A round-up to today's other stories in brief
Professors say new regime is speculation
The group which represents university professors insisted yesterday that it knew of no firm move towards a new regime of performance-related pay (PRP), writes Seán Flynn, Education Editor.
Responding to a report in yesterday's Irish Times, the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) said suggestions that a pay review would back PRP for over 300 professors was speculation.
The Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector chaired by Tony O'Brien is widely expected to back PRP for professors. The Department of Finance, the Department of Education and senior figures in the universities favour PRP for professors whose salaries are pegged to assistant secretaries in Government departments. The Department of Education has canvassed views on PRP across the third-level sector.
Last night, the IFUT said it was "not aware of any communication from the Department of Education and Science to university heads seeking their views on the introduction of PRP across senior levels in the universities."
Cocaine smuggler sent to prison
A man who was offered €700 to carry cocaine valued at over €34,000 in his body has been jailed for seven years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Dominik Slonski (20) of Pruskow, Daszynskiego, Poland, pleaded guilty to having the drugs for sale or supply at Dublin airport on March 2nd, 2005. The cocaine was valued at €34,118.
Businessman fined for indecency
An Irish businessman who engaged in sexually explicit behaviour with a male passenger on a flight into Amsterdam's Schipol Airport has paid a €1,000 fine for violation of public decency, having first refused to do so, according to court officials in The Netherlands.
The Irish passenger, whose name was not revealed but was described as a Dublin-born businessman, had repeatedly ignored warnings to stop "acts of indecency" with his Korean companion soon after take-off on the 10-hour flight from Asia to Amsterdam in January.
On landing at Schipol Airport, military police contacted by the pilot were standing by to arrest both men for indecency, and they were each fined €1,000.
Two caught with burglary tools
Two men caught in a car with an array of house-breaking implements as they came off the M50 in Dublin in the early hours of the morning were each jailed for a year yesterday.
They denied they had the tools to break into houses and steal the keys to high-powered cars parked in driveways in south Dublin. One of them, Dublin District Court heard, had been given some of the tools in a rehabilitation course to help offenders get back into the workforce.
Martin O'Rourke (25), Sheepmoor Grove, Blanchardstown, and Lee Tobin (25), Whitechapel Lawns, Mulhuddart, both Dublin, denied unlawful possession of face masks, gloves, screwdrivers, torches, a glass cutter, a hammer, a dagger, and a glass-holding suction device.
Man took off clothes at airport
A High Court judge yesterday refused an application for the conditional release from custody of a man whom a garda said took off his clothes twice at Dublin airport after he arrived to seek asylum .
Oke Odjegba from Nigeria had sought his release pending the outcome of his asylum application.
Mr Justice John MacMenamin said his behaviour was "extraordinary".
Arklow school mourns death of teacher
Staff and students at an Arklow secondary school for boys were yesterday trying to come to terms with the death of one of their teachers on Tuesday.
Noelle (Nollaig) O'Connor (26), Athy, Co Kildare, but living at Glenealy, Co Wicklow, died in a three-car collision on the notorious stretch of the N11 at Clonpadden, north of Arklow, Co Wicklow, shortly after she finished her day's teaching at CBS Arklow on Tuesday.
School principal Charlie Kavanagh said: "We at the school are united in our sorrow and sadness and that gives us strength at this time. We were very proud to have her with us for the fortnight because she was such a generous person.
"Our thoughts must turn to her family at this time."
The youngest of six children of Charlie and Mary O'Connor, she had taught at Portmarnock, Co Dublin, and Heywood, Co Laois, and had spent time in New Zealand and Australia.
€2,000 dismissal award against SVP
The Employment Appeals Tribunal yesterday awarded €2,000 against the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Friary Lane, Tralee, in an unfair dismissal case. The tribunal cited the real problem as "the lack of communication between the various members of the Vincent de Paul and the claimant".
Margaret Kelly, Caheranne Village, Tralee, Co Kerry, was secretary to the regional administrator. When he resigned, she assumed most of his duties.
She successfully applied for the post of regional administrator in early 2003. However, she claimed she only heard after the interview that the job was to be based in Killarney, not Tralee, and had to turn it down.
She continued in her usual duties in the Tralee office and was asked to manage the Tralee shop as there was not enough work for a full-time secretary. After an illness, she returned to work in the office in January 2004 on a part-time basis.
The phone had been cut off as the bill had not been paid and she felt afraid in the office on her own. She had no option but to resign.
The tribunal found that Ms Kelly was unfairly dismissed but that she contributed substantially to that dismissal by her "precipitous action in leaving her employment".
Man arrested after Cork drugs find
Gardaí in Cork were last night questioning a man following the seizure of €1 million worth of drugs on the outskirts of the city yesterday evening.
Detectives from the Cork City Divisional Drugs Unit arrested the man in his 20s after they stopped a car near Dunkettle at 5pm and found 150kg of cannabis resin.
Kerry boglands 'dumping grounds'
A quarter of householders in Kerry have no visible means of waste disposal and the county's boglands are being turned into illegal dumping grounds, says the county council's environment section.
Senior engineer Brian Sweeney said 11,000 householders out of 44,000 had no visible means of waste disposal.There were 740 complaints of illegal dumping last year, 210 on- the-spot fines, yielding almost €13,000, and 45 prosecutions.
Sinn Féin councillor Robert Beasley said parents had complained to him about picnic spots, beaches and viewing areas being strewn with discarded condoms.