News from Ireland - news from around the 32 counties

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Forty-one new housing units were commenced in the first four months of 2012 in Offaly, according to new statistics released by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

This represents a decrease of five units, or 11 percent, on the same period during 2011, when work began on 46 new units, according to the CIF’s latest Housing Statistics Bulletin.
[Source: Offaly Express]

ROSCOMMON

The beaten Roscommon minor football team, having represented their county in Croke Park on August 5, paid for their own dinner at a service station off the motorway as they made their way back home.

The team who lost out by the smallest of margins to Kerry earlier in the day traveled home by bus, stopping off in Meath for some fast food.

More than 5,000 Roscommon fans travelled to support the team as they played in the curtain-raiser to the two quarterfinal senior football matches on Sunday. When contacted by the Roscommon Herald, the Chairperson of Roscommon Minor County Board Oliver Kelly said that the decision not to go for a meal was one taken by the panel and management.
[Source: Roscommon Herald]

SLIGO

Those who refuse to pay local taxes should not receive State grants, according to Independent consultants. They have also called for a State injection of $12 million to counter the growing “financial crisis” at one local authority.

Grant Thornton, whose report into the finances of Sligo County Council was to be considered at a special meeting of the council last Thursday, has called for an overhaul of the “whole local-authority model.”

The report predicts the revenue deficit at the council will rise from almost $16 million now to $34 million by 2017 “unless immediate action is taken.” Its capital deficit is over $86 million.
[Source: Irish Times]

TIPPERARY

Nenagh Gardaí (police) has appealed to the public for help after a Limerick taxi driver was stabbed by two men and dumped on the side of the road at Newport.

The taxi driver had picked up two men in Davis Street, Limerick August 4, and brought them to Newport, where he was stabbed in the chest with a knife and screwdriver before being forced from his car at around 1 a.m.

The Treaty Cabs vehicle was later found on Childers Road, Limerick, after the company raised the alarm when it could not contact the driver.
[Source: Tipperary Star]

TYRONE

A diesel-laundering plant in Dungannon, capable of producing up to one million gallons of illegal fuel each year, is the latest to have been dismantled in the area in the past few years.

The Dungannon plant was uncovered last Tuesday by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and is estimated to be capable of costing the Treasury $3.8 million a year.
[Source: Tyrone Courier]

WATERFORD

House building continues to decline across the city and county according to the latest statistics released by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

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Nster.com