JUST last month the secretary general of the Department of Justice, Seán Aylward, a former director of the Irish Prison Service, told the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts that drug-free prisons would be impossible in a humane system.

PADDY TEAHON, the former executive chairman of the State company that owns the €62 million National Aquatic Centre (NAC), has denied before the High Court that he was under extreme pressure from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to have matters regarding the centre sorted so it would be open in time for the Special Olympics of summer 2003.