Saturday/Sunday:
Dublin could be facing a high-rise future with strong indications that restrictions on building heights are to be dropped from a draft development plan for the city.
City manager Mr John Fitzgerald said permitting high-rise buildings was being examined "very closely" by Dublin Corporation planners. They were responding to pressure from the development lobby, which regards the existing policy on buildings as far too rigid, and to the general view that residential densities in the city should be increased to make better use of urban land.
More than 20,000 people took part in a march and rally in Derry to mark the 26th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. The Catholic Primate, Dr Sean Brady, condemned the "peddlers of death" who by their recent murders in the North had terrified and angered many.
Such murders were "a terrible indictment of those who have the power to change the bigotry and hatred which underpin such conduct and who fail to do so", he said.
Monday
A senior EU official warned that the European Commission could force Ireland to reintroduce water charges and remains "totally opposed" to it being the only member-state that does not charge for household water. Cohesion fund director Mr J.F. Verstrynge said the absence of charges on the basis that polluters should pay could make negotiation of new structural and Cohesion funds for Ireland difficult.
The feel-good factor of a buoyant economy is starting to have an effect on the number of births and marriages, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. The number of births in the third quarter of 1997 was the highest July-September figure for 10 years.
Tuesday:
The Government was forced to change the wording of the Amsterdam Treaty referendum a week after its publication. It confirmed that the original Bill was withdrawn. It is to drop or amend the controversial clause which provided for the State to exercise "options or discretions" provided by the Amsterdam and other treaties.
State funding for the Irish Amateur Swimming Association was suspended by the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, pending the outcome of an inquiry into its handling of the Derry O'Rourke sex-abuse case.
The association must confront the issues facing it and put in place procedures which would "protect members of the organisation from sexual abuse", Dr McDaid said.
Former world champion boxer Steve Collins was jubilant after the High Court dismissed an ac tion taken against him by his former manager, Mr Barry Hearn. Mr Hearn had sued Mr Collins for breach of contract, but Mr Justice O'Sullivan ruled that, while there was an agreement, Mr Hearn had been responsible for "fundamental breaches of it".
Wednesday:
Sinn Fein was at odds with the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP over issues arising from the multiparty talks. SDLP leader Mr John Hume criticised Sinn Fein by accusing it of "being either deliberately destructive or failing to face reality".
Galway taxi-drivers organised a £25,000 reward for information about the murder of Eileen Costello-O'Shaughnessy, a taxi-driver operating in the city who was battered to death last December after taking a fare.
South Dublin County Council demonstrated how it used a peregrine falcon to keep other birds away from a modern land-fill facility at Kill, Co Kildare.
Thursday:
Foreign investors were reported to be using Irish companies to hide money from their own tax authorities. Up to 40,000 nonresident firms are registered in the Republic and some are suspected of criminal links. The Government acknowledged that this use of Irish-registered companies was a serious problem and was damaging the reputation of the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin.
Family doctors spelt out their objections to mandatory reporting of suspected child-abuse cases, though other groups including the ISPCC said it was necessary for child protection. The Irish College of General Practitioners said the priority should be an "urgent need for an effective and comprehensive system to be put in place" to protect children.
Hundreds of suspected cases of child abuse and neglect reported to the Eastern Health Board are not be investigated for months because of lack of resources, it was confirmed.
In a worst-case scenario, the cost of Army hearing loss claims could be £4.5 billion, but a more likely figure was £1.5 billion, the secretary of the Department of Finance, Mr Paddy Mullarkey, told the Dail Committee of Public Accounts.
