The Department of Agriculture has defended its stewardship of six fishery harbours after a "damning" Comptroller and Auditor General report which highlighted uncollected rents, failing carparks and "inadequate" accounting procedures.

John Joe Nevin will box on Saturday in his first fight since

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Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin will be between the ropes for his comeback fight in North Carolina this Saturday six months after it was feared his career was over.

Olympic boxing silver medallist John Joe Nevin was released from the Midlands Regional hospital in Mullingar yesterday following an assault at the weekend in which he suffered two broken legs.

Olympic medal winner John Joe Nevin is expected to be out of action until September after an assault at the weekend.

Operating profits at the Moran Hotel Group last year went up by 14% to €25.94m after the group enjoyed an increase in revenues.

A man has been jailed for six years after he tied a 14-year-old boy to a radiator, threw boiling water down his trousers and removed skin from his knees, knuckles and fingertips with a cheese grater.

John Joe Nevin believes more of Ireland’s world-class amateur boxers will inevitably follow him into the paid boxing ranks, but not because of anything he may achieve in a career which was mapped out in considerable detail in Dublin yesterday.

John Joe Nevin has stated he wants to win a World title fight at Croke Park, after it was confirmed at a press conference in Dublin this afternoon that he has made the switch to professional boxing.

A sensational letter from a director of the Irish Greyhound Board to the minister who appointed him has blamed political interference for reckless decisions that have brought the industry to the brink of collapse.

Government departments repeatedly lobbied against proposals to end sport sponsorship by the drinks industry, internal memos show.

Jimmy Woulfe and Juno McEnroe profile the new secretary general at the Department of Finance

FIVE-FIGURE bonuses awarded by Horse Racing Ireland to its chief executive, Brian Kavanagh, are to be repaid in full to the State.

THE boards of two semi-state companies have been warned to sack their chief executives if they refuse to sign revised contracts.

PARTNERSHIPS with giant overseas co-ops and the sale of under-performing subsidiaries are likely to figure in a new five-year strategy document which the Irish Dairy Board (IDB) is expected to publish in March.

THE Department of Agriculture will assist with a study to assess the possibility of redeveloping the sugar beet industry, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

AN Oireachtas committee is to investigate why the Irish sugar beet industry was shut down and, furthermore, explore ways of negotiating a new sugar quota with the EU to restart the industry.

THE “first-come, first served” principle for grant aid has been dropped by the Department of Agriculture for all future schemes.

THE Irish National Stud has tried to explain away the origins of €719,000 worth of un-tendered business deals between it and its key personnel.

AGRICULTURE Minister Brendan Smith has been told to shake up the board of the Irish National Stud by the chair of the Dáil’s spending watchdog, who said the company was run like “Fás on overdrive”.

THE cost of compensating producers affected by the 2008 pork dioxin crisis is likely to be at least €50 million less than the original estimate of €200m.

THE Ombudsman has disputed evidence given by former minister and Fianna Fáil backbench TD Frank Fahey to an Oireachtas committee in the latest development in a stand-off between the Government and the watchdog’s office.

A HIGH-powered delegation from the dairy industry will study the agri-food sector in Finland and Denmark over the next three days.

CONTAMINATED oil as a generator of heat for drying was never a problem in the EU feed business before Ireland’s December pork dioxin scare.

SOME retailers were accused yesterday of holding suppliers and processors to ransom following last month’s pork product recall.

The secretary general of the Department of Agriculture has insisted that the Government's decision to withdraw all Irish pork and bacon products late last year was the correct one.

INDEPENDENT Irish hotel group Moran Hotels has agreed terms to buy the Bewleys Hotel chain for an undisclosed sum.

A HOTEL has stepped in yesterday to save the graduation celebrations of thousands of Cork students after an ‘events organiser’ failed to pay booking deposits.

THE Teagasc Authority yesterday instructed acting director Tom Kirley to seek an urgent meeting with Tom Moran, secretary general, Department of Agriculture and Food, to outline its concerns about the current interpretation of the nitrates directive in relation to soiled water.

SEVERAL hundred farmers are awaiting about €4 million in 2005 single payments, Department of Agriculture and Food Secretary General Tom Moran has told the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts.

THE scope for increased farm income from renewable crops will be a key issue at this year’s annual conference of the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) in Sligo.

Niall Quinn is hoping to complete the proposed takeover of Sunderland following yesterday’s meeting with outgoing chairman Bob Murray.

Joe Connolly and Joe Hennessy joined forces against the Examiner’s Tony Considine and Diarmuid O’Flynn in an epic golf match in Nenagh Golf Club.

PUBLIC Accounts Committee chairman Michael Noonan yesterday said none of the events listed for this year at the controversial Punchestown Equestrian Centre seemed to be connected to the purpose for which it was built.

A high-profile trade mission to China next week, which Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will lead, will be hugely beneficial to Ireland in relation to the food and drink sectors and will lay the basis for increased trade between the countries, according to Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan.

The Limerick hurling and football teams are seeking a new sponsor, following the decision by the Red Cow Moran's Hotel Group to end their association with the county.

More than 180 pool players will gather in Liffey Gaels GAA club in Dublin tomorrow for the first day of the Superleague Ireland singles pool competition.

THE biggest sum ever paid for an Irish pub, €8.1 million, changed hands at an auction in Dublin yesterday when The Playwright Inn in Blackrock came under the hammer.

Moran Hotel Group is to sell three of its Dublin pubs in order to focus on operating hotels.