Plans have been drawn up to build a €25m power plant in Co Cork, generating electricity from waste food and other non-hazardous biodegradable products.

Despite an explosion in the number of shopping centres in Ireland during the Celtic Tiger, some areas of the country do not have enough retail space, according to research by commercial real estate adviser CBRE.

Thousands of householders in Fingal, Dublin, face having to pay a fixed charge of more than a €100 a year to have their refuse binned, it emerged today.