A man who drove a stolen Mercedes through a fence during a high-speed garda chase before wading through a river to avoid capture has been jailed for three years.

Almost €8m has been paid to compensate the private toll companies operating the Limerick Tunnel and M3 motorway for lower- than-expected traffic volumes.

Ireland is facing a lump sum fine of over €1.8m and a daily fine that amounts to almost €7m a year for failing to assess the effect of big projects on the environment.

A MAN has had part of his nose bitten off during an unprovoked attack, police said.

ONE of the great mysteries of the M3 motorway was why they were so insistent and went to so much trouble to put it through an pristine archaeological landscape of the Gahra valley.

THE Government’s action in taking the side of landowners and vested interests in planning legislation could cost the country several million euro in fines, warned An Taisce.

ENDA Kenny was pitched as a man unable to govern the country as Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin sought to rally his party’s famed but jaded canvassing machine.

PRE-tax profits at one of the west of Ireland’s largest civil engineering firms decreased by 8% in 2009 to €641,782 in spite of an increase in revenues.

TRANSPORT Minister Noel Dempsey has continued to insist the second phase of the Dublin-Navan rail service will go ahead, even though there is no specific reference to the project in the Government’s revised capital spending programme.

THE award-winning writer Colm Tóibín has condemned the construction of the M3 motorway, which opened yesterday.

The National Roads Authority has advised motorists that it has just opened the Dublin side of the new M3 motorway.

Irish writer Colm Toibin has condemned the construction of the controversial M3 motorway which opened today.

IT isn’t often that Taoiseach Brian Cowen gets to give out some good news but today he will announce the opening of the final link in the completion of the M8 motorway between Dublin and Cork.

WITH summer and, hopefully, prolonged spells of dry, sunny weather ahead, the thought of floods must be the last thing on people’s minds.

THE National Roads Authority (NRA) has sought help from local authority managers in a bid to rescue plans to provide serviced rest stops along the country’s emerging motorway network.

Taxpayers will have to compensate the operators of the new M3 motorway if the number of motorists using the road falls below agreed targets, it has emerged.

ACTIVISTS will accuse the State’s roads building body today of a staggering €16 billion overspend — more than the spiralling national debt.

The proposed M3 motorway will lose money, according to a financial analysis included today in TaraWatch's pre-Budgetary submission.

CAMPAIGNERS protested outside the Green Party offices in Dublin, accusing the junior coalition partners of “selling out” on their environmental principles since going into Government.

Tara campaigners are to give money away to members of the public at noon tomorrow, outside the new Department of Finance offices on Baggot Street.

Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney will head up a celebration of Tara at the controversial site of the M3 motorway, organisers said today.

Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney has joined Hollywood actress Charlize Theron and artist Louis le Brocquy in the campaign against the M3 motorway.

Campaigners who lost a lengthy court battle to reroute the controversial M3 motorway are seeking legal advice over reports on the archaeological heritage in the area.

Tarawatch is sending a delegation to a meeting of UNESCO in Canada to lobby on behalf on the Tara Complex.

A drawing of Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick will be auctioned in Dublin today to raise funds for a group campaigning against the route of the M3 motorway in Co Meath.

Two men and a woman have been arrested at Rath Lugh in Co Meath as the standoff over the controversial M3 motorway continues.

The young Kerry woman who had been staging an underground protest at Rath Lugh in the Tara/Skyrne valley left the tunnel last night.

CONCERN is growing for the safety of a 26-year-old woman who has locked herself in an underground tunnel and is threatening to collapse it if attempts are made to rescue her.

The National Roads Authority is insisting that construction work on the controversial M3 motorway in Co Meath is not damaging a protected national monument at Rath Lugh.

Activists fighting to save the Hill of Tara today launched fresh High Court action to stop the construction of the controversial M3 motorway through the ancient site.

THE Tara landscape is one of Ireland’s and Europe’s most precious historical archaeological sites, but it is now in the process of being destroyed to facilitate the construction of a motorway.

One of the groups opposed to the route of the M3 motorway being built near the Hill of Tara in Co Meath has called for a new Environmental Impact Assessment to be carried out.

Budget 2008 opened with an olive branch for the Greens – the Minister for Finance promised no conflict between the environment and the economy.

Bono stated that the M3 motorway at Tara is “a bad idea” when he arrived at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin today, according to campaigners.

Minister for the Environment John Gormley is seeking the views of experts and the public on how Ireland should go about protecting its historic monuments.

Campaigners opposed to the routing of the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara today vowed to launch another High Court action to halt the road works.

The Green Party's law reform spokesperson Ciarán Cuffe has welcomed the European Commission's decision to clarify the legal implications of the previous government's decision to construct the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara.

The European Commission is reportedly expected to begin legal action against the Government today over the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara.

The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley has again defended himself against criticism by the Hill of Tara campaigners.

Green Party members from around the Country will hold a special meeting behind closed doors today.

The Green Party are gathering in Dublin this weekend to assess its performance in government over the past few months.

Minister for Environment John Gormley has signed a temporary order to preserve a prehistoric monument that campaigners say is being threatened by the M3 motorway in Co Meath.

Hundreds of campaigners today created a giant human harp in Co Meath to mark Tara Heritage Day.

Hundreds of people are expected to turn up at the Hill of Tara this afternoon to create the image of a harp.