Up to five customers were smoking illegally in a Co Limerick pub and the bar counter was strewn with ashtrays full of butts, it was alleged in court today.

Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

SMOKING ban resistance in mid-west pubs has gone up in a puff of smoke, according to figures released by the Mid Western Health Board yesterday.

LETHAL assaults are occurring in Limerick because there is no secure psychiatric unit in the city for violent, mentally ill people, according to the president of the Limerick Law Society.

WHAT began as a mini revolt was last night threatening towards widespread rebellion as publicans around the country opened their doors to smokers.

TO say security was tight for today’s EU-US summit at Dromoland Castle would be an understatement.

JUNIOR Health Minister Tim O’Malley said public cancer patients will get treatment at a new private hospital in Waterford despite his boss Micheál Martin saying last week there is no money available for such services.

A REPORT from Britain will influence if nurses here are trained to carry out forensic examinations on sexual assault victims.

Five Enforcement Orders were served by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland last month due to breaches of food safety, it was revealed today.

IRELAND has 14 neurologists, compared to 123 in Albania, a consultant revealed yesterday.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin has denied sanctioning new posts at Nenagh Hospital as a ploy to appease the public in the run-up to the local elections.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin yesterday insisted all acute hospitals could maintain their 24-hour emergency service if they produce concrete plans.

NO ONE in Limerick was convicted of domestic violence in 2002 despite 106 reported incidents, which led to 65 arrests.

NURSES’ representatives at a Limerick psychiatric hospital have called for a dedicated children’s unit, to end the practice of placing them in a secure adult ward.

AN investigation was launched last night following the sudden death of a seven-month-old baby girl in Limerick.

THE Labour Party's Agriculture spokesperson Dr Mary Upton last night called for a spate of mysterious health problems in Limerick to be investigated again.

DESPITE trenchant and repeated criticism of the State’s attitude towards the plight of disturbed children, the failure to effectively tackle the serious social problems lurking behind this crisis is extremely disturbing.

JOHN and Phil Power watched their 24-year-old son suffer from cancer for almost a year before he died last August.

Fianna Fail may have the beginning of another grassroots rebellion on its hands, following an extraordinary outburst against the Hanly Report, from a former junior minister.

HEALTH experts last night rejected claims from people living in Co Limerick who believe industrial pollution is causing cancer.

I REFER to the article entitled Child dental problems ‘camouflaged’ (Irish Examiner, Sept 13). It is heartening to see a consultant orthodontist so openly critical of the Department of Health and its policies over the past few years.

IN the course of a letter concerning cancer in the Cappagh/Croagh area of Co Limerick (Irish Examiner, August 12), Pat Geoghegan refers to data from the National Cancer Registry which was supplied to the Mid Western Health Board (MWHB).

SOARING house prices, unemployment and child access problems are linked to Ireland’s growing suicide rates among young men, a study has found.

ANYONE mired in the rat race of home hunting will know the pressures of competing in a property market where prices have literally gone through the roof.

THERE were 55 deaths from cancer - three times the national average - in a small area of Co Limerick where residents claim industrial pollution has harmed public health.

THE cloud of mystery surrounding unexplained animal deaths and human health problems in a Co Limerick farming community has deepened amid alarming claims that the area is now a cancer hotspot.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin has rejected a call to investigate how blood taken from a Limerick family was lost by the health authorities.

NURSES’ representatives at a Limerick psychiatric hospital claim patients are living in Dickensian accommodation while health board staff occupy plush offices.

NURSES at a second maternity hospital have warned that the health of mothers and babies is at serious risk because of a staffing crisis.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin does not plan to investigate how blood samples taken from a family suffering from mystery illnesses were lost by the health authorities.

A FAMILY plagued by illness will today meet the minister for health to demand an inquiry into how their blood samples were lost by the health authorities.

MORE consultants are to be brought into hospitals shortly on a pilot basis, Health Minister Micheál Martin confirmed yesterday.

CASH-STRAPPED health boards which are struggling to make ends meet will not be getting additional funds in the new year.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin is refusing to launch an inquiry into how vital pathology samples belonging to a west Limerick family were mislaid by Mid Western Health Board (MWHB).

OPPOSITION parties last night called on Minister for Health Micheál Martin to launch an inquiry into how pathology samples that could have explained mysterious health problems in Co Limerick went missing.

GREEN Party leader Trevor Sargent last night called for an investigation

A STATE review of claims that cancer rates are three times higher than normal in west Limerick still hasn't produced findings one year after it was established.

PATIENTS in Limerick, Nenagh and Ennis face having operations cancelled from Monday as theatre nurses refuse to do overtime in a protest over pay, the Irish Nurses Organisation warned night warned.

FARMERS in an area of West Limerick plagued by health scares are angry they have been refused a breakdown of the €5.32 million spent on an enquiry into the problem.

AN EXPERT group has called for immediate action to ensure the health system tracks seriously disturbed persons like David Brennan who murdered his baby nephew hours after he refused to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

THE Irish Nurses’ Organisation has told its members to refuse work arising from unfilled posts or reduced overtime.

Garda drug seizures point to a serious abuse problem in Limerick writes Mícheál Lehane

Last year, there were 448 deaths from suicide in this country, more than those caused by accidents on our roads.