Planning permission granted for facility to replace Central Mental Hospital
An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for the new facilities to replace the Central Mental Hospital in Dundum in Dublin.
The new National Forensic Mental Health Facilities will be based at Portrane in Co Dublin.
The facility is due to become operational in 2018.
It will comprise a 120-bed National Forensic Hospital to replace the Central Mental Hospital, a new 10-bed mental health intellectual disability forensic unit, and a new 10-bed child and adolescent mental health forensic unit.
Councillors asked to delay vote on Poolbeg Chimneys
Dublin city councillors have been asked to hold off on a vote to designate the Poolbeg Chimneys as protected structures.
A report to South East Area councillors has asked councillors to conduct a site visit before they vote on the proposal.
It states the ESB is to cap the chimneys to prevent further deterioration and that the company has a 10-year management plan for the structures.
The report from planner Paraic Fallon says there are grounds for putting the 1970s chimneys on the list of protected structures.
Psychiatric nurses ending industrial action in Galway
The Psychiatric Nurses Association says it's ending a campaign of industrial action at Galway University Hospital, after agreement was reached in a long running dispute with the HSE.
The organisation has been engaged in a work-to-rule action since last week, after a lengthy campaign to secure improved staffing levels at the hospital's Acute Psychiatric Unit.
Following talks at the Labour Relations Commission, the PNA says an agreed complement of staff will be provided for the ward and that a new six bed unit will be opened and fully staffed.
Representatives from the HSE and the Association will monitor the implementation of the deal.
Nurse registration fee to be frozen at €100
The registration fee for 58,000 nurses is to be frozen at €100 until 2018 as part of a side arrangement at the Lansdowne House Agreement negotiations.
The fee to cover the regulation costs of the Nurses and Midwifery Board of Ireland was originally due to rise from €100 to €150 next year, with further increases in subsequent years.
It is estimated the cost to the state of foregoing the €50 increase next year will cost be around €2.9 million euro.
Andy Coulson cleared of perjury
Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson has been cleared of lying at the trial of former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan in 2010 after the case against him collapsed.
The 47-year-old had been on trial for around two weeks at the High Court in Edinburgh, where he denied committing perjury.
Trial judge Lord Burns upheld a defence motion that Mr Coulson, a former director of communications for British Prime Minister David Cameron, had no case to answer.
He gave his decision on Monday following two days of legal submissions from Mr Coulson's defence QC but it could not be reported until today as the Crown was given time to decide whether to appeal against the ruling.
Former Bishop of Achonry dies
The death has taken place of the retired bishop of Achonry, Thomas Flynn.
A native of the diocese's cathedral town, Balaghaderreen in Co Roscommon, he was 84.
He was bishop from 1977 until 2008 and was the Irish Catholic Bishops' spokesman when the first series of clerical child sexual abuse scandals broke in Ireland in the mid-1990's.
Bishop Flynn's remains will lie in repose in the cathedral in Ballaghaderreen between 6pm and 9pm next Friday and his funeral mass will take place at the same church at 3pm on Saturday.
Two tourism police shot dead near Giza pyramids
Gunmen on a motorcycle have shot dead two members of Egypt's tourism and antiquities police force on a road near the Giza pyramids.
The sources said the incident happened about 30 metres from a security checkpoint leading to the tourist site on the western outskirts of Cairo.
State news agency MENA confirmed that the policemen had been killed in the Haram area of Giza province.
Coalition says 10,000 IS fighters killed
More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since the international coalition started its campaign against the militant group nine months ago in Iraq and Syria, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Speaking after the coalition met in Paris, he said there had been a great deal of progress in the fight against the self-styled Islamic State but that the group remained resilient and capable of taking the initiative.
Yesterday, Western and Arab states carrying out air strikes on Islamic State fighters backed Iraq's plan for retaking territory after being accused by the Iraqi premier of not doing enough to help Baghdad push back the insurgents.
No decision on re-opening of Alton Towers
No time-frame has been put on the re-opening of Alton Towers theme park after 16 people were injured in a rollercoaster crash.
Nick Varney, chief executive of Merlin Entertainments which runs the Staffordshire attraction, said a fail-safe designed to prevent the sort of accident which left four people with serious injuries yesterday "didn't work the way it used to".
Two carriages crashed on a section of The Smiler rollercoaster.
Two men aged 27 and 18 a 19-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl suffered serious leg injuries in the crash.
Farmers express concern over environmental scheme
Hundreds of farmers attended a meeting with the Minister for Agriculture in Co Mayo last night, during which they outlined their concerns about a new environmental scheme.
€52 million is available under the Beef Data and Genomics Programme but farmers say the conditions imposed on applicants are too onerous.
There is particular concern about a possible claw-back of funding received, in the event that participants exit the scheme before a six-year term expires.
Last night's meeting in Claremorris was the latest in a series of gatherings about the issue in recent weeks.
Three of four engines failed in Spain air crash
An analysis of the black boxes of the A400M military plane which crashed in Spain on 9 May, killing four, has revealed that three of the aircraft's four engines failed, Airbus said this morning.
Investigators "confirmed that engines one, two and three experienced power frozen after lift-off and did not respond to the crew's attempts to control the power setting in the normal way," the company said in a statement.
It added that the problem was likely a technical bug.
