UP to 150,000 people are expected to descend on Tullamore after the Offaly town was announced as the venue for the 2007 National Ploughing Championships.

The Government has announced plans to provide funding for the World Ploughing Championships due to be held in Ireland next year.

IRELAND will lose a multi-million-euro agricultural showcase unless an alternative 500-acre venue can be found for the world-class event in the next few days.

A DECISION on whether Ireland will play host to a world class agricultural event, under threat due to lack of a venue, will be made in January.

FEARS are growing that Ireland could lose a world-class agricultural event worth millions of euro as the lands earmarked to host the showcase contest are to be bulldozed to make way for a new road.

THE sheer size of the National Ploughing Championships, which start in Ballacolla, Co Laois, today and continue until Thursday, became clear on the site yesterday.