A round up of today's other stories in brief...
Taxi driver warned on repossession
A taxi driver was warned yesterday that the home he shares with his elderly mother is in danger of being repossessed by a building society.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane told David Brady in Dublin Circuit Civil Court that the possession proceedings dated back to 2002 and reality had to set in. She adjourned the case for a fortnight to allow him to pay the society the €2,000 he had said he was due to receive.
Margaret Heneghan, counsel for First Active, said arrears on the mortgage of Mr Brady and his mother, Teresa Brady, at one stage peaked at €20,000 but had been reduced by payment of personal injury damages he had received.
She said yesterday was the 22nd time in court regarding an application for possession of 9 Newtown Cottages, Malahide Road, Dublin, and on a previous occasion the court had commended the building society for the course it had adopted in the case. "There is €5,900 outstanding which is equivalent to almost six monthly repayments of €987," Ms Heneghan said.
Mr Brady, who represented himself and his mother in court, told Judge Linnane the situation regarding the mortgage never had been as bad as had been made out, as the demands by First Active included legal costs.
He said legal costs to date had amounted to €6,500. He was due a payment of €2,000 within a few days and would be paying that into the building society account.
Air crash inquiry cites engine fault
A preliminary accident report indicates engine problems in a light aircraft which crashed near Ireland West Airport, Knock, Co Mayo, on May 11th last killing the pilot and seriously injuring his passenger.
Seven minutes after taking off from Knock for Weston Aerodrome, Dublin, the pilot, Markus Casey (51), of Doctor Mannix Road, Salthill, Galway, reported an engine vibration.
Mr Casey afterwards reported limited power in his Beechcraft 77 two-seater aircraft and that he was unable to hold altitude. He then attempted a forced landing in difficult terrain.
According to the preliminary report of the Air Accident Investigation Unit, the aircraft propeller was not rotating at the time of impact and inlet valves in two engine cylinders were damaged. The investigation is continuing.
Farm labourer raped schoolgirl
A Wexford farm labourer who raped a schoolgirl several times has been remanded in custody for sentence by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
The 29-year-old man who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, pleaded guilty to six sample counts of raping the then nine to 12-year-old girl, who is related to him, on dates from 1997 to 1999.
Sgt Seán Lee told Ronan Kennedy, prosecuting, that the rapes happened when the victim visited the man's house. She was 12 and he was 20 or 21 years old when it stopped.
He would tell her each time not to reveal what happened to anyone and she was afraid of him because she had seen him firing a shotgun into the air.
Court told of threat to garda
A man who threatened a garda while on bail for possessing cocaine valued over €20,000, has been given a five-year sentence by Judge Tony Hunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Daniel Prenderville (21) told a garda who had been involved in a search of his house during which explosives were found: "Remember that pipe bomb - I have one for you."
Prenderville, of Seagull House, Rutland Avenue, pleaded guilty to possession. Judge Tony Hunt imposed a five-year sentence with two years suspended after Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, said his mother had died from cancer some weeks before.
Haulbowline site a concern to residents
People living in Cobh and those who worked at the former Irish Steel plant on Haulbowline Island need to made aware of what exactly is buried at the site, the Labour Party has said.
Labour councillor John Mulvihill senior, who has lived in the town facing the dump site for 50 years, tabled a motion at a meeting of Cork County Council yesterday calling for more transparency on issues surrounding the former Irish Steel plant.
Cllr Mulvihill said Cork County Council was in possession of documentation relating to the site and said it should be made public.
He insisted that the waste problem at the site needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency to allay public fears.
The controversy arose in Cork last month after it was disclosed that almost 500,000 tonnes of waste are buried at the former Irish Steel/Ispat site.
Health fears were raised after a subcontractor involved in a surface clearance at the site claimed to have uncovered levels of a toxin, chromium six.
Arson attacks investigated
Garda investigations into a series of public order incidents in Waterford over the weekend have now widened to include two more suspected arson attacks on Waterford homes, writes Ciarán Murphy.
Gardaí were last night continuing their investigations, after suspected makeshift incendiary devices were used in attacks at houses in Kilcohan on Sunday evening.
No injuries have been reported as a result of these attacks. However, an alleged shooting and other assaults were carried out in Waterford over the weekend, during which a total of four houses were attacked and two cars were burnt out. It is understood that the spate of violence is connected to ongoing disputes between Traveller families in the city.
1 cent lager offer withdrawn
Tesco Ireland has said an "error in the system" was to blame for several hundred online customers buying cans of lager for 1 cent when they were not in stock.
Shoppers who placed orders for cans of Harp at the reduced price late last week were subsequently told by the company that the cans would not be delivered.
A spokesman for Tesco said yesterday that the line was being discontinued and should have been taken out of the system instead of being made available to the public.
We were selling down all the available cans of Harp that were in the business and there werent that many - youre only talking about 700 or 800 cans right across the country. So out of 100 stores, thats an average of about 7 or 8 cans per store, he said.
Asked on RTÉ radio if there was an ethical problem with selling lager so cheaply, the spokesman said: "That's where the error was made. That product should never have been put on offer at that price under any circumstances."