IS there a more authentic sound of summer in Ireland than the drone of bees?

I WOULD like to air my views on the changes I believe should be implemented in the forthcoming general election.

IN his letter (March 11), Michael Geary suggested the Cork Marketing Partnership’s efforts at the Shanghai Expo would be worthwhile because they would promote business tourism, and not the regular tourism that the Irish visa system discourages from China.

IN his letter headlined ‘Chinese visitors run into Irish wall’ (March 6), Gerry Mullins appears to have a complete misunderstanding of Cork Marketing Partnership (CMP) and World Expo 2010.

FIRST it was the Lonely Planet. Now Yahoo China has boosted Cork’s tourism stock even further.

TWO new landmark shopping areas on Cork’s main street have won the top awards in a prestigious building competition.

DECISIVE new guidelines have been issued to doctors and nurses on the care of patients receiving fertility treatment following an inquiry into the death of a young woman after a reaction to IVF treatment.

I REFER to your various correspondents on the Lisbon Treaty, particularly in regard to Ireland being the only member state to hold a referendum on it.

IRELAND’S stillbirth rate is 40% lower than Britain’s because of the increased use of ultrasound scans by Irish maternity hospitals throughout a woman’s pregnancy, a medical expert claimed last night.

CORK bucked the national trend to record an significant increase in Christmas trade, according to figures released yesterday.

THE Dublin City Coroner has recommended the development of national guidelines to allow independent midwives access to services at maternity hospitals.

A BABY boom at the country’s second largest maternity hospital has forced management to put up expectant mothers in a nearby hotel.

A major maternity hospital is being forced to rent hotel rooms for pregnant women because of a lack of beds.

DUBLIN’S Rotunda Hospital yesterday assured patients steps had been taken since Jacqueline Rushton’s death to ensure a similar tragedy from IVF treatment would not happen again.

A lack of senior control over the hospital care of a young nurse undergoing IVF treatment before she died was highlighted in an official report published today.

INDEPENDENT midwives who take on difficult cases were highlighted yesterday by the Master of Dublin’s Rotunda maternity hospital.

ONE-IN-FOUR births in Ireland are delivered via Caesarean section, new figures show.

The group managing director of Thomas Crosbie Holdings Ltd. (TCH), Anthony Dinan, has paid tribute to Michael Geary, outgoing chief executive of Cork Chamber.

THE percentage of children born to single mothers has doubled in the past 15 years, an ESRI report will reveal today.

A DECISION by one of the State’s oldest maternity hospitals to seek half of the €120 million needed to build a new healthcare campus from private sources has been welcomed by the Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney.

A new €120m health suite is to be built at the Rotunda hospital in central Dublin, it emerged today.

ONE of Cork’s leading business figures was awarded an honorary degree yesterday.

CORK Chamber of Commerce have appointed Conor Healy as their new chief executive.

THE three public maternity hospitals in Dublin have formally signed off on an agreement preventing staff from helping parents store stem cells from babies after birth.

CORK Chamber chief executive Michael Geary yesterday said the Chamber was “extremely disappointed” to learn of Cabinet’s decision to establish a new State research and training facility at University College Dublin.

OBESITY related complications are increasingly affecting Irish births, the master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin Dr Michael Geary has warned.

The number of non-national women presenting themselves at Dublin’s Rotunda Maternity Hospital in the latter stages of pregnancy has reportedly fallen to almost zero.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern admitted yesterday that he was unable to say when the Government will be able to roll out a national cervical screening programme.

JETMAGIC is to be wound up after a search for fresh investors failed to secure an estimated €15 million required to re-start the company which ceased operations from its Cork base in January.

A REVIVAL of collapsed Cork based regional airline Jetmagic will require fresh investment of up to €15 million.

AER LINGUS is poised to launch a trans-Atlantic service to the USA from Cork when the current open skies negotiations with the US are concluded, Cork Chamber of Commerce president Robin O'Sullivan said last night.

WOMEN arriving to Ireland on the verge of giving birth are “a tragedy waiting to happen”, according to the master of one of the country’s largest maternity hospitals.

AER LINGUS dropped a business bombshell in Cork last evening by confirming the 40-year link with Dublin is to be axed in October, with a consequential loss of 250,000 seats.

A LIVE bullet was discovered by a passenger on an Aer Arann flight between Cork and Edinburgh yesterday. The passenger made the discovery shortly before the aeroplane landed in Edinburgh at lunchtime and police were alerted.

COMMUTER lines to Midleton and Blarney in County Cork could be up and running by 2008, Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said yesterday.

BUSINESS groups, unions and Opposition politicians were very sceptical yesterday about Cork’s potential to become a gateway for major investment and growth over the next 20 years.

Confusion over next week’s referendum on abortion law intensified today when the heads of Dublin’s three main maternity hospitals backed the Government’s controversial proposal for the poll - and then said terminations should be permitted in certain circumstances.