A high-level delegation from Cork Chamber, the Irish Aviation Authority and officials from Dublin and Cork airports met the US ambassador to Ireland yesterday as part of intense efforts to secure the first transatlantic flights from Cork.

The most powerful civil servant during Ireland’s boom and bust has revealed the then government tried to extend the bank guarantee in 2010 because the two year cut-off point was helping to push the country into a bailout.

The Oireachtas banking inquiry will tomorrow question former taoiseach Bertie Ahern on whether he knew Ireland’s banks were facing economic collapse before the May 2007 general election and his resignation one year later.

The mystery over why Anglo and Irish Nationwide were included in the blanket bank guarantee deepened after another senior banker said yesterday that he advised the Government not to include the stricken firms in the deal.

A series of coincidences has seen a First World War medal returned to the family of the Kerry soldier who owned it — 70 years after it was stolen in England.

Teagasc is predicting a 50% shortage in silage made for next winter in wet land areas, based on consultations with advisers in each of its 51 advisory offices across the country.

Youngsters performed great feats at the YMA National Finals 2012 — presenting and showing their animals with admirable enthusiasm and skill.

The best cattle he had ever seen at any American or European dairy show, was the fulsome tribute paid by Canadian Donald Dubois after he judged last week’s Emerald Expo 2012 show in Kilkenny.

THE secretary general of the former Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport received a package worth more than half a million euro upon his retirement, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.

KEVIN Cardiff faces public scrutiny before his position as the Irish representative at the European Court of Auditors is confirmed.

TOP civil servants will still be exempt from tax on up to €200,000 of their golden handshakes despite changes to their pension and pay-off entitlements announced yesterday.

The Minister for Public Expenditure has defended the €750,000 severance payment to retiring civil servant Dermot McCarthy.

AN overhaul of public pensions which will save taxpayers €1.8 billion was described as theft by teachers representatives.

I WROTE to your newspaper in 2007 pointing out that the boom was over and the bizarre sense of entitlement in the public service would ruin us.

A BANKING inquiry will be a priority for the Government if voters give parliamentary members tougher investigative powers in next month’s referendum, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.

The Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has described as "unacceptable" a severance payment made to top civil servant who retired during the Summer with a pension pot of €750,000.

EMMETS and Ahane will meet on Sunday in the Gaelic Grounds at 7.45pm after their Limerick SHC semi-final ended level yesterday, with neither side grabbing the initiative in a scoreless final 10 minutes.

WHO is the most reviled man in a State that has been laid to waste by excess and greed?

DERMOT McCARTHY is around long enough to know that this week’s controversy about the extraordinary pension and pay-off he received in July will pass.

READING the front page of the Examiner (August 7) brought tears to my eyes.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has hit out at TalkTalk management, claiming the telecoms giant should have given the Government better notice it was shutting its south-east call centre.

THE by-election to fill the late Brian Lenihan’s seat will be held in tandem with the presidential election and two referendums on October 27.

THE remuneration levels enjoyed by those at the top of the public sector, in politics, by the judiciary and throughout some of the commercial semi-states are nothing short of scandalous.

Some 575 workers at a major employer in the south-east are facing the dole in 30 days after telecomms giant TalkTalk dramatically announced it was shutting its call centre.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has refused to say if the Government considered appointing former civil servant Dermot McCarthy as Ireland's ambassador to the Vatican.

A BITTER austerity budget is still on the way despite an improvement in Ireland’s debt tally, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore warned last night.

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny says he has been “caught” with the €700,000-plus pension package awarded to a former senior civil servant and there is nothing he can do to reduce the pay-out.

The Government’s hands are tied over a pension package worth more than €700,000 for the state’s former top civil servant, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said he understands the anger of people at the severance package paid to the former Secretary to the Government, Dermot McCarthy.

The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore is defending the Coalition's record on tackling high salaries in the public service.

THE Government has said plans to end extra-high pension payments for senior civil servants should feature in the budget following angry reactions to data showing that the former secretary to the Government was paid more than €570,000 on retirement.

KILMALLOCK were sensationally dethroned as Limerick senior hurling champions last evening by former kingpins, Patrickswell.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II was formally welcomed to Ireland by the President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday at her first official engagement at the start of her historic four-day state visit.

NORTHERN Ireland’s John A Patterson, from Crumlin, Co Antrim, showed the Alltech senior cow champion, Wiltor Goldwyn Lausine, at last weekend’s Emerald Expo Livestock Event at the Hub, Cillin Hill, Kilkenny.

THE Government has defended its decision not to advertise three top department jobs externally saying the positions can be signed off on by the Cabinet.