Irish Water has been fined €6,000 for delays in carrying out vitally needed work to improve drinking water and reduce levels of an environmental pollutant linked to cancer.

Irish Water has pleaded guilty to breaking environmental laws following the discovery of sewage pollution at treatment plants in Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Cork.

The Irish Times and Littlewoods Ireland have avoided court convictions for breaking privacy regulations by sending customers unsolicited emails.

Irish Water has pleaded guilty to polluting a Co Louth stream after a malfunction at a sewage treatment plant led to a discharge which turned water grey. However, it has been given a chance to avoid a criminal record after Judge John O’Neill ordered the utility to donate €2,000 to charity.

The Irish Times and Littlewoods Ireland have been given chances to avoid criminal convictions for breaking e-privacy regulations by sending customers unsolicited emails.

A Bernard McNamara company, Aroana Limited now in Nama, paid €9.16m in 2005 for the former Scottish Legal Life-owned premises at 18/19 College Green, Dublin, and never took up legal title to it, the High Court was told yesterday.

The former owners of Mount Wolseley Hotel Golf and Country Club, believe they were denigrated in the community by recent publicity, the High Court heard today.

A father of two charged with the murder of Elaine O’Hara, whose remains were found in the Dublin mountains, was refused bail in the High Court yesterday.