with an exclusive interview in Boyle with more than 20 farmers from counties Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal, all of whom "are owed large amounts of money following the collapse of Deputy John Ellis's beef business in the 1980s". This face-to-face meeting between the angry creditors of Stanlow Trading, the failed Ellis company, and reporter Donal O'Grady was a logical response to the Leitrim TD's "apology" published in the paper the week before:
"The apology was flatly rejected by those present, with one farmer saying, `you can't stock land with, or cash an apology'. " The farmers flatly refused to accept Mr Ellis's assertion, "If I had the means to pay them, I would willingly do so". They were particularly upset, the report says, over press reports of Mr Ellis's current financial means and assets and the pictures of his "impressive new home" in Fenagh.
The nurses are back - or are they? A palpable sense of relief, peppered with anxiety, is captured in the Connacht Tribune. The nurses, it says, are returning to huge backlogs and lengthy waiting lists, with up to 900 elective operations cancelled and 4,000 outpatient clinics deferred at the University College and Merlin Park hospitals in Galway since the strike action began on October 19th.
The "cautious welcome" by the nurses for the decision by the Nurses Alliance to lift the strike action pending the ballot by the four unions involved is widely reported. "We have been extremely busy trying to arrange coverage, and the news still hasn't had time to sink in," Ms Mary O'Shea, the assistant director of nursing at Tralee general hospital, told Kerry's Eye. Nursing staff there had suspended judgment on the negotiated package until they'd had time to consider the details.
Waiting lists are to soar, the Anglo-Celt in Cavan predicts. "Elected representatives will have to brace themselves for an upsurge in demands from the public over health service waiting lists which are expected to grow dramatically as a result of the nurses' strike."
People living in the catchment areas of Cavan and Monaghan general hospitals have been living with chronic delays for long enough, the paper warns.
A different type of medical story tops the front page of the Nationalist, which reports that Carlow GPs are up in arms over criticisms levelled at Caredoc, their after-hours on-call emergency system, by the chairman of the South-Eastern Health Board, Cllr Michael Meaney. The doctors are extremely annoyed, local GP Dr Sean McGuire tells the paper, "at the continual stream of inaccurate statements and accusations" being made by the health board chairman, "who has refused to come and see the scheme for himself". In the week in which Clare was accused of discrimination against "outsiders", Limerick County Council has been told that its housing restrictions are illegal, the Limerick Leader reports. The paper says outsiders and some local residents are banned by the Limerick County Development Plan from building homes in "pressure areas" of the county. These areas extend from Castleconnell to Adare and the ban includes towns and villages up to 10 miles from the city.
The roar of the Celtic Tiger is not being heard among the Ballyhoura hills, the same paper reports, as job growth in the area is six per cent below the national average. Mayo, too, is losing out on jobs "due to poor telecoms and electricity supply", says the headline on the lead story in the Western People. High-tech industries and e-commerce employers are being lost to Mayo and the west in general because the State's electricity and telecommunications infrastructure is incapable of meeting the needs of such industries.
The Castlebar-based Con- naught Telegraph clears up the mystery as to why the town has been chosen as one of the State's two pilot areas for the new "alchometer" that is due to replace the current blood and urine testing in cases of suspected drunk driving. Local doctors would not make themselves available to carry out the blood and urine tests, according to reporter Tom Shiel: "The lack of co-operation from local GPs was highlighted about 18 months ago when Chief Supt John Carey, head of the Mayo Garda Division, revealed that some suspected drunk drivers had to be released because of the refusal of doctors to carry out the standard blood and urine tests." The only other pilot area in the State chosen for test-driving the new alchometer is the Pearse Street area in the centre of gridlocked Dublin.
Whatever about the doctors, Castlebar gardai at least are displaying their keen edge, and have come up with a range of proposals to alleviate late-night and early morning "vandalism and thuggery" in Mayo's county town, says the paper. The measures include the early closure of late-night takeaways, some of which, according to the Garda, stay open most of the night.