The search is on for Ireland’s most loveable tree. Finalists for the inaugural National Tree Huggers Contest have been selected from across the country.

Mark Ellis takes the field for Cork in tomorrow’s Munster SHC clash with Waterford as a representative of Millstreet, a long-standing Gaelic football stronghold in the Rebel County.

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation could potentially return €8bn to the taxpayer when it is eventually wound up, the bank’s chairman, Alan Dukes, told the Oireachtas finance committee.

A hard-hitting study offering an alternative to the Government’s Hanly report is to be launched by a health services action group today.

THE Health Services Action Group (HSAG) has welcomed a report arguing against the downgrading of Ennis General Hospital.