THE Government has come under fire over the loss of hundreds of jobs in west Waterford following Tuesday’s announcement of the closure of Cappoquin Chickens.

Foreign employment agencies should be banned from operating in the Irish market without a licence, it was claimed tonight.

IT IS said that legislation is like the butcher’s sausage - it can be unpleasant to watch how it is made. This week we saw an interesting example of how bad our law-making process can be sometimes.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern’s nomination of Celia Larkin to the board of the National Consumer Agency was an impromptu decision which involved no consultation, internal Government documentation has shown.

THE intriguing possibility that politicians along with public officials stand accused of “maladministration” in the scandal of illegal nursing home charges, raises serious questions over the handling of this affair by Government ministers.

A spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise and Employment has said it does not expect too much of a negative effect on Ireland from the proposed merger of Hewlett Packard and Compaq Computers.