Today's other stories in brief
Committee set up to retain Cork brewery
A special committee has been formed to fight to save the site of Ireland's oldest brewery, Beamish and Crawford in Cork, writes Olivia Kelleher.
Earlier this month Heineken said it would close the historic brewery on South Main Street in Cork city next March with the loss of 120 jobs. Forty employees have been offered new positions at the Heineken brewery on Leitrim Street.
On Saturday night, Damien Cassidy, chairman of the National Conservation and Heritage Group, held an open meeting to discuss the possibility of transforming the site in to a focal point for Cork tourism.
A group of 25 members, comprising employees of the brewery, local historians and interested members of the public, are now hoping to persuade Heineken Ireland to retain the site as a tourist attraction.
Mr Cassidy said the site was "Cork personified" and no stone would go unturned in a bid to save the site.
Clare overseas budget slashed
Members of Clare County Council have voted to all but eliminate the authority's budget for overseas trips next year, writes Gordon Deegan.
This year, councillors overspent in their overseas conference travel budget by 36 per cent to €35,000 and next year the council has only set aside a contingency of €5,000 for trips and abolished its twinning programme altogether.
"The €5,000 has been set aside purely as a contingency. If something like Shannon- Heathrow occurred again, overseas marketing of Clare would be absolutely essential," Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said yesterday. "All overseas study trips are not going to happen because of the tightening of the council's financial situation."
The slashing of the overseas travel budget and the suspension of the twinning programme are part of measures put in place by the council to save €7 million due to central Government cutbacks and less income.
50m shopping centre for Carrick
A €50 million proposal for a shopping centre, discount supermarket and new public road bridge over the river Suir in South Tipperary's Carrick-on-Suir has been granted planning permission, writes Jennifer Long.
Carrick's town council has given the green light to Limerick-based Riussuir Development's plans for the 3.45-hectare site on the Clonmel Road and for the bridge linking the Clonmel Road with Coolnamuck on the Waterford side of the river.
The news has been welcomed by the mayor, Liam Walsh (Sinn Féin) and the town's county council representative, Labour's Denis Landy. However, Sylvia Cooney-Sheehan (FF) has criticised the decision on the grounds that the shopping centre is to be built on a flood plain and the road infrastructure in Coolnamuck is inadequate to accommodate the extra traffic the bridge will bring.
The proposed shopping centre comprises an anchor supermarket, 12 retail and commercial units and 326 car-parking spaces as well as a discount store with 142 car-parking spaces on another part of the site.
Kilkenny paved with Chinese stone
Ireland's Marble City is to be paved with imported stone from China instead of the locally quarried rock for which it is famous, writes Dara deFaoite.
Two major redevelopment projects in Kilkenny city are to be finished with polished stone shipped in from the Far East in a drive by the local authority to save money.
Kilkenny limestone and marble is exported around the world, yet new pillars, kerbs and capping stones on the Castle Parade and Canal Walk developments are to be imported.