Recycling centres are reopened today in Dublin and Cork and householders are being asked to recycle what's left over after the Christmas celebrations.

FORMER Environment Minister Martin Cullen's claim of an urgent need for a communications specialist to deal with the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) was questioned yesterday by Fine Gael.

Each household will consume almost 30 litres of alcohol and beer in a major binge this Christmas, it emerged tonight.

Every Government minister was challenged today to state whether or not they would have room for an incinerator in their own back yard.

FORMER Environment Minister Martin Cullen brought in his €1,200-a-day PR adviser, Monica Leech, despite the department already employing one of the country's biggest PR companies to work on a major project.

CLONAKILTY added a second gold medal to its haul of national tidy town awards in recent years, emerging yesterday as the outright regional winner in Cork and Kerry.

A nationwide programme aimed at supporting small and medium sized businesses to reduce and recycle their business waste was launched today by the Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, in the Chamber of Commerce in Waterford.

A controversial television campaign showing an area being engulfed by a tidal wave of waste is being launched today in a bid to urge more people to recycle their rubbish.