Two councillors who were featured in an undercover investigation by RTÉ have been found to have contravened ethics laws during the secretly filmed meetings with a fictitious company.

The South African Spar retailing group says it is positively cautious about the effects of Brexit for its retailing interests in Ireland and the southwest of England. The Johannesburg-stockmarket-listed group owns 80% of BWG Spar and operates chains in Ireland and England, under its Spar Ireland division.

THE obliteration of the Hawaiian East Island in Hurricane Walaka in the last few weeks serves as a timely reminder to the vulnerability of many low-lying islands, writes Dan MacCarthy.

For the Cronin brothers, Keith and Daniel, Sunday’s Rathkeale House Hotel Circuit of Munster Rally in west Limerick has different agendas.

A former Fine Gael councillor caught on camera by an undercover reporter seeking £10,000 in cash in return for business favours is set to be brought before an ethics watchdog over the controversy in September.

Cork driver and four-time British Rally Champion Keith Cronin will campaign the new generation Hyundai i20 R5-N in this year’s British Rally Championship that includes rounds of the World Rally Championship (Wales Rally GB) and the European Rally Championship (Rally Ypres).

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has described as an “insult” the proposal to add 63 beds to the acute hospital system in the context of trolley figures reaching a record high of 612 this week.

A look ahead to today’s action in Divisions 1A and 1B...

A county councillor who appeared in an RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme into alleged payments for favours has appeared in Letterkenny District Court on assault charges.

An amended survival scheme for Petroceltic International and two related companies which sees the troubled explorer taken over by Cayman-Islands-based fund Worldview has been approved by the High Court.

A hearing aimed at getting High Court approval for a survival scheme for exploration company Petroceltic has been adjourned after day-long talks over employees concerns about the survival proposals failed to end in agreement.

A bank is pursuing two Kerry businessmen for €10.8 million summary judgment orders over loans advanced for a development in Dingle, Co Kerry.

A county councillor who appeared in an RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme has been ordered to pay a compensation order after a court heard how he dined in expensive Dublin restaurants and spent lavishly on clothing.

A couple who were at home in bed in North Cork were terrified when a man armed with a sledgehammer and a woman carrying an iron bar smashed their way into their bedroom and demand thousands of euro in cash.

A county councillor has told a court he is facing bankruptcy as a result of failed business dealings.

The trial of a man and woman accused of carrying out an aggravated burglary in the Mallow area while armed with a sledgehammer and an iron bar was about to start yesterday — but the two accused changed their pleas to guilty.

A judge has warned a politician who featured in an RTÉ Investigates programme to appear in court next month or face arrest over a long-running failure to pay compensation to a woman injured on a building site.

A 72-year-old former barrister was jailed yesterday on a charge of assault causing harm to a member of An Garda Síochána.

A special meeting of Donegal County Council has passed a motion calling for the resignation of embattled fellow councillor John O’Donnell.

Enhanced powers for officials to govern the disclosure of interests and other ethical obligations of politicians have been delayed — after first being mooted by the Coalition over three years ago.

Blackrock Clinic founder Joseph Sheehan has accused a company of Larry Goodman of deliberately inflating to €19.6m the sum for paying off his loans secured against his shareholding in the clinic.

The largesse bestowed by the banks on some property developers during the boom years included trips to the Ryder Cup in Kentucky, to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and the Monaco Grand Prix.

Greece plunges further into deep crisis today as the country looks set to default on its €1.6bn repayment to the IMF; Fifteen injecting drug users in Dublin have recently been infected with HIV; FAI debt hits €51.2m. Here’s this morning’s irishexaminer.com catch-up.

Police in riot gear have made numerous arrests as protesters took to the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, after a judge cleared a police officer over the deaths of two unarmed black suspects killed in a barrage of gunfire.

 

Anyone picking up a newspaper recently has seen that GAA players seem to be undergoing hip operations more often now than ever before.

Frank McClintock, the former head of the HSE’s ambulance service who was dismissed for the improper personal use of a fuel card, has been awarded €250,000 compensation for wrongful constructive dismissal.

A mother of four broke down in tears yesterday after a judge ruled that a deluge of hate mail to her had come from the home of a one-time close friend.

Bonus payments to the four executives leading online travel firm hostelworld.com last year totalled almost €400,000, figures show.

Leader of the Carryduff Forklift Northern Ireland Rally Championship, Antrim’s Derek McGarrity (Subaru WRC) has dual targets in tomorrow’s Newry based Modern Tyre Service Mourne Rally.

The five-star Muckross Park Hotel has been put back in receivership after businessman Bill Cullen and partner Jackie Lavin lost their legal battle for court protection while they put an investor in place.

Praveen Halappanavar will be grateful “to his dying day” to the critical care staff at Galway University Hospital for the care they gave to his wife Savita before she passed away.

Hotly disputed remarks that labelled Ireland as a country that denies a termination to seriously ill women who are miscarrying were admitted for the first time yesterday.

The husband of Savita Halappanavar is expected to be the main witness when the inquest into her death gets under way in Galway today.

Praveen Halappanavar says he has “trust and faith in justice” and that the truth surrounding the death of his wife Savita will come out.

The husband of an Indian dentist who died after she suffered a miscarriage said his late wife is giving him the strength to fight for the truth.

A woman suffered a broken cheekbone when she accused her boyfriend of paying too much attention to another woman who was “making eyes” at him across a dance floor.

THE disclosure that six members of staff at the former Anglo Irish Bank are on packages of €500k-plus could not come at a worse time for the Government or IBRC.

It is believed that Bank of Ireland will not be following AIB’s lead and writing to former executives asking them to surrender part of their pensions.