More than one-third of Irish third-level students feel like “detached consumers” in terms of their education.

Booked a family break in the sun? From Peppa Pig to packing, Lindsay Woods and Pat Fitzpatrick bring us the ultimate summer holiday survival guide

Here's your lunchtime news bulletin.

There are concerns TDs and senators responsible for recommending the future of water charges to the Dáil for a vote will not finish their work by the March deadline.

A look ahead to all the weekend’s action around Cork...

The head of the Public Water Forum has said water must be kept in public ownership, and warned that the lack of safeguards against privatisation was not helping secure public support for the reform of water services.

Made by Blackwater Irish Spirits in Waterford who produce Muldoon Whiskey Liqueur, this won the Gin Trophy at 2015’s Irish Whiskey Awards.

An award of €750,000 was made yesterday to a woman who suffered serious injuries when she tripped in what was described as a crater in a road in Skibbereen.

St Nicholas 2-9 Dohenys 0-15: A point by Evan Kearney in the 62nd minute earned St Nicholas a second bite of the cherry in this highly entertaining Cork SFC fourth-round tie at Bandon on Saturday night.

Frank and Patrick’s Day have topped the list for film nominations with nine, while both Love/Hate and Vikings have the highest number of nominations for a television programme with seven.

The IFTA's are back for 2015, rumours of their demise have been greatly exaggerated, and the list of nominees has been revealed.

Leinster 9 Northampton 18

The awards, accolades and praise for George North just keep on coming after another stellar year for the explosive Wales wing.

Workers say they have to get money they say they are owed by haulage firm Target Express, which ceased trading on Monday evening.

SHORTER Leaving Certificate courses and more continuous assessment may be one suggestion from third-level bosses as a way to reduce the pressures of one-off exams facing Leaving Certificate students scrambling to score top points for college.

NUI Maynooth has announced €2 million a year in post-graduate student support. The university is to begin 12 new fully funded doctoral teaching scholarships worth around €84,000 each in September.

PUPILS whose teachers take classroom management training are better behaved and have a better chance in the education system, research suggests.

The North's former Police Ombudsman Nuala O‘Loan is to oversee development of NUI Maynooth, it was revealed today.

MORE than half a million visits have been made to a website to widen access to Irish academic research.

National University of Ireland Maynooth is to introduce a bonus points scheme for higher Leaving Certificate maths on a trial period, it emerged today.

THE replacement of Leaving Certificate results with other methods to determine points for college entry could add to the pressure on school-leavers instead of easing it, Institute of Guidance Counsellors president Eilis Coakley has claimed.

A DEBATE may have started again lately about the unfairness of our points system for the selection of students for entry to college – but any changes will have no effect for those beginning their next education steps this autumn.

THE points system remains the fairest way to determine college entry and does not need to be reformed, according to Education Minister Mary Coughlan.

A COLLEGE boss has called for third level institutions to change the entry points system which is causing huge stress to students.

BEYOND the confines of women’s or schools basketball, he may not have instant recognition, but there can’t be many coaches who have made a greater contribution to the sport over the last three decades than Jimmy Diggins of Tralee.

General Stanley McChrystal, who was fired last week as the top US general in the Afghanistan war, has told the Army he will retire.

BETTER gigs may come along, this year.

COLLEGE students are likely to be expected to pay back the costs of their third-level education after graduating rather than their families paying fees up front, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe indicated yesterday.

A CALL for increased vigilance on farms was made yesterday by Labour Affairs Minister Billy Kelleher when he launched a farm safety action plan in Dublin.

Hundreds of nurses will today voice their concerns about the state of the health service.

THERE are a few attractive elements to this 65-acre farm for sale at Caheragh, Castleisland, Co Kerry.

Limerick's footballers got their season off to a winning start when they proved far too strong for Tralee IT in a 2-11 to 1-07 victory at Moyvane this afternoon.

Limerick 2-11 Tralee IT 1-7

Employers need to fit working hours around the busy lives of post-boom families to help save communities, a leading sociologist claimed today.

THE father of murdered nurse Sara Neligan will be among the speakers at a two-day conference on the changes occurring in Irish society.

It is a bleak, emotionally intense and absorbing film, with superb performances from Colm Meaney, Brendan Conroy and Donal O’Kelly.

Based on a stage play this Irish film – in Irish and English and being talked up as a possible entry for the Oscars Best Foreign Language category – is a fine example of solid ensemble playing but an example of the difficulty of translating stage to screen in that it often gets bogged down with chat.

An Irish language film has been submitted for an Oscar for the first time ever, it emerged today.

Golf fans across Ireland were celebrating tonight after Dubliner Padraig Harrington won the Open Championship.

A US-led coalition helicopter crashed in southeastern Afghanistan today after reporting engine failure.

Nato-led troops launched a precision strike in Afghanistan today, killing a key Taliban commander near a town overrun by militants, a spokesman for the alliance said.

Afghan security forces supported by Nato-led troops will soon launch an operation to recapture a southern town that was overrun by Taliban militants, an official said today.