A roundup of today's other regional news in brief
Nurses retiring over ‘rancour’
The general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association said yesterday that a number of staff at a Co Clare residential unit for dementia patients have retired early because of allegations and complaints about care at the home.
Speaking ahead of the completion of a HSE report into the care given to the late Gerard Finn (69) at Cappahard Lodge in Ennis, Des Kavanagh said: “These are staff with impeccable records who have been very committed to patient care, but are sick and tired of the continuing rancour over the allegations into care at Cappahard.”
Mr Finn was admitted to Cappahard in December 2005 and died at his Kilrush home in June 2006.
Book of evidence for bomb threat accused
The book of evidence was yesterday served on a man in connection with a bomb scare aboard a transatlantic jet last January which forced it to divert to Shannon airport.
At Shannon District Court, Dutch national Jorge Flores (44) was in court for the fifth time over being charged with stating he had a bomb on board an Aruba-bound Boeing 767 flight from Amsterdam with 231 passengers on January 13th last.
Yesterday, Mr Flores wept openly once more in court as Judge Joseph Mangan remanded him for trial to the current sittings of Ennis Circuit Court, continuing until the end of next week.
Judge Mangan granted legal aid to cover one junior counsel to represent Mr Flores in the Circuit Court and the costs of translating the book of evidence into Dutch.
Call for incentives for biofuels market
Ireland will end up importing biofuels to meet future targets because not enough is being done to create a market at home, it has been claimed, writes Ronan McGreevy.
Teagasc bioenergy specialist Barry Caslin said the public sector needed to take the lead in converting Government buildings to biomass if it was serious about incentivising farmers to switch to energy crops.
He told the National Bioenergy Conference in Thurles yesterday that farmers were willing to make the long-term commitment to convert, but there were no incentives to get such crops “from the field to the furnace”.