TRADE levels between companies in the Republic and Northern Ireland have more than doubled in the past 15 years, a Dáil Committee heard yesterday.

Recession on both sides of the border has done little to dent the optimism and self-belief of the majority of businesses in either jurisdiction, it was revealed today.

A convicted sex offender who posed as a 12-year-old boy to enrol in Arizona schools brought home children that had joined a skateboarding club he started, police said.