ALMOST 400 people were last night resigned to joining ever-increasing dole queuesas two factories laid off staff because of Ireland’s spiralling costs.

MOBILE phone firms do not have the technology to protect children from abusive and inappropriate calls and text message.

TILLAGE farming may become uneconomic due to EU proposals to limit effective products used to control the fungal diseases to which Irish grain and potato crops are uniquely vulnerable.

WATERFORD received a much-needed employment boost yesterday when a pharmaceuticals company announced it will be creating 165 jobs over the next five years.

EUROPEAN Union proposals to dramatically reduce the use of plant protection products have major implications for the competitiveness of Irish tillage farming, a conference was told yesterday.

Three hundred years after the first Scottish Parliament voluntarily voted itself out of existence in 1707, the Scottish National Party has won a plurality in the devolved Scottish parliament that is one of Tony Blair’s great legacies. Does an SNP-led government herald the break-up of Britain?

SCOTLAND’S first minister yesterday gave the strongest indication yet that the country would soon follow Ireland’s lead in introducing a workplace smoking ban.

SCOTTISH First Minister Jack McConnell is to visit Dublin next Tuesday to see how the smoking ban is working.

SMOKING in public places could be banned in Scotland under radical plans being considered by ministers north of the border, it emerged yesterday.

The Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish has resigned following a row about office expenses.

A row broke out today over the decision to display the Union Jack flag alongside the Scottish Saltire and the Tricolour as the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was addressing MSPs at Holyrood.