The Wexford People was determined to pierce the official "smokescreen" around the "generous" health board payments which, it alleged, are received by asylum-seekers who live in "luxury" accommodation.
The health board has denied this, but this week the newspaper, in an extraordinary move of questionable integrity, produced pictures of actual health board payment slips to support its case. The three slips, all for two asylum-seekers at the same address in the same week, totalled £498.
The newspaper did not say how it had obtained these slips and whether it received the permission of the slips' recipients to print the information which included the complete addresses.
"Official documentation which has come into the possession of the Wexford People proves that payments made to house asylum-seekers in luxury apartments have far exceeded the amount claimed by a number of health board representatives," said the newspaper triumphantly.
It added that the board had sought to discredit reports in relation to the asylum-seekers by claiming they were only paid a basic amount of £29 per week towards the cost of accommodation.
"The payment covered a deposit on the first week's rent on the furnished luxury home which contains two bedrooms and two bathrooms and is still being occupied by asylum-seekers."
In an editorial comment, under the subheading, "Luxurious Lifestyle", the newspaper made sweeping generalisations from the evidence of its three payment slips. "Their lifestyle seems to suggest that they may have access to more than the basic levels of welfare payments. If there is fraud involved then it should be dealt with swiftly by the Department of Family and Social Affairs."
The afterglow of the Clinton visit was evident in many local newspapers, making an odd contrast to the saturation media coverage of the US President's troubles at home. "What do they want?" asked the Roscommon Champion, "a President or a saint?"
"There can be no doubting the genuine fondness and admiration of the Irish people for Bill Clinton, despite his moral failings," the Nationalist and Munster Advertiser said. And there was much more in that vein from other newspapers.
Crime and prosperity contrasted on the Waterford News & Star's front page which boasted the headlines: "Booming times on property front" and "City's young criminals 'totally out of control' ".
It said "there is no suitable residential care for a 15-year-old who is allegedly responsible for the majority of juvenile crime in the Waterford city area".
The revelation was made by Mr Niall McElwee, senior lecturer at the Centre for Social Care Research, Waterford Institute of Technology, who cited further examples. "One 12-year-old male has been charged with 45 serious crimes ranging from assaults, robbery, robbery with violence to aggravated burglary. An 11-year-old male has been charged with a similar amount of offences. Both have been deemed unsuitable for inclusion in the juvenile diversion programme and have been sent to residential care facilities."
The Longford Leader took a closer look at the recent crime figures and doubted the veracity of the decline in "indictable crime". There had actually been a 5 per cent increase in the kind of everyday crime which matters most to people - so-called "minor crime", including assault, public order offences, traffic offences and the like.
The Mayo News quoted a district court judge's suggestion that stag parties be banned in Westport.
A "mass melee" in the early hours of August 23rd last on Castlebar Street was "barbaric", said Judge Dan Shields.