Some of the day's other news in brief.
Department deports 19 people
Nineteen people were deported from Ireland by the Department of Justice yesterday.
The eight men, four women and five children were put on a chartered aircraft from Dublin Airport to Nigeria. They arrived in Lagos yesterday morning.
Protests were held outside the Garda National Immigration Bureau before the deportations.
A number of asylum- seekers housed in Dublin had been instructed to sign on at the bureau headquarters and were subsequently taken into custody for deportation.
However, many asylum seekers who were due to sign on did not turn up.
Twenty-five people were to be deported, but a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said some had evaded the authorities, while others had sought judicial reviews or injunctions.
The children of one Nigerian woman, who went into hiding in the Sligo area to avoid deportation, have been taken into care.
Pamela Izevbekhai, whose first child died in 1994 aged 18 months after a female circumcision, says she is terrified the same fate awaits her other two daughters. She went into hiding after immigration officers called to Globe House in Sligo, the centre for asylum-seekers where she and her family have been living for a year.
Hundreds of people signed a petition in support of the woman, which was circulated during yesterday's trade union rally in the town.
Supporters of Mrs Izevbekhai are considering an application to the High Court if the Minister for Justice does not put a stay on the deportation order, which he has already signed for her and her two daughters. Mrs Izevbekhai said she feared her husband's family would force her two daughters to undergo female circumcision if they are returned to Nigeria.
EU medicines regulation agreed
EU health ministers agreed a regulation yesterday that will force pharmaceutical companies to provide medicines specifically adapted for use by children, Jamie Smyth reports from Brussels
Currently more than 50 per cent of drugs have never been specifically tested for potential side effects on children, or to specify the correct dose applicable to different age groups. A health expert who took part in the ministerial meeting said this often forced doctors to guess which drugs were best for children and the correct dose for different age groups.
When the regulation passes into law in 2007 companies will have to undertake tests to see how medicines affect a range of different age groups from babies to 18 years. Drug firms will have to label drugs and dosages for different age groups under the regulation, which is expected to cost the pharmaceutical industry billions of euro. The regulation will now progress to a second reading in the European Parliament.
Greystones rally against marina
A rally at the harbour in Greystones, Co Wicklow, tomorrow afternoon will highlight opposition to plans for a €300 million marina and residential complex in the town.
Organised by the Greystones Harbour Residents' Association, the rally is the first of a series opposing the plan by property developers, in partnership with Wicklow County Council, to build a 230-berth yachting marina and 375 apartments on the town's north shore.