The mother of a drowned fisherman said she was “disgusted and appalled” to discover through the media that bones found at sea in the South-East two years ago.

Budgetary constraints are believed to be preventing DNA testing of bones found off the south-east coast which may have come from some of the fishermen lost when three trawlers sank in 2006 and 2007.

Irish efforts to evacuate citizens from Libya have been fiercely criticised for a second day after a teacher escaped a frightening 26-hour wait at Tripoli airport.

An emergency team is expended to travel to Libya today to evacuate Irish citizens stranded in the troubled north African state.

Two Government planes are on standby in Malta to evacuate 40 Irish citizens trying to flee Libya.

SUCCESSFUL farmers have all the managerial skills they need to thrive in the non-farming business world, says one leading agri-business advisor.

THE Government has been urged to allocate additional funding to the forestry programme if it is genuine about achieving targets.

THE 8% cut in forestry premiums was described as totally unacceptable by the Irish Farmers Association yesterday as the forest liaison group met at the request of Minister of State Tony Killeen to consider options to restore confidence in the sector.

THE timing of the restructuring of a key forestry scheme could not come at a worse time for farmers who are beginning to thin forests and produce timber for wood energy markets, according to the IFA.

A DELEGATION from the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) told an Oireachtas sub-committee yesterday it has identified an initial 6,000 strategic locations, where farmers can establish micro-wind turbines in a non-visually intrusive way.

AN innovative website promoting the attractions of the Dingle area has been launched by a local couple.

A TRAWLER that sank with the loss of five crew members almost two years ago had a heavier load than ever before at the time of the tragedy, according to an investigation.

THE Irish Farmers Association has welcomed a reassurance given to landowners by Minister of State Tony Killeen that specified forestry schemes will remain fully operational but has also demanded additional funding be provided for the programmes.

IFA Farm Forestry chairman, Pat Hennessy, has stressed that “additional funding needs to be made available to the Forest Road Grant Scheme for the remainder of 2008 and into the future”.

FARMERS have welcomed Greener Homes Scheme grants of €2,000 for installation of biomass gasification boilers.

CONFIDENCE in forestry is at an all-time low, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), which claimed there is a clear lack of vision in the sector at present.

HEAT production from wood is only half the cost from oil, and the energy market offers landowners an opportunity to make money from thinnings — but they must co-operate if they are to harvest, process and market profitably.

A GREEN forest payment, the removal of the replanting obligation and the relaxation of restrictions on further afforestation are being sought by the IFA.

Relatives of the five men who lost their lives in the sinking of the Pere Charles are marking the first anniversary of the deaths today.

The inquests into the deaths of seven fishermen who died in two tragedies off the south-east coast is taking place in New Ross, Co Wexford, today.

AN examination of the interior of sunken trawler the Pere Charles is expected to take place today.

RELATIVES of the men who drowned on the Pere Charles last night spoke of their shock at the extent of the damage sustained by the trawler after it was finally raised from the sea-bed.

THE lifting of the Pere Charles marked the culmination of a struggle which began on January 10 for the families of crewmen Andriy Dyrin, 32, Billy O’Connor, 52, Tom Hennessy, 30, Pat Hennessy, 48, and Pat Coady, 27, when the trawler sank while on its way back from a successful day’s fishing in the Celtic Sea.

FAMILIES of the men lost aboard the Pere Charles last January have been forced to endure another anxious night after bad weather delayed the salvage operation to raise the trawler from the sea-bed.

Divers were today resuming attempts to raise the Pere Charles trawler after bad weather suspended operations overnight.

IF THE Pere Charles had returned safely to harbour in Dunmore East on that fateful night it sank, its skipper Tom Hennessy would be married to his fiancée Louise Doyle.

A Dutch barge is due in Waterford shortly to begin the operation to raise the wreck of the sunken trawler the Pere Charles.

The wreck of the sunken trawler, the Pere Charles, is expected to be raised from the seabed today.

A CRANE barge needed to lift two fishing trawlers sunk off the south-east coast must be re-rigged in Holland before it can assist in the salvage operation, it emerged yesterday.

THE wrecks of two trawlers lying off the south-east coast are expected to be brought to Arklow harbour early next month.

THE Department of Transport has chosen a salvage company to be used in the mammoth task of raising two trawlers that sank off the Co Wexford coast with the loss of seven lives.

THE brother of the skipper of the Pere Charles trawler — which sank off the southeast coast earlier this year and lies on the seabed — yesterday said the Government needs to educate itself about search and salvage procedures.

HOPES are high that the wrecks of two trawlers lying on the seabed off the south-east coast will be raised to the surface in September.

THE wives of two fishermen who drowned when their trawler went down off the south coast in early January laid anchor-shaped floral wreaths at a poignant seamen’s memorial in Kinsale, Co Cork yesterday.

The families of the fishermen who died in the Pere Charles and Maggie B tragedies off the south-east coast have welcomed the Government's decision to raise the two vessels.

TWO trawlers in which seven men died are to be raised from the seabed, following intensive lobbying by the families affected.

FAMILY of the five fishermen lost off the Dunmore East coast in January have launched a petition in a bid to get the stricken trawler, the Pere Charles, raised.

WREATHS will be laid at sea next month on the sites of a double trawler tragedy as part of a massive cross-channel fundraiser.

VINTAGE car owners rallied yesterday to raise over €10,000 for the families of the Pere Charles and Honeydew 11 trawler victims.

DIVE crews were due to enter the wreck of the Honeydew II again this morning to search parts of the galley and hold for signs of the its two missing crew members.

THE Department of Transport has not ruled out the possibility of raising the wreck of the Pere Charles from the seabed in an attempt to find out how it sank and what happened to its five crew men.

ALL day they gathered in Dunmore East’s meeting points.

ANOTHER attempt to recover the bodies of five fishermen missing off the Co Waterford coast is likely to be made today, as weather conditions grow calmer.