Following a meeting in Cork on Thursday evening, more than 140 local pharmacists agreed to stop dispensing drugs on the Drug Payment Scheme and General Medical Scheme after December 1, if the Health Service Executive does not reverse its decision to cut the prices it pays for the drugs.

Nobody likes paying taxes, but there is a saying that taxes and death are two certainties in life.

Ireland went into the Rugby World Cup with high hopes of at least qualifying for the semi-finals, following a strong showing in the Five Nations Championship earlier in the year, but it all ground to a disappointing end yesterday in Paris.

The Dáil passed a motion on Thursday expressing “the Government’s deep disappointment at the Aer Lingus decision to end the Shannon-London Heathrow service”.

With the Government due to publish a Green Paper on Pensions in the coming weeks, the Think Tank for Action (TASC) on social change warned that if the Government is serious about ensuring that pensions should eliminate poverty in retirement, it must address the public pension system as a matter of urgency.

Concert promoter MCD was last night facing a bill as high as €671,000 to compensate fans after Barbra Streisand’s July concert turned into a rain-sodden farce at Castletown House in Co Kildare.

The tragic deaths of firemen Brian Murray and Mark O’Shaughnessy in Bray this week have highlighted the disgraceful lack of resources and political will to deal with firefighting problems.

Yesterday Health Minister Mary Harney announced the location of the eight specialist cancer treatment centres, which promise to provide the most up-to-date treatment for cancer patients.

Two courageous firemen perished yesterday while fighting a fire in their home town of Bray, Co Wicklow.

The bravery of Garda Paul Sherlock in confronting the armed thugs in Dublin yesterday was in the best tradition of the force.