A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Garda and council urge horse traders to avoid Smithfield fair
Dublin City Council and the Garda have renewed their appeals to horse traders not to attend the Smithfield horse fair this Sunday following the shootings at last month's event, writes OLIVIA KELLY.
Two men were shot and another was injured with a slash hook during fighting at the fair held one month ago.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Gerry Breen has written to the Ministers for Enterprise, Justice, and Agriculture to seek new legislation for the permanent closure of the fair.
Talks begin with staff at Offaly plant
Bord na Móna has begun discussions with employees over a planned five-month power break at the ESB’s West Offaly Power in Shannonbridge, Co Offaly.
Scheduled maintenance has been brought forward to coincide with upgrading work, which is due to begin today.
Concern has risen among Bord na Móna’s employees who provide fuel to power the station. Secretary of the group of unions, Siptu’s Oliver McDonagh, said there would be less work.
He said he had received an assurance there would be no layoffs and earnings would be unaffected.
Spokesman Brian Purcell said the company was meeting the union this week to discuss a workplan.
The ESB says the maintenance and upgrade will benefit a number of local businesses, with 20 Irish contractors getting a share of €8 million being spent on site.
Campaign against homophobic bullying
Dominic Hannigan TD has launched a programme to raise awareness of homophobic bullying in schools. The Stand Up! LGBT Awareness campaign runs from Monday until April 15th.
The campaign is being run by the BeLonG To Youth Services which offers support to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teenagers.
More than 1,600 schools and youth organisations have been issued Stand Up! information packs.
Permission up for one-off houses
ONE-OFF houses accounted for nearly half of the planning permissions granted by local authorities last year for all categories of housing, compared to less than a third in 2008.
Overall, the number of permissions for one-off houses in 2010, at 5,582, was significantly down (by almost 70 per cent) from the peak of 19,157 recorded in the boom year of 2006. However, the proportion of one-offs is up year on year.