Cork County Council looks set to enlist the help of estate agents to better promote a scheme aimed at encouraging more people to live over shops in towns and villages.

Cork county councillors are seeking the introduction of new bylaws to prevent rogue householders putting food and other household waste in skip-type bags and leaving it to rot on green spaces in estates.

The first phase of the project, which is being developed by Cork County Council, will focus on developing a launch area for boats/kayaks close to Mallow bridge.

The Department of Finance accused several companies that had set up in the new Irish Financial Services Centre in Dublin in 1987 of abusing its rules for the benefit of foreign banks.

The move comes after councillors expressed concerns about the lack of information they had on air quality in the region and more importantly about a recent deterioration noted at a monitoring station in Cobh.

A local authority is to reverse a move to exclude the media and public from policy meetings.

Representatives of Inner City Helping Homeless will travel to Brussels later today to receive the European Citizenship Prize from the EU Parliament.

Resentment is being caused in communities in Cork county as people, residing up to 70km away, are edging out locals on a waiting list for council houses.

Residents living in the seaside resort of “Lehinch” are poised to put the A back into the resort’s name in a move that could cost the tax-payer at least €10,000 to implement.

Trips and falls cost Cork City Council more than €4m in compensation last year, with average payouts higher than ever at close to €25,000.

A new scheme to incentivise start-up businesses in County Cork is to be voted on shortly by county councillors.

Members of the public may be asked to volunteer as safety wardens outside a number of schools in Cork county.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has led tributes to one of his party’s most popular county councillors, Dan Joe Fitzgerald, who has died after a short illness.

Start-up businesses planning to take over vacant premises in Co Cork could benefit from a proposal to receive rate rebates over a three-year period.

New speed limits of 30km/hr will be introduced at 39 housing estates in Cork by September 28.

A new scheme looks set to be adopted in Co Cork to tackle overgrown roadside hedges which are causing serious road safety concerns and a significant amount of damage, especially to buses and lorries.

Plans have been drawn up to turn Co Cork into a premier destination for walkers in the hope of boosting tourism revenue.

Cork County Council is preparing to declare war on Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant which can destroy houses and which has now established itself in several parts of the county.

Some may say it’s barking mad, but dog owners in Co Cork could become the first in the country to be fined for not clearing up their pet’s poo if a new DNA database is introduced by the local authority.

Newly formed municipal districts in Co Cork will have the power to decide on introducing or axing pay-parking, but doing the latter will see them lose funding from Cork County Council.

Councillors have urged their bosses to defer rationalisation plans at civic amenity sites, claiming it is another kick in the teeth for rural Ireland and will lead to increased illegal dumping.

There may still be six months to go to Christmas, but Cork County Council is already thinking of providing towns with a festive treat.

Limerick’s gangland problem is in danger of re-igniting, Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins warned yesterday.

The Cork section of what Fáilte Ireland hopes will be an iconic coastal tourist drive will not stop in Glengarriff, as planned, and will extend into Kinsale.

Local authority members want both Coillte and privately-run forestry operations to pay for damage by pounding trucks to rural roads in Cork county.

ELECTION candidates may soon be confined to putting up election posters in designated areas of Co Cork.

THE 32 members of Clare County Council claimed payments approaching €1 million in expenses and salaries last year, new figures published online show.

CLARE county manager Tom Coughlan last night recommended to councillors that landfilling at the county’s loss-making central waste facility cease.

A CRUCIAL city council decision on the sale of land to the GAA to help revamp Páirc Uí Chaoimh has been deferred.

A SENIOR member of Clare County Council said yesterday it was disgraceful that An Bord Pleanála has denied two local people the right to live in the Burren.

CRIME figures are down almost across the board in Cork city and the area is bucking the national trend with a noticeable decrease in burglaries and robberies.

CORK County Council is preparing a major crackdown on unlicensed caravan and camping site owners.

Damien Enright on options for the weed growing in bays.

A US soldier went on trial in absentia today in the shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Iraq two years ago, a case that strained relations between Rome and Washington.

A MASTER plan for the development of Limerick docks with the potential to create 5,000 jobs has been presented to the city council.

THE 28 members of Limerick County Council last year drew down a total of €668,100 in salaries, allowances and expenses.

LIMERICK Mayor Cllr Diarmuid Scully has dismissed claims that plans to erect a life-size statue of Richard Harris in the city have run into trouble Limerick City Council member Pat Kennedy said there were problems with the proposal.

DOMESTIC bin collection charges in Cork city look set to jump by €35 - from €255 to €290 - according to draft budget figures discussed yesterday.

A councillor is to make a formal complaint after a senior official threw a journalist out of a council meeting in Galway.

A US soldier pleaded guilty today to murdering a severely-wounded 16-year-old Iraqi, the military said.

A US military judge has recommended a court martial for Private Lynndie England over the Iraq prison abuse scandal, but said the young army reservist was “easily led” and had been “heavily influenced” by an ex-boyfriend.

THREE American soldiers were killed yesterday when their convoy was hit by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in northern Iraq, a military spokeswoman said.