Feta cheese, Swiss funds, and Greek business. A different type of Eurovision contest was under way yesterday with the yes and no sides throwing all sorts of ingredients into the EU treaty debate while singing from different hymn sheets.

A NEW private hospital planned for Cork city looks set to follow the same fate as its doomed predecessor following a VHI decision not to provide cover for its customers at the facility.

Setting down his paper after digesting the gloomy pre-Budget forecast, Brian Duggan barely needed a moment to recall exactly how many jobs he’s applied for since being laid off.

THOUSANDS of Quinn employees are due to march in Cavan and Dublin today to protest at their jobs being put at risk by the Financial Regulator’s “rash decision” to place the company into administration.

THEY heard it like a whisper.

FORMER lobbyist Frank Dunlop denied at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he fabricated a meeting with a councillor in the early 1990s to conceal a payment of IR£55,000 to a senior politician.

LOBBYIST Frank Dunlop, who alleges spending £112,000 on bribing members of Dublin County Council to support developments in the early 1990s, has singled out one Fianna Fáil councillor he claimed made “exorbitant demands”.

JUSTICE Minister Brian Lenihan has ruled out asking the new Garda chief to investigate allegations a government minister was a regular cocaine user because he said there was no credible evidence to support the claims.

Stigmatising those with HIV is the current manifestation of an unchanging human reality.

IT was a macabre twist worthy of a crime novel - at precisely the same time news broke of Denis Donaldson’s murder last night, a news magazine was about to announce him winner of its Survivor of the Year award.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will receive Australian nationality at a ceremony in Melbourne today and she confirmed she now wants to compete for her new country at the Commonwealth Games in March.

THERE was disagreement last night between Sport and Tourism Minister John O'Donoghue and GPA Chief Executive Dessie Farrell on the issue of tax breaks for GAA players.

Property developer Tom Gilmartin has told the Mahon Tribunal that a former Fianna Fáil councillor asked him for £100,000 in exchange for his support for a planned shopping centre development.

A MYSTERY man is alleged to have sought £5 million from Tom Gilmartin outside the ministerial offices in Leinster House and told the land developer he could “end up in the Liffey” when the demand was refused.

LAND developer Tom Gilmartin has accused Liam Lawlor of seeking at least £150,000 to assist with planning matters relating to major developments planned for Dublin city in the late 1980s.

Former government press secretary Frank Dunlop will face more questions about alleged payments to politicians when he returns to the Flood tribunal later today.

Former political lobbyist Frank Dunlop has insisted that he paid bribes to former Fine Gael TD Liam Cosgrave in return for his vote on rezoning motions relating to land in Carrickmines, Co Dublin.