Dawn Meats has been granted leave of the High Court to serve copies of motions seeking to attach and commit to prison 18 protesters at two of its beef plants for breach of court orders.

Peace has broken out at all Dawn Meats factories affected by the beef price blockade after the High Court heard today that permanent orders restraining trespass and intimidation could be made with the consent of named protesters who had taken part in disruptive nation-wide protests.

The Government has been urged to directly intervene in the beef price crisis amid escalating court actions and wildcat protests outside processing facilities around the country.

With some protesters continuing to defy court injunctions some processors sought to obtain attachment and committal orders that could lead to farmers involved in protest action being arrested.

The owner of several meat factories has told the High Court that protests at one of its processing plants have escalated since it secured an injunction restraining the blockading of their factories and the intimidation of staff and suppliers.

A multimillion-euro meat deal with China is under threat because of farmer protests outside processing plants, it has been claimed.

The owners of up to a dozen meat plants today have been granted temporary High Court injunctions restraining groups of protesters from blockading their factories and intimidating staff and suppliers.

A Kilkenny family has collected €500,000 from the National Lottery offices in Dublin after they hit the Lotto Plus jackpot on Saturday, May 11.

A man has gone missing in Waterford city.

I would like to take issue with some of the points Tony Considine made in his article ( ‘Ruthless Kilkenny’s monopoly is hurting hurling’, September 8).

Food producers in Waterford and from across the South-East said that thousands of euros in new sales orders and export opportunities will be gained from this week’s ‘Meet the Buyer’ forum in Kilkenny.

WORKERS at Dawn Meats and Unite union officials are distributing leaflets at this weekend’s Waterford Food Festival in protest over health, safety and pay issues.

DAWN MEATS is to close a processing plant in Midleton, Co Cork, possibly by the end of January.

SIPTU has warned that hundreds of jobs are at risk across the meat processing industry.

A THREAT hangs over the future of 170 jobs in Cork following the decision by Smurfit Kappa management to hold an emergency meeting with staff this morning at the company’s paper-converting plant in Togher.

Union representatives are due to meet management from the Dawn Meats Group today to discuss the company's plan to move 100 jobs from Co Laois.

THE manufacturing sector looks set to haemorrhage up to 100 more jobs with the rationalisation of operations at Meadow Meats in Laois.

The loss of 100 jobs at a meat plant in Co Laois will devastate a local workforce who have no alternative employment, it was claimed tonight.

Hundreds more jobs have been lost in the pig-meat processing industry this morning as a result of the dioxin scare that has seen Irish pork withdrawn from shops worldwide.

WATERFORD City Council is to implement a roads programme that will see almost €32 million invested in the current year on the city’s road and transport infrastructure.

WATERFORD’S Mayor Cllr Hilary Quinlan has welcomed news that work on the N25 Waterford bypass will begin in April this year.

JOURNEY times across Waterford city have been cut by up to a half hour with the opening of the long-awaited, €37m Outer Ring Road.

The Competition Authority has said it is continuing to monitor farmers' pickets at meat factories throughout the country.

Angry farmers are due to resume their pickets of meat plants throughout Ireland this evening in protest at the price being paid for cattle.