The Government is determined to deliver more social housing, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said tonight.

Government plans to fast-track planning for major infrastructure schemes are designed to blame the public for delays, it was claimed today.

The employers' body IBEC is calling for the establishment of a special court system to speed up legal challenges to infrastructure projects.

Former junior minister Ivor Callely could reportedly be forced to demolish a garage conversion next to his Co Cork holiday home as it breached planning laws.

The Government is reportedly due to publish planned new legislation today aimed at fast-tracking major infrastructure projects.

Shell Ireland said today that any concerns about the safety of its onshore pipeline in Co Mayo would be addressed in an independent review currently underway.

A waste management company is to lodge a new planning application seeking to increase the size of a controversial incineration plant being built in Co Meath, it emerged today.

An Bord Pleanala is to be restructured in a bid to deliver major infrastructure decisions more quickly, the Government said today.

An Bord Pleanala has upheld an appeal against a €25m superdump planned for the Meath-Kildare border.

An Bord Pleanála is to reconsider applications for two wind farm developments in Co Roscommon.

Dubin Port has seen an increase in imports and exports of 7.3% in the first nine months of the year.

Rural residents opposed to wind farms are planning to protest this morning outside a meeting of the Irish Wind Energy Association in Kilkenny.

The €70m revamp of Páirc Uí Chaoimh was today given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanála.

Anti-wind-turbine protestors said today that the Government’s energy policy is flawed, and are calling for a re-think.

A PLANNING objection by a Cork solicitor and his wife could delay a kidney dialysis unit in Limerick by up to a year, the company behind the development said yesterday.

LOCAL businessman, Eddie Barrett, yesterday called on everyone to “pull together” in the wake of Kerry County Council’s decision not to grant full planning permission for a new development at Ballybeggan Park in Tralee.

PLANS for a multi-million-euro hotel and commercial centre have been turned down by An Bord Pleanála — as the project would have blocked views of the Rock of Cashel.

SUPPORTERS of a controversial high-rise development in Ballsbridge claim there is no planning justification for refusing the 37-storey building proposed by property developer Seán Dunne.

FRANCIE KELLY’S shebeen in Southill has cast planners at Limerick City Council into a legal minefield.

BUSINESSES in the southern region stand to lose hundreds of millions of euro if there is any long delay in opening the Port of Cork’s proposed container terminal in Ringaskiddy, it was warned yesterday.