TWO more deaths on the country’s roads in less than 24 hours has brought the total killed so far in 2009 to 141, which compares with 156 on the same date last year.

MORE than €15 million of taxpayers’ money was “squandered” on giving the owner of the Thornton Hall prison site a stigma bonus, the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard yesterday.

TDS voted yesterday to reject an opposition motion for an investigation into the €30 million purchase of land in north Co Dublin as a site for a proposed new super prison and central mental hospital.

A COMMITTEE appointed to decide the location of a new super prison and central mental hospital only heard of the agreed site on the day the decision was made, just a week before Justice Minister Michael McDowell made his announcement.