The people of Youghal in East Cork, who have suffered from the vagaries of relying on multinational firms, are using their local talent and ability to try to beat the recession, writes Claire O’Sullivan

A RESTORED respite service for relatives of people with intellectual disabilities in Limerick is in doubt after families rejected a proposal that they raise funds to pay for a replacement service.

THE Limerick respite care row intensified last night with Labour Health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan accusing the Government of perpetrating a “fundamental wrong” on families who care for relatives with intellectual disabilities.

SIXTY families with relatives who have intellectual disabilities and who avail of respite services in Limerick will now have to fund a reduced service, it has emerged.

LABOUR health spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan yesterday condemned “draconian funding cutbacks” that have resulted in the closure of an essential respite house managed by Bawnmore in Limerick.

THE state has slammed the door on one of the few comforts in the life of Limerick widow Sarah Hurley.

LOCAL health services are being temporarily shut off, respite care abandoned and preventative health clinics closed as the HSE attempts to remain within its reduced budget.

THE closure of a major respite service for people with intellectual disabilities in the mid-west was described by its chaplin as the greatest injustice he has ever witnessed.

SERVICES to more than 60 people in Limerick with intellectual disabilities are to be drastically reduced from this month, due to government cutbacks.

TWO dormer bungalow options in the Macroom area of Co Cork are fresh on the market with newly-established estate agency Killian Lynch.

OUTSPOKEN Limerick priest Fr Joe Young yesterday compared drug dealers to paedophiles.

FORTY acres with a “good nature” will go to auction today in O’Shea’s Bar, Milltown, Co Kerry.

SIXTY of the 99 workers in a west Limerick manufacturing plant are to lose their jobs and a further 60 jobs are under threat at the Limerick Brothers of Charity Services.

THE Government was yesterday called on to take action over the refusal of the HSE to give funding to maintain services provided by the Brothers of Charity in Limerick and Clare to intellectually disabled adults.

THE jobs of 60 highly trained personnel who care for intellectually disabled adults in Limerick and Clare are under threat.

A READY-to-go hobby farm, or an addition for a neighbouring farmer, is how this 24-acre holding at Bawnmore, Kanturk, is being pitched by Denis Barrett of Barrett Cahill Property Consultants.

THE Commercial Court is being “littered” with claims for specific performance of contracts, including many contracts for the sale of lands for development, a judge said yesterday.

LIMERICK will host Europe’s biggest fun rugby event next weekend.

A woman has died following a road accident this morning in Limerick city.

An official strike at a care centre in Limerick has ended after care workers agreed to return to normal employment duties tomorrow.

ONE of Belfast’s hardest criminals, dubbed Hannibal Lecter after the flesh-eating screen character, has died, apparently from suicide.

Rioting has erupted on the streets of north Belfast as angry mobs threw petrol bombs and blast bombs at police.