In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

Investigation into psychiatric unit death

The HSE South has confirmed it is investigating the death of a patient "following an incident" in the psychiatric unit at Kerry General Hospital.

The matter has been reported to the Garda in Tralee and is also the subject of a coroner's investigation. The health service said it was precluded from releasing any further details.

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It is understood the patient, a male, was found dead in a ward on Monday, April 7th and that he had been under regular supervision for some time before his death.

HSE complaint over radio report

The Health Service Executive's midwest branch has made a complaint to gardaí about a radio report last week which saw an undercover journalist enter a psychiatric day hospital carrying a number of knives.

Newstalk reporter Samantha Barry travelled to St Anne's Day Hospital Limerick, where two doctors were seriously assaulted by a patient earlier this year, carrying the knives and entered an area where staff and patients were gathered.

The HSE said in a statement it would not comment in detail on certain matters arising from the radio report but it has "reported the Newstalk claim that its journalist entered St Anne's while in possession of knives to An Garda Síochána".

A statement issued last night by Newstalk said Lunchtime with Eamon Keane had initiated the report "as a matter of public interest after receiving calls from medical and nursing staff in the Limerick region. The HSE do not address this central fact and once again, as per recent scandals, blame the media."

Blackrock postal delays continue

Severe delays to postal services continued yesterday for letters sent to many parts of Dublin 4 and Blackrock, Co Dublin, due to industrial relations issues with some workers. There was a backlog of five days at two mail delivery offices and this has seriously affected the quality of the service, an An Post spokeswoman said.

The problems were being caused by a small number of staff refusing to co-operate with new working arrangements which had been agreed with the Communications Workers Union (CWU), she added.

CWU national officer Joe Guinan said yesterday that contact with the staff members was ongoing.

The spokeswoman added that customer warnings not to post letters to the affected areas would remain in place until further notice. However, counter services in these areas were not affected.

Wexford Opera appointment

David McLoughlin has been appointed chief executive of both the Wexford Festival Opera and the new €33 million Wexford Opera House, which is due to hold its gala opening in September.

Mr McLoughlin (39), a film producer, former chief executive of Screen Producers Ireland and chairman of the Dublin International Film Festival, has been working as interim chief executive since last September.

The first festival in the new opera house will open with Rimsky- Korsakov's The Snow Maiden on October 16th. Recruitment for a programme manager will begin shortly.

Two arrested after car chase

Two men, believed to be from Northern Ireland, are in Garda custody in Monaghan town after a car chase in the area last night.

The two were arrested after a white Northern registered transit van was intercepted at a roundabout on the outskirts of Monaghan town at around 7pm.

The van was spotted after gardaí received reports of an armed robbery in nearby Armagh.

Gardaí pursued the van from the Clontibret area of Monaghan across a back road to the roundabout where it drove over an embankment before crashing to a halt.