More news in brief.
McDowell's office sent suspect device
A suspect device found at the constituency office of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell in Dublin yesterday was later declared safe by Defence Force bomb experts.
Gardaí and the Defence Forces were alerted after a member of staff at Mr McDowell's office in Ranelagh saw white powder coming from an item of post.
Fearing the substance might be dangerous, she left the envelope unopened and raised the alarm.
The bomb disposal experts arrived at the scene within minutes of the alarm being raised at about noon. The package was declared safe just before 12.30pm.
A portion of the powder was preserved, and will now be examined by Garda technical experts.
Man dies in Wexford crash
A man was killed in a collision between a car and an articulated truck in Co Wexford yesterday afternoon, bringing to 92 the number of deaths on the roads this year. The accident occurred at about 4pm on the N25 between Wexford and Rosslare.
In Co Clare, a woman passenger of a car which was in collision with a truck on Monday morning at Cullenagh, Ennistymon, Co Clare, died in Ennis General Hospital yesterday morning.
New website on Border investment
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen is today launching a website that provides centralised information about North- South developments, and illustrates how €1.47 billion has been spent ocross- Border investment over the period of the peace process.
The website - www.borderireland.info - is a one-stop site to access cross-Border information on areas such as the economy, education, health and community development.
Rights commission panel named
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has announced the members of a panel who will draw up a shortlist of candidates to serve on the next Human Rights Commission when the term of office of the current one expires in July.
They are Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness, Senator Maurice Hayes, Patrick MacEntee SC and Karen Erwin, chairwoman of the Equality Authority.
Public meeting on Metro North
The first public consultation meeting on the possible routes for Metro North, which will link Dublin city with the airport and Swords, was held yesterday in the Ballymun Civic Centre.
Three possible routes for the line, all starting at St Stephen's Green and terminating north of Swords, have been put forward by the Railway Procurement Agency.
The east route goes through Drumcondra and Santry; the west route takes in Cabra and Finglas; while the central route goes through Ballymun.
Travellers to get gift of land - report
Members of the Travelling community living in Co Meath are to receive a gift of more than 60 acres from a local farmer, it has been reported in a local newspaper.
The land at Meenlagh in Carnaross, Kells, is reported to be in the process of being handed over by Barney Kearney (80) to the Navan Travellers' Workshop.
A spokesman for the group was not available for comment yesterday, and attempts to contact Mr Kearney were unsuccessful.
It is understood that Mr Kearney asked a number of local people to act as trustees in the running of the lands for the Travellers workshop.
The current edition of the Meath Weekender says Mr Kearney has confirmed he has instructed solicitors to transfer ownership of his farm to the workshop.
The newspaper estimates the land to be worth €1.6 million.
Not enough school places in west Dublin
About 200 children have failed to get into schools in a west Dublin suburb because of a shortage of accommodation, according to Joan Burton of the Labour Party, writes Seán Flynn.
She said a hundred children had applied to St Patrick's school, Castleknock, and a hundred more had applied to Mary Mother of Hope national school at Littlepace.
Their parents had been told there was no space for them in junior infants even though some children were on the waiting list since they were born.
Ms Burton said the situation was a direct result of poor planning. "If you build 5,000 houses and apartments in the Diswellstown area in Castleknock and a further 8,000 in the Littlepace/ Clonee/Ongar area, it would seem obvious, even to a four- year-old looking for a place, that schools would be required."
In both of these areas, however, the department had only now finished building the first of the permanent primary schools.
She said the Minister for Education and the Government had, after nine years in power, "failed miserably to provide school places for the population explosion in Dublin 15".
'Usable'disciplinary code urged
The chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, has highlighted the need for a "usable" disciplinary code for the consultants' contract, when he addressed the first annual meeting of the Regional Health Forum, Dublin and North East, in Kells, Co Meath.
Prof Drumm, in a comment on the Lourdes hospital report, said he suspected that lack of accountability was widespread in the health services.
Dublin City Council member Gerry Breen (Fine Gael) was elected forum chairman.