Irish Water has said it is liaising with the OPW and its consultants about concerns that a €8m flood prevention scheme might not work properly if there is no division between storm water and sewage drainage.

The fourth annual Farm Safety Week starts today, with the IFA and its partners reminding people that farming kills and injures more people than any other industry in Ireland and the UK.

A coroner’s court has heard how hotels and nearby buildings were evacuated and guests rescued from bedrooms in the wake of an early-morning gas explosion at a Killarney town centre laundrette three years ago.

The taxpayer will have to foot the near €0.5m bill for removing potentially-lethal asbestos from Naval Service ships, but the final cost could be far higher.

The news that yet another cyclist was seriously injured in an impact with an HGV (Dublin on 23 March 23) serves as a reminder that these impacts should not be happening as they are essentially avoidable.

UCC was fined €80,000 and ordered to pay Health and Safety Authority costs of €4,000 for breaches which resulted in the death of an employee assisting a cherry-picker operator on campus, as the judge spoke about complacency with such vehicles on the streets of Cork.

A driver who repeatedly smoked while driving a truck loaded with gas cylinders has lost his claim for unfair dismissal at the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Gardaí in two Co Cork stations have been urged to walk out in protest against their Dickensian working conditions and the continued broken promises they endure from the Department of Justice and OPW to rectify the situation.

The 56 workplace deaths last year and 10 more so far this year is clear evidence large numbers of workers are continuing to expose themselves to potentially fatal, but mostly avoidable, hazards in their jobs, Business Minister Ged Nash has claimed.

Pre-tax profits at the firm employed by the Government to deliver the material used for the contentious fluoridation of the State’s water supply last year jumped by 56% to €1.16m.

A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of student Karen Buckley, a Labour senator has published plans to make cyberbullying a criminal offence and Jason McAteer says Roy Keane persuaded Alex Ferguson not to axe him many times. These are some of the latest and most read news on irishexaminer.com this lunchtime.

The ESB has pleaded guilty to failing in its duty to ensure the safety of an apprentice electrician who died carrying out work at a substation in Dublin.

Some €24m was awarded to employees injured in workplace accidents last year, with the highest award coming in at more than €400,000.

"The intensification of farming will lead to more farm accidents in 2014 unless vigilance on farms is dialled up" said Brian Rohan, founder of Embrace Farm, a support group for farm fatalities.

Workers at the naval dockyard in Haulbowline, Co Cork, have hit out at management for drip-feeding information on the potential exposure to asbestos.

More than 150 Naval Service personnel and civilian workers could have potentially come in contact with asbestos as the crisis deepens over the extent of exposure to the life-threatening substance.

The HSE has been accused of costing taxpayers’ needless money by ploughing ahead with asbestos removal at a psychiatric hospital in Co Cork.

Civilian staff exposed to potentially dangerous levels of asbestos told a senior navy officer during a heated meeting that their families may also be at risk of lung damage.

The organisation representing naval ratings has demanded a thorough examination of all the Naval Service’s older ships to ensure they are asbestos-free.

A decision on the Cork County Board’s planning application to redevelop Páirc Uí Chaoimh is expected within a week.

A man in his 50s has died in hospital from injuries sustained in a workplace accident on the grounds of a third level institution in Cork earlier this week.

The Health & Safety Authority has launched an investigation into a gas explosion in which one man died in Killarney on Saturday.

A 63-year-old man has died while working at a building site in Co Monaghan.

ESB faces a bill of up to €1.5m to dispose of asbestos illegally dumped on its land in Co Cork.

Surgeons at Cork University Hospital have successfully reattached a man’s arm after it was sliced off in a workplace accident last Tuesday.

TWO separate investigations are under way following the death of a 27-year-old man in a septic tank in East Cork.

A post mortem is to be carried out later on the body of a man in his 70s, who died following a workplace accident on a farm in Limerick yesterday.

A man has been killed on a farm in Co Limerick.

A motor parts distribution company has been fined €75,000 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today in relation to the death of a Polish employee who fell from a metal cage in a “reckless practice” the company condoned.

A RANGE of Government agencies should be able to use their powers to regulate head shops, it has been claimed.

PHARMACEUTICAL giant Pfizer has launched an investigation into the loss of three potentially harmful solvent containers which fell from a vehicle transporting them for testing.

THE death of a customer at a DIY store in Dublin at the weekend is being treated as a tragic accident but the circumstances are still being probed.

IN her letter (January 13), Florence Craven starts well in her criticism of RTÉ paying female journalists less than men, but then seeks to generalise to “many other” employers and ends by telling us gender equality has gone into reverse.

A WOMAN in her 20s has been arrested in connection with the blaze that claimed the lives of two firemen in Bray last year.

Investigators were tonight probing how a crane overturned injuring a construction worker at a multi-million euro redevelopment at Dublin Docklands.

GARDAÍ and the Health & Safety Authority (HSA) are carrying out separate investigations after a 26-year-old man was killed in a work-related accident.

The number of work-related deaths in 2007 jumped by almost a third to 67, the Health & Safety Authority said today.

A 49-YEAR-OLD married father was crushed to death yesterday in a horrific accident at a garage.

WITH all the focus on “gender imbalances” in society, why is the gender breakdown not given when the Health & Safety Authority workplace fatalities figures come out each year?

A regulation that will affect businesses of all sizes across Ireland will be launched today.