Coastal communities were tonight braced for potential flooding as forecasters warned of gales, high tides and heavy rain.

I COMMEND the Irish Examiner for its investigation of unfinished housing estates (April 6-8).

BLOCKED roads, fallen trees along with flooded homes and farmland greeted the residents of west Cork and Kerry yesterday as continuing heavy rainfall took a grim toll on one of the worst-hit parts of the country.

A POTENTIALLY lethal bug has been discovered in a west Cork town’s water supply, forcing a local authority to tanker in water for up to 800 homes.

AN HISTORIC museum in a top tourist town has been forced to close because of the Government’s ban on public sector recruitment.

The Asgard II will not be raised from the seabed off France because the operation will not be cost-effective, the Defence Minister confirmed today.

THERE has been a large increase in the number of people under 25 signing on the live register in west and south Cork.

SURELY one of the most shameful outcomes of the budget is the huge increase in third-level registration fees.

THE leader of the Labour Party on Ireland’s largest local authority is to marry for the second time.

A PRINCIPAL has spoken out on a “crisis situation” in her overcrowded school and warned that the failure of the Department of Education to keep its promises could lead to a limit on enrolment.

The Sea Fisheries Authority is recommending increased catches of monkfish.

PROTESTING fishermen were meeting in Cork last night to decide on what course of action to take following the lifting of their port blockades.

I WOULD like to express my grave concern at the Taoiseach’s failure to designate a full cabinet post for the marine industry.

Ireland was tonight bracing itself for a battering as storm force winds began to hit the west coast.

THE leadership of the Labour Party has said it must learn from the success of Cork’s general election candidates as it seeks to expand the party.

Support for Eamon Gilmore is growing ahead of the upcoming vote to choose a new leader for the Labour Party.

The Labour Party is celebrating Seanad success this morning after picking up a new seat in the labour panel election.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has predicted that the election battle in Cork South West will come down to a fight between Labour Senator Michael McCarthy and Fine Gael’s Paddy Sheahan.

Political parties will begin final whistle-stop tours of marginal constituencies today in a bid to muster extra votes ahead of polling on Thursday.

A FIANNA FÁIL county councillor has accused his own ministers of being arrogant and complacent.

Fianna Fáil is to make a last desperate effort to hold its second seat in Cork South West after a party poll showed it was just a few hundred votes behind Fine Gael, according to the Evening Echo.

PARENTS of children attending a community college in Cork have reacted angrily to news that Education Minister Mary Hanafin is too busy to meet them and explain why promises made prior to the last election haven’t been fulfilled.

JUST a week after the Garda Representative Association (GRA) threatened to remove its members from a station in West Cork, it appears a breakthrough has been made which should resolve the long-running saga.

FREE publicity on primetime TV could lose you votes, You’re a Star contestant Dan Boyle TD, said yesterday.

UNSCRUPULOUS employers who are exploiting cheap non-national labour are being partly blamed for a rise in unemployment in Tralee.

Former Republic of Ireland soccer star John Aldridge won this year’s You’re A Star charity special tonight, raising thousands of euro for Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

Four cross-party politicians are joining forces and their singing voices in the name of charity, it emerged today.

MOVE over Westlife. Move over Boyzone. And move over all other pretenders, especially Finian McGrath.

THE Garda Representative Association (GRA) says it won’t believe the OPW has reached agreement with a landowner allowing a new garda station to be built in Dunmanway unless it sees written proof.

Eddie Cassidy

EILEEN DESMOND, the second woman Labour deputy to be elected to Dáil Éireann and one of only nine women deputies in the party’s history was laid to rest in Crosshaven, Co Cork, yesterday.

Labour Party Spokesman on Youth Affairs, Senator Michael McCarthy, has vowed to keep the pressure on Minister Micheál Martin concerning the exorbitant motor insurance costs faced by young people throughout Ireland.

NOEL WHELAN claims that the flaw in Labour’s argument against a return to third level fees is that free fees means higher taxation (Irish Examiner, May 15). Labour, he says, assume the taxation pool has no withdrawal limits. Ultimately, he claims, our approach chokes enterprise. Instead, he says, fees can be used to provide better grants for the disadvantaged.