More news in brief.
Man killed by fall on Donegal building site
A Donegal man was killed by a fall on a building site in Co Donegal yesterday. Kevin McNamee (22), from St Johnston, between Lifford and Derry, was pronounced dead at 11.10am after he fell from scaffolding on Church Street, Carndonagh.
Mr McNamee, who worked for a Lifford scaffolding company, had been working on a parochial house known as the Colgan Hall. His death brings to 13 the number of work-related deaths so far this year.
Man hit by tractor on pipeline site
An Italian man has been injured in an industrial accident at a Bord Gáis pipeline site in north Mayo, in Bofeenaun/Pontoon. Workers were laying the Mayo to Galway pipeline last Saturday evening.
The man (18) sustained pelvic injuries after being struck by a tractor. He was taken to the Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar where his condition was described as stable.
Tote injunction on Bord na gCon
The High Court has granted an injunction to a British company, Advanced Totes Ltd, restraining Bord na gCon from using another company to provide its tote services. The court placed a stay until today to allow lawyers to consider the situation.
Advanced Totes Ltd had claimed that Bord na gCon was in breach of a Supreme Court order of last March which found that the greyhound board had breached EU rules in the way a tender for its tote services was awarded.
Mr Justice Thomas Smyth yesterday granted Advanced Totes an injunction to stop Bord na gCon from using the tote services provided by Scientific Games at its greyhound stadiums. He also made an order directing the board to remove from the stadiums all products supplied by Scientific Games.
Bord na gCon had argued it had started to prepare for a new tender process and that Scientific Games/Autotote had been providing tote services on a de facto basis which, it argued, did not prejudice the tender process.
Advanced Totes Ltd was one of four companies that applied for the contract to run Bord na gCon's tote services in May 2003. The committee set up to award the contract decided to seek a re-tender on price from all four companies and in September 2003 the contract was awarded to Scientific Games Worldwide Ltd (formerly Autotote Worldwide Services Ltd).
Advanced Totes took High Court proceedings to have that decision quashed on the basis that it was in breach of EU law on public procurement.
Lyndon MacCann SC, for Bord na gCon, said ordering his client to stop the existing tote services would be "draconian in the extreme". The board would lose a minimum of €1 million in profit and 218 people would have to be laid off.
Bid to stop sale of livestock fails
A Co Tipperary farmer has lost a High Court bid to stop the sale of about 150 cattle removed from his farm by Department of Agriculture officials last March.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke said yesterday he had concluded that lawyers for the Minister had made an arguable case that John Hanrahan's farm was not capable of sustaining any more livestock units than it currently had.
The case arose after department officials visited Mr Hanrahan's 250-acre farm at Ballydine, Carrick-on-Suir on March 15th and removed 391 cows, calves and heifers on animal welfare grounds.
The officials later brought some feed to the farm and agreed to allow Mr Hanrahan to retain his milking herd of some 120 animals.
The department planned to sell some of the removed animals and injunction proceedings were then brought on behalf of Mr Hanrahan. A full hearing of proceedings by Mr Hanrahan against the Minister will be held later. Mr Justice Clarke put the case in for mention on June 23rd.