Today's other Irish stories in brief
Man arrested over Tenerife death released
A man arrested in connection with the investigation into the death of Irish woman Lisa McConway (28) in Tenerife has been released without charge.
The 29-year-old man, who is originally from Wales, was released shortly after 9am yesterday.
He had appeared at a closed judicial hearing shortly after 8am, where a magistrate ruled he could no longer be held in custody for questioning, pending the results of a postmortem.
Ms McConway had been found by police lying in a pool of blood in her apartment on Christmas Eve. The police were responding to alleged reports of a violent row in the Palo Blanco complex in the tourist resort of Playa de las Americas.
Lisa's father, Jim, arrived in Tenerife yesterday morning to make arrangements for the return of her body for burial in Dublin.
Ms McConway was born in the UK, but moved to Ireland with her family when she was six months old. She attended Mount Anville secondary school in Mount Merrion, south Dublin.She had been living in Tenerife since 2001.
Funeral of man who drowned
A young man whose body was washed up at the mouth of the Bradóg river near Bundoran, Co Donegal, on Christmas Eve was buried yesterday. Several hundred mourners attended the funeral Mass of carpenter Paul Foster (26) at St Patrick's Church, Ballyshannon, and his burial in Belleek, Co Fermanagh. Gardaí revealed that a postmortem examination found that he died by drowning. They have ruled out foul play.
Nursing home costs criticised
Labour TD Joanna Tuffy has described as "truly shocking" the expenditure of over €1 billion of State money on private sector nursing home beds since 2002.
She said that figures released to her revealed that, in the last six years, the Health Service Executive had handed over almost €500 million to private sector providers of nursing home contract beds and an additional €770 million in nursing home subventions.
Ms Tuffy said that while the expenditure might have provided badly needed beds for elderly patients, there were no public assets to show for it. "While there may well be instances where private sector involvement in the provision of nursing home services is necessary, it would make much more sense to divert a significant proportion of this money into the provision of State-owned and managed facilities," she added.
Garda appeal for missing teenager
Gardaí have appealed for assistance to trace a missing teenager from Clonmel, Co Tipperary who was last seen two days ago and may be in the Galway city area.
Róisín Hickey (14), from Elm Park in the town, has been missing since about 9am on Saturday.
Described as being approximately 5ft 3 in tall and slim, she has dark, straight hair, dark eyes, and sallow skin. When last seen she was wearing a black jacket and blue denim jeans.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Gardaí at Clonmel on 052 776 40, or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.
FG calls for law on DNA database
The Government has been criticised for not publishing more criminal justice legislation by Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan. He said that despite the need for legislation dealing with covert surveillance and a DNA database, the Government had published no priority justice Bills.
Mr Flanagan accused Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern of "standing idly by, while the body count climbs, the drug barons prosper and murderers get away with their crimes''.