A decade-old indecent assault allegation against whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe was discussed at a meeting between gardaí and lawyers days before the O'Higgins commission of inquiry began hearings.

A dispute over a right of way led to a 20-year legal battle against the State, which is still refusing to pay up, writes Michael Clifford.

The company that built dozens of schools now under investigation due to fire safety concerns is currently building six more schools for the Department of Education and was given the contracts after the fears emerged.

Michael Clifford explains how false allegations against Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe threatened to undermine public trust in the institutions of the State

A police chief investigating an alleged shoot-to-kill policy in the North confided in a diplomat he was not concerned about a cover-up but “murder, six murders”, declassified files show.

CHIEF Supt Aidan Reid of the Garda Traffic Corps oversaw a 24-hour anti-speeding campaign nationwide yesterday expressing his wish that not one motorist would be caught driving over the limit at checkpoints, the locations of which were posted on the Garda website.

Two trials testing a new approach to managing depression in cancer patients, which is often overlooked or ignored, have shown positive results.

A county council’s legal bill doubled after an unseemly squabble with a department over the costs of defending a damages action taken by a woman grieving for her husband and daughter.

Senior civil servants have vowed to fight the abolition of their allowance for representing Ireland at meetings of the EU and other international organisations.

Five lawyers each received fees in excess of €250,000, last year, through their work for the Chief State Solicitor’s Office (CSSO).

A judge has lifted a bail condition restricting the movement of Dublin pub owner John Stokes who is accused of assault, possession of stun guns and threatening another publican to stop trading.

CHIEF executive Ivan Gazidis is confident Arsenal’s commercial future is bright after a “very solid” set of results, despite a fall in turnover and profit.

ALMOST €345 million was saved in a crackdown on welfare fraud and payments made in error in the first seven months of 2011, the Government revealed yesterday.

A CHIEF fire officer yesterday appealed for people to exercise caution in wild land after a record year of fires.

The North's ministers finalising a cost-saving budget could take a cut in pay and reduce the use of consultants and quangos, First Minister Peter Robinson has said.

FOUR out of five senators are double-jobbing or have extra incomes on top of the €70,000-plus paid to them by the State for working just three days a week, 34 weeks a year in the Upper House.

CHIEF executives in Ireland saw their bonuses plunge 66% last year while their pension schemes collapsed.

THE Director of Public Prosecutions received a record number of files last year despite staff cuts which have placed a “heavier burden” on employees.

Well Chief received the universal backing of the bookmaking industry for the 2010 Queen Mother Champion Chase after slamming dual Cheltenham Festival winner Master Minded in the Connaught Chase.

CHIEF Lone Eagle can pull rank on his opponents in the Listed Navigation Stakes at Cork this afternoon.

A CHIEF prison officer claimed yesterday that the voice on a mobile phone confiscated from Catherine Nevin was that of sitting Fine Gael councillor Dr Bill Tormey.

MOVES by the G8 agriculture ministers to put farming and food security at the heart of the international agenda during their first summit in Treviso, Italy, are to be welcomed.

Master Minded successfully defended his Seasons Holidays Champion Chase crown at Cheltenham to become the first horse since Viking Flagship in 1995 to retain the two-mile championship.

THE National Employment Rights Authority detected more than 1,000 companies not paying staff their entitlements under legally binding wage deals in the first nine months of this year.

THE Department of the Environment last night said any suggestions of a “cover-up” of the scale of the contamination at the Irish Steel site were “entirely false”.

CHIEF executives are less confident about the economy than last year but most still expect profit and revenues to grow, according to research on their attitudes.

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into complaints that workers on board Irish Ferries’ newest ship are being paid less than half the minimum wage.

GARDAÍ fear the paedophile ring suspected of abusing a 14-year-old boy may have abused other children.

A jury has heard 'seriously inaccurate' evidence in the trial of the bus driver accused of dangerous driving causing the deaths of five people in Dublin city centre.

THE Department of the Marine is taking a man to the High Court for ignoring its ultimatum to remove unauthorised marine structures from a West Cork bay.

CORK City Council’s failure to act three years ago has led to a complex land row in a leafy Cork suburb, it emerged last night.

The Government said today it would issue Army deafness claimants alleging overcharging by solicitors with detailed costings of their cases, it said today.

THE Government has described the breakdown in communication that led to Justice Minister Michael McDowell and the Attorney General (AG) both being completely unaware of the Supreme Court decision that plunged the Government into free-fall as a “communications issue”.

THERE should be absolutely no doubt that the Government — and it alone — stands utterly discredited by the appalling ineptitude the country witnessed, this week, after the Supreme Court struck out our 1935 law on statutory rape.

CHIEF nuclear inspector Mohamed El Baradei, the winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, has grown over the years into a dogged campaigner for non-proliferation.

Moscow Flyer, Azertyuiop and Well Chief have all stood their ground ahead of an enthralling renewal of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham next Wednesday.

A CHIEF superintendent ordered an exhumation of the body of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron to be cancelled because a new post mortem could have been disastrous for a garda murder inquiry, the Morris Tribunal was told yesterday.

A Co Cork chef arrested as part of a garda investigation into IRA money-laundering walked free on bail from the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.

UP TO 40,000 outpatients face cancelled appointments following the apparent collapse yesterday of talks aimed at resolving an insurance row between the State and hospital consultants.

Jim van Wijk

CHIEF operating officer at Anglo Irish Bank Tiarnan O’Mahoney will leave his post at the end of this year.

THE future of the national airline seems to be on automatic pilot, and to judge from the confusion at cabinet level the Government, like Aer Lingus, seems to be going around in circles.