IRELAND’S ecosystems are worth billions to the economy each year, according to an environmental report published yesterday.

THE Government did not even know how much it cost to build the controversial M50 toll bridge before it agreed to a €600 million buyout of the operation in 2008, it has emerged.

A COUNCIL house in Cork aity has been left empty for at least 14 years despite more than 6,491 individuals and families in the city on a waiting list for a social home.

A PROPERTY tax should be urgently introduced to punish developers who delay in putting their empty housing stock into social use or on the market at a realistic rate, housing charityFocus Ireland has proposed.

The country’s leading think-tank today revealed it will not be withdrawing a report on a controversial incinerator heavily criticised by opponents of the scheme.

MORE than 10,000 owners of non-principal private residences paid the new €200 charge on their properties in the last hours before the deadline on payment which falls today.

MINISTER for State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Michael Finneran yesterday launched a new website www.ringbuoys.ie which will enable members of the public to report damaged, stolen, missing or retrieved ringbuoys anywhere in the country.

A SOLE objector has succeeded in halting a massive €40 million commercial and retail development in Limerick city centre which would have given work to 600 people.

AGREEMENT has been reached on the drafting of a masterplan for the long-term infrastructure development of North Tipperary, Limerick city and Co Limerick.

AT least 10 other European Union member states yesterday backed Ireland’s position on the milk market crisis at a meeting in Luxembourg.

MAJOR capital projects planned by local authorities may not go ahead this year owing to new government restrictions on their ability to borrow money.

A junior government minister today defended giving state-paid jobs to four members of his family during the past three years.

FIRE safety experts have demonstrated the devastating consequences of throwing water on a blazing chip-pan fire.

THE Department of Defence has ordered an environmental air and soil analysis at the site of the naval base in Haulbowline in Cork harbour to investigate if there’s any threat to sailors from hazardous waste buried in the area.

A new think-tank has been established to develop an action plan to overhaul the public services.

REVISED proposals to expand the Kenmare river Special Area of Conservation (SAC), from 32,000 to about 42,000 hectares, will shortly be published by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

PLANS to decentralise 200 civil servants from Dublin to Waterford moved a step forward yesterday with news that the Office of Public Works (OPW) has bought a building in the city for €8 million.

ONE of Waterford’s most respected charities is committing itself to caring for future generations of elderly people in the region by developing “unrivalled” facilities on a new site.

COUNCILLORS around the country could see their electoral areas substantially changed before next year’s local elections.

DON’T let packaging snowball out of control this Christmas, Repak has warned.

THE Government has changed the focus of its attention from the Celtic Tiger to the red squirrel, which is the most endangered mammal in the Irish countryside.

WATERFORD City Council has become the first local authority in Ireland to carry out a survey of unaccounted-for waste.

Ireland’s first degree course in tackling natural disasters will help the fight against flood, famine and global warming, it was claimed today.

THE most persistent and challenging barriers remaining for people who experience homelessness in Dublin are access to appropriate accommodation and ensuring also that the necessary healthcare, training, education and employment needs of individuals are addressed.

THE Irish Heritage Trust (IHT) is expected to take over responsibility for historic Fota House in Co Cork within months.

KILLARNEY was yesterday named as Ireland’s best-kept town.

IT comes as little surprise that after the mechanical soil-stripping in advance of motorway construction, yet more archaeological monuments have come to light in the Gabhra Valley — among them the extensive archaeological complex at Lismullin.

THE farming, tourism, construction and business sectors are being encouraged to take action to halt loss of biodiversity Ireland.

THE possibility of having sample tests carried out on deer in an effort to ascertain if they contribute to the spread of tuberculosis in the cattle herd was raised in the Dáil.

NEW planting by farmers in areas soon to be designated for the protection of the hen harrier is to be allowed under an agreed forest management protocol.

THE Government is setting up a team of officials to finalise issues surrounding the costs and timescale of the Mahon Tribunal.

RISING water charges will hit farmers hard, especially those whose land is fragmented, warns Fine Gael Agriculture and Food spokesperson, Denis Naughten, TD.

AGRICULTURE and Food Minister Mary Coughlan has confirmed that 109 of the 925 applications for afforestation grant aid being processed by the Forest Service at the end of November were in respect of areas proposed as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for the hen harrier.

NO PESTICIDE problems have been found in preliminary results of water testing being carried out by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

SONAR surveys of a sunken Spanish galleon off the Cork coast have revealed previously unseen images, which have so excited marine archaeologists they intend to carry out a major dive next summer.

A project to improve the quality of life for people in Dublin’s south east inner city was officially unveiled today.

FARMERS in the Shannon and Suck river basins in the west of Ireland, who have suffered financial losses because of last month’s heavy rain which resulted in their lands being flooded, are seeking compensation from the Government for the loss of fodder.

DUBLIN is more of a dirty old town than a fair city, with litter levels in the capital up to 12% higher than in the rest of the country, a new survey has found.

WEXFORD town is to benefit from €300 million worth of development that is underway or in the planning process.

THE controversial re-ordering of a cathedral in Co Cork is to be the subject of an An Bord Pleanála oral hearing.

IRELAND’S largest business group today warned that entrepreneurs were being stifled by added costs involved in setting up companies.

Ireland’s largest business group today warned that entrepreneurs were being stifled by added costs involved in setting up companies.

ICT Ireland, the high tech sector within IBEC, has welcomed the announcement by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, to approve two electronic equipment waste management compliance schemes - WEEE Ireland and European Recycling Platform (ERP).