RTÉ RTÉ Radio 1

It's been four months since Det Garda Adrian Donohoe was gunned down outside the credit union in the village of lordship near Dundalk in Co. Louth. Valerie Cox has been to the area.

Recent figures from the NCT revealed that over half of all cars tested last year failed the test of roadworthiness. A fail certificate can cause a disappointment to owners because it often means an extra fee of €28 euro for a re-test plus repairs that may be necessary. For Applus the Spanish company running the tests it means a revenue boost of €4.4 million a year.

Motorists mostly take a re-test on the chin and fork out extra money to for the green pass certificate for the sake of road safety. But can the test inspectors get it wrong? Pat spoke to Declan Allen Head of Department, Transport Engineering, DIT Bolton St and Christopher Coe who drives a 01 Saab which failed an NCT recently.

Dublin rock band the Riptide Movement are renowned for their phenomenal live shows, a regular feature on the live Irish music & festival scene, they have played sold out shows all over Ireland and they have also toured extensively in the UK, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Russia and even India and have also supported many high profile acts including Bob Dylan in London & Bon Jovi in the RDS. Currently on tour all over Ireland including two nights at The Olympia Theatre on the 24/25th May they were over in Studio 8 to give a taste of what they do.

By David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu (Allen Lane)

In Ireland we’ve experienced at first hand the grim consequences of the global financial crisis. Unemployment , austerity and a collapse in property prices have had consequences for many people. Of course we are not alone , other nations from Greece to Iceland have experienced dramatic declines in wealth.

But we have little sense of how it affects one of the most fundamental issues of all: our physical and mental health.

A recently published book “The Body Economic” puts forward a radical proposition. Austerity, it argues, is seriously bad for your health. The conclusions it draws are both surprising and compelling: remarkably, when faced with similar crises, the health of some societies - like Iceland - improves, while that of others, such as Greece, deteriorates.

David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, put ten years research into the book, and one of its authors David Stukler joined Pat this morning.

The recession is hitting the Irish retail sector hard. Many shops have been forced to close down as consumers hold on to cash and overheads such as rents and rates driving owners out of business. We highlighted the issue this week on Prime Time – one coffee shop owner told us had to serve over twenty cups of coffee a day to pay his rates and water charges – and that was before he’d paid rent or staff.

Joe Sweeney is President of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) who runs a newsagents shop “The Newscentre" in Donaghamede. On Tuesday his group made a submission on rates to an Oireachtas Committee on Jobs and Enterprise in the hopes that someone in Government might listen. He spoke to Pat this morning.