The more deprived the area a child lives in, the greater their chances of being taken into care, with poverty and domestic abuse “key drivers” of demand for child protection services.

The High Court has ruled that Apple's data centre in Athenry can go ahead.

The Cork Education and Training Board (ETB) has apologised for a data security breach which affected a handful of staff.

IT’S not nostalgia. The Yellow River, a collaborative project between poet Gerard Smyth and painter Seán McSweeney, delves deep into the pair’s memories of Co Meath, but Smyth, selecting words with the care to be expected of a poet, balks slightly at “nostalgic”.

A hundred new jobs are coming on stream for Galway.

Chris Froome has reported an apparent hit-and-run incident to police after saying he was deliberately knocked off his bike while training in southern France yesterday.

Calls have been made for a special compensation fund to help struggling tillage farmers who have lost up to half of their crops, writes Elaine Loughlin of the Irish Examiner.

Connacht 16 Glasgow Warriors 11: It has been the season of all seasons for Connacht —and the best may be yet to come.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Children's charity the ISPCC says it wants to find out if abuse is "systemic" in foster care in Ireland.

Thousands of children are at risk of neglect and abuse due to consistent underfunding of the Child and Family Agency and support services, Barnardos has warned.

There is an air of inevitability hanging over the make-up of the next government.

Low prices pose major challenge for sector, writes Geoff Percival.   

She may have driven Fr Ted to distraction more often than not, but Mrs Doyle and her inevitable cup of tea are about to drive home a very different message over the weekend.

Here’s a run down of today’s business headlines.

The last in a series of six soup kitchens serving free meals for people in need has shut down, leaving 60 regulars struggling for food in the run-up to Christmas.

A large portfolio of receivership properties will go under the hammer in Galway today.

The Fianna Fáil wipeout in the 2011 general election has given new female candidates the chance to fill the otherwise empty electoral landscape.

A Mayo GAA club claimed they were ‘spoken to like dummies from the west of Ireland’ by Association officials in Croke Park.

Your spoiler-free guide to what’s best on the box tonight.

A man is due in court in Ennis this morning charged in relation to an alleged air rage incident on board a flight diverted to Shannon Airport.

A little girl was led around in a dog lead by a neighbour before being raped, a court heard yesterday.

The niece of fashion designer Ralph Lauren has been fined €2,000 for pushing an air hostess and swearing at airline staff.

A healthcare company is to create 150 jobs over the next three years with an expansion of its services in the west of Ireland.

Actor Martin Maloney, one of the stars of cult comedy show 'Hardy Bucks', has appeared in court accused of attacking three men in a popular Dublin pub last year.

With questions hanging over the future of the wild Atlantic salmon, a big money-spinner for Irish tourism, few issues provoke more heated controversy than the operation of fish farms off Ireland’s coasts.

YOU WERE reminded of that infamous, early ’80s Oscar ceremony where Chariots of Fire screenwriter Colin Welland warned Hollywood “the British are coming”.

The Communications Minister has said that secondary schools in the West of the country will be the first to get industrial-speed broadband.

EVEN in the heady Celtic Tiger years, spa treatments were never really my bag. Not least because of the exorbitant prices.

SOME people just aren’t built for boats.

There seems to be a disproportionate number of national lottery tickets won in the west of Ireland as of late.

An open sky policy and the advent of budget airlines are key factors in the recent decline in overseas visitors to the West, according to a new report.

IT started in 1989. John O’Mahony had organised a behind closed doors training session in Ballina’s James Stephens Park the week after Mayo had beaten Tyrone in the All-Ireland final. Word spread around the town. From there it went around the county and 5,000 people turned up to the secret meeting.

Lady Gregory: An Irish Life

INDEPENDENT inspectors have uncovered what they claim are a series of “unacceptable practices” at a nursing home.

THE bill to provide 24-hour security for one male patient at the acute psychiatric unit at Ennis General Hospital has exceeded €1 million.

INCOMING Taoiseach Enda Kenny is asking for a “gigantic leap of faith” from the Irish people to trust their government and political leaders to write a new chapter in the country’s history.

The Long Road Home

IRISH youngster Ronan Murray could be in line for his Championship debut for Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town in their first home game of the season against Burnley this afternoon.

An 82-year-old priest is due in court later charged with sexually assaulting a boy in the west of Ireland over four decades ago.

A STRATEGY change on oil and gas exploration licensing off the west coast opening up a record amount of acreage for development is expected to result in fresh drilling activity.