A NUMBER of Fianna Fáil black spots have emerged around the country where the party traditionally enjoyed strong support but faced near wipeout at the weekend.

THREE weeks into the new year, we are faced with a deluge of disastrous news. Dell, Waterford Wedgwood, Chartbusters and Kostal have all rationalised.

THE University of Limerick is working on new programmes to help workers who lose their jobs get back into employment.

AS many as four out of every 10 of the 600 Kostal workers in Abbeyfeale are married to each other or partners, leaving the entire family income dependant on the company.

UNEMPLOYMENT in Mallow has doubled in the last year it emerged yesterday as one of its biggest employers axed 100 jobs and announced reduced working hours in a desperate bid to save the plant.

KOSTAL expects that up to 50 of the 200 workers who are to lose their jobs at their car component manufacturers plant in Abbeyfeale will opt for voluntary redundancy.

IT is increasingly difficult to remain composed, or to even want to, as the behaviour of a voracious, immoral and appalling coterie of bankers forces our government to take another do-or-die gamble with taxpayers’ funds.

Almost 600 jobs are to be slashed as Dublin Bus and a leading car components firm today announced major cost-cutting plans.

Three hundred jobs are being axed at a leading motor parts manufacturer, it was confirmed today.

Hundreds of jobs are believed to under threat as management at a car components firm prepares to brief workers in Cork and Limerick about its plans for dealing with a major downturn in business.

THE welcome news that a reduction in oil prices and cheaper mortgages cut inflation to its lowest rate in almost 11 years last month is inevitably overshadowed by worrying news that nearly 2,000 more jobs may be lost in Munster in the coming days or weeks.

IRELAND’S rejection of the Lisbon treaty has created uncertainty among multinational companies here, according to the head of one of the country’s largest employers.

ONE of the biggest employers in Co Limerick yesterday refused to comment on union reports that its workforce has been asked to take one day’s unpaid leave due to a drop in sales.

SEVERANCE terms of 4.5 weeks’ pay per year of service, plus statutory entitlement, have been agreed for up to 50 redundancies at Kostal in Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick.

THE funeral took place in Limerick yesterday of one of the two men killed in last Friday’s crash near Daly’s Cross on the N7.

THE University of Limerick has been given €4.34 million for its mathematics research programme from the Science Foundation of Ireland.

THE University of Limerick has secured a €4.35 million funding from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).