In his annual report published yesterday Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell, the state spending watchdog, highlighted the sewage works contract in Limerick that was priced at €9.5 million, but will end up costing the taxpayer at least €83m.

AT NOON today President Mary McAleese will open the National Ploughing Championships, a three-day festival of farming that has become the biggest outdoor event in Ireland.

IT IS almost certain that as we speak Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern is dispatching a civil servant to remonstrate with Dr Trevor Morrow, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

IF FIGURES predicting that between 10% and 15% of our working population will be illiterate in 2016 — just the lifetime of a decent car away — are correct, we are facing huge educational and social challenges.

ALMOST anyone who enjoys a walk along the waterways of Ireland or the sound of songbirds in their garden will more than likely have a tale of absent friends to relate.

Seán Kingston, the Miami-born, Jamaican-bred, teenage reggae singer, has a number one hit for the past five weeks in both Britain and Ireland with his debut single, Beautiful Girls. The record has now begun to spark controversy over its lyrics.

Health Minister Mary Harney received a polite reception from nurses at the Irish Nurses Organisation conference in Killarney yesterday. The conference talks were dominated by the temporary freeze on recruitment as part of the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) plans to cut the €245 million deficit.

WE CAN ask no more of the Irish rugby team than they deliver optimum performance at the appropriate time. The appropriate time is upon us and we all hope they are at their very best in Stade de France this evening.

IT MAY be a tad unfair to describe Justice Minister Brian Lenihan as a modern day King Canute, trying to stem the tide of harmful content on the internet.

THERE are more than 5,000 children in care in Ireland.