A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Kerry county manager goes to Cork council
Cork County Council has ratified the appointment of Martin Riordan as county manager in succession to Maurice Moloney, who retired just before Christmas.
Mr Riordan, from Co Tipperary, is currently Kerry county manager and is not expected to take up his new appointment until next month. Cork County Council is the largest local authority area in the State and the largest elected assembly outside Dublin.
Tributes paid to High Court judge
The late High Court judge Seán O'Leary has been described as a man with an intellect without parallel and who always sought to vindicate the rights of the underdog.
Leading the tributes yesterday, his successor on the southwestern circuit in Clare, Limerick and Kerry, Judge Carroll Moran, said that Mr Justice O'Leary "succeeded in anything he put his hand to".
Mr Justice O'Leary (65) died last month and last week, his posthumous critical comments on certain aspects of the legal system, including a recent decision by the Supreme Court, prompted debate in political and legal circles.
At the beginning of the legal term at Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Moran said Mr Justice O'Leary's political experience had exposed him to frailties of people and this improved his ability to perform as a judge.
"He was extremely intelligent, had a quick wit, a terrific sense of humour. He was a brilliant judge, a lovely man and will be a great loss to the profession."
Southill 999 call proves a hoax
Gardaí in Limerick are satisfied that there was no truth to reports that the bodies of two men were dumped in a field following a weekend shooting incident in Southill in the city.
A massive Garda search got under way shortly after 7pm on Sunday night after a 999 call was received by ambulance control suggesting a body had been found.
Another caller to Roxboro Garda station claimed the bodies of two named individuals targeted in a shooting could be found in Barry's Field in Southill. Searches of Barry's Field and surrounding areas continued yesterday and the Garda helicopter was deployed.
However, a Garda spokesman confirmed last night that nothing was recovered to indicate that any violent incident had occurred in the area.
The spokesman also confirmed that gardaí had contacted the two people named and both said they were "safe and well".
€1m weekly Kerry council payroll
Payroll costs now amount to almost €1 million each week, the annual budget meeting of Kerry County Council heard yesterday.
Some 38 per cent of Kerry County Council's annual budget covering roads maintenance, water services, waste disposal, housing, planning etc goes on staff wages, including holiday and sick pay and pensions, the budget meeting heard.
Man (57) dies in building site accident
A 57-year-old married man was fatally injured in a freak accident on a building site in Co Donegal yesterday.
He was working on a housing development at Forquar on the edge of Milford when a bucket on a digger became detached and struck him, killing him instantly.
His body was taken to Letterkenny General Hospital for a postmortem.
The Health and Safety Authority was notified and carried out a preliminary investigation yesterday.
The name of the man was not being released last night until some family members abroad had been contacted.
Bristol airport flights resume
Flights to and from Bristol airport in England resumed yesterday morning after essential ground works at the airport were completed.
A spokesman for Ryanair said the airline, which operates three return flights to Bristol each day, said only the 6.30am flight had been cancelled. Passengers were accommodated on another flight around 9am.
Aer Lingus said it operated one return flight on the route yesterday.
Bristol airport said all essential work on the main runway had now been completed.
Hanafin's school renovations list
Almost 1,000 schools will receive funding to complete small-scale capital projects this summer. Minister for Education Mary Hanafin yesterday outlined details of the 641 primary schools and 324 post-primary schools to benefit from the scheme.
Over €119 million will be spent this summer on renovation projects in schools.
Hunters' cars damaged
Huntsmen and women taking part in a hunt in Co Westmeath found nine of their vehicles had been damaged by a substance squirted onto the bonnets.
Gardaí in Mullingar are investigating the attack at Dysart, Mullingar, on Sunday.
They are appealing for witnesses to come forward with any information. "It is an unusual incident as there was no protest out there beforehand or anything like that," said a Garda spokesperson.
Muldoon to give Yeats lecture
The fifth annual UCC WB Yeats Lecture will be delivered by the poet Paul Muldoon on January 16th.
Muldoon, whose lecture is titled Moving Upon Silence: Yeats and the Refrain, is Howard GB Clark Professor of the Humanities and Creative Writing at Princeton University.
Born in Portadown, Co Armagh, in 1951, he read English at Queen's University, Belfast. He worked for the BBC in Belfast until 1986, before taking up a writer's residency at Cambridge University.
Concern chief for world committee
The head of an Irish charity has been appointed to a leading international committee to fight world hunger.
Tom Arnold, chief executive of Concern, will be joining the committee chaired by Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni and which also includes presidents of a number of African states, as well as three Nobel prize-winners.
Mr Arnold, who was appointed by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, said he was looking forward to bringing the experiences of Concern's work on hunger in 30 of the world's most vulnerable countries to the advisory body.
The high-level advisory committee working to alleviate world hunger also includes the presidents of Nigeria and Senegal, as well as Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi economist who was awarded the 2006 Nobel peace prize.
Other members of the group are Mary Robinson and Prof Jeffrey Sachs.