Labour says breweries should be allowed to sell alcohol on site
The Labour party has launched a bill to allow breweries, including microbreweries, to sell their produce on their sites subject to certain conditions.
Labour TD Alan Kelly said it would help craft beer tourism while his colleague Sean Sherlock said it would also help regional and rural development as many microbreweries are based in rural areas.
Under the bill breweries would only be able to sell their own produce, and only between 10am and 6pm.
CityJet pilots defer strike
CityJet pilots have deferred planned strike action due to begin tomorrow following talks at the Workplace Relations Commission today.
Unite, which represents pilots, made the announcement this evening.
Unite Regional Officer Willie Quigley said: "While Unite awaits the Labour Court hearing on the pay dispute, we hope for meaningful engagement with CityJet on the other outstanding matters".
Ross criticised over State board vacancies
Former minister of state at the Department of Transport Alan Kelly has said many boards under the remit of the department will not be able to function soon as a result of vacanies on State boards.
Minister for Transport Shane Ross has said he is awaiting new guidelines from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform before making any appointments.
There are currently 36 vacancies on State boards that come under the Department of Transport.
Poem written by Anne Frank sells for €140k
A very rare handwritten poem by Jewish diarist Anne Frank was sold for €140,000 to an unnamed online bidder this morning, fetching almost three times its reserve price.
Auctioneers closed the sale after just two minutes of tense bidding at the Bubb Kuyper auction house in the western Dutch city of Haarlem.
"Over the last 40 years, only four or five documents signed by the teenager have gone under the hammer," Bubb Kuyper co-director Thys Blankevoort said.
Dedicated to "Dear Cri-cri," the poem, written in Dutch in black ink on a notebook-size piece of white paper which has slightly discoloured with age, is signed "in memory, from Anne Frank."
Frank wrote the 12-line text, dated 28 March 1942, in a friendship book belonging to the older sister of her best friend only three months before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam.
