A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Man' 'wounding remarks' were meant to be damaging, judge rules
A man who had made “wounding remarks” about a neighbour deliberately intended to damage his reputation, a judge said yesterday at the Circuit Civil Court in Dublin.
Judge Joseph Mathews said David O’Shaughnessy had told a customer of next-door garage proprietor James Collen that Mr Collen was “a f***ing con artist”.
He said the words had been spoken with a degree of deliberation, even if in hot temper, and he ordered Mr O’Shaughnessy to pay Mr Collen €9,000 damages for defamation of character. He also directed him to meet a legal costs bill approaching €20,000.
Irishman dies in New Zealand road crash
One Irish man has been killed and another injured in a road crash on New Zealand’s South Island.
The deceased who was aged 23, and the other man aged 21, had been travelling on a rural unsealed road in the Ida Valley in Otago yesterday evening when the crash occurred.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said that the victims’ families are being notified.
HSE to break even after cost savings
The Health Service Executive (HSE) now expects to break even at the end of the year following the implementation of significant cost savings across the country, according to its latest financial update.
While this year’s deficit for HSE West was predicted in August to be €90 million, unless action was taken, the latest monthly performance report from the executive shows it has now been reduced to about €40 million.
Overall the report says hospitals across the State are running at a deficit of €102 million at present and community services are running with a deficit of €27 million. But these deficits are being “offset” by savings in other areas. “The overall health system is substantially achieving break even against budget,” the report adds.
It acknowledges several hospital AE departments are under pressure at present over waiting times patients have to endure.
Applications for citizenship up 155%
The number of applications for Irish citizenship increased by 155 per cent last year compared with 2008 and was set to increase “exponentially” over the coming years, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said.
Mr Ahern was addressing the Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Women’s Rights which was discussing the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2010.