Your Thursday evening catch-up

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

TOP STORIES

A Limerick college has responded to claims that a number of its staff were on €72,000-a-year salaries with no work to do by saying those staff have been redeployed into new positions in recent months.

The Education Minister has said she is “deeply disappointed” at the decision of the country’s largest secondary teachers union to reject the latest junior cycle proposals. ASTI members voted against the proposals by 55% to 45%. The executive of the ASTI will meet tomorrow to decide its next step.

The well-known judge Paul Carney has died at the age of 72. The outspoken Judge retired from the central criminal court in April, and was outspoken about his reluctance to retire, describing it as "a very black day". He had wanted to continue working.

In our Farming Poll it was revealed that while water charges may be an issue on streets up and down the country, as far as much of the farming community is concerned, it seems they are no big deal.

For more news, data and analysis on the 2015 Farming Poll, click HERE.

WORLD

The software at the centre of Volkswagen’s emissions scandal in the US was built into its cars in Europe as well, though it is not yet clear if it helped cheat tests as it did in the US, Germany said. The Irish Government is likely to begin an investigation into whether the scandal over Volkswagen emissions has affected Irish customers.

More than 700 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a stampede on the outskirts of Mecca, the deadliest such tragedy to strike the annual hajj pilgrimage in nearly a decade.