In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Woman held on remains find released

A woman who was being questioned in relation to the discovery of remains 15 years ago has been released and a file is being prepared for the DPP.

A man's remains were discovered beside a house in Coole, near Castlepollard, Co Westmeath in 1993.

READ MORE

The woman in her 60s was arrested on Friday and questioned at Mullingar, Co Westmeath. She is understood to have been held for about 12 hours.

Investigators believe the remains found to be those of Brian McGrath, a Dubliner who disappeared in 1987.

Redundancies at CIÉ possible

Staff at CIÉ could be facing redundancies by the end of the year following an admission from the company that it is in financial difficulties.

CIÉ's three constituent companies, Bus Éireann, Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus, are facing huge losses next year which are likely to result in cuts to staff and services.

According to yesterday's Sunday Tribune, CIÉ is seeking savings of €45 million and plans up to 400 redundancies in Bus Éireann alone, with further redundancies to be considered in all three companies.

Vaccines worth 500,000 wasted

Childhood vaccinations worth close to €500,000 were wasted in the first eight months of this year when GPs allowed them to go out of date in their practices or when fridges preserving them in GP surgeries either broke down or lost power, a conference heard at the weekend.

Dr Anna Clarke, a specialist in public health medicine, told delegates attending the annual winter meeting of the Irish College of General Practitioners in Dublin on Saturday that over €400,000 worth of childhood vaccinations had to be thrown out after they were returned to the national immunisation office as unusable between January and August this year. She urged GPs to use their oldest stocks first.

NRA figures on one-off housing

Figures released yesterday by the National Roads Authority show that Mayo and Donegal county councils have granted planning for one-off homes on national roads more than any other county.

The NRA figures show that since January 2006, it has lodged 81 appeals against council decisions relating to mainly one-off homes to An Bord Pleanála, with the number of appeals in Mayo and Donegal making up 37 per cent of the national total.

The statistics show that the NRA has appealed 30 planning permissions for mainly one-off homes granted in both Mayo and Donegal county councils and 32 appeals elsewhere.

The figures show that An Bord Pleanála finds in the NRA's favour in the vast majority of cases - in the 47 cases decided, the board upheld the authority's view in all but four of the cases.

A spokesman cited road data that shows that more than 50 per cent (33,665) of all injury accidents reported on the roads from 1996-2004 occurred at junctions or involved turning movements on to/off roads.

New book on C of I psalm singing

A new book Singing Psalms was launched in Dublin on Saturday in St Ann's Church on Dawson Street by the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the Most Rev Richard Clarke.