A round-up of other home news in brief
Former top civil servants at tribunal
The Moriarty tribunal sits today to hear new evidence concerning the awarding of a mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone in 1996.
The former secretary general of the department of communications John Loughrey and senior civil servants Martin Brennan and Fintan Towey are scheduled to give evidence about the awarding of the licence.
The chairman of the tribunal Mr Justice Michael Moriarty has issued preliminary findings from his inquiry into the licence process. Today’s hearing arises as a response to these findings.
Man dies after tractor collision
A man in his 20s has died after the car he was driving collided with a tractor in Co Kerry.
The incident happened at about 8.30pm on Sunday at Abbeydorney near Tralee. The 23-year-old man was the driver of the car.
Meanwhile the man who was killed in an incident in Co Leitrim over the weekend has been named as Thomas McGovern (61), Tawnlea, Co Leitrim. Mr McGovern died after the car he was driving left the road and crashed into a field in Killarague, Dromahair.
First Irish ascent of Arctic peak
An Irishman has climbed the Arctic’s highest mountain in aid of a health support charity.
Myles Campion (42), Delgany, Co Wicklow, has recorded the first Irish ascent of the 3,693m peak Gunnbjornsfjeld in Greenland.
The mountain is also the highest in Greenland and was discovered in 1930. It was first climbed in 1935.
Mr Campion set out on his ascent late last month with Scottish climber Bill Roberts and Greg Slingerland from South Africa.
One of Mr Campion’s children has a mild form of the genetic skin condition, epidermolysis bullosa (EB), and his aim was to raise funds for Debra Ireland, the national charity which raises awareness and offers support to some 350 Irish families affected by the condition.
Ministers review co-operation
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and his Northern Ireland counterpart Paul Goggins met in Dundalk yesterday to review ongoing cross-Border criminal justice co-operation.
Both Ministers welcomed the continuing exchange of information by the two police forces in respect of sex offenders and moves to harmonise sex offender notification legislation throughout Ireland and Britain.
Tube error killed man – coroner
An elderly man died in hospital three weeks after a feeding tube was mistakenly placed into his airway rather than into his digestive tract, an inquest has heard.
Michael Kilroy (85), Wynberg Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, died at St Vincent’s hospital on September 7th, 2008, after developing pneumonia following the accidental insertion of a naso- gastric tube into his right bronchus three weeks earlier.
Mr Kilroy was admitted to St Vincent’s on June 13th last year for treatment of an ulcer in his lower oesophagus (foodpipe), Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.
He spent over three weeks in the intensive care unit and was discharged to a ward on July 9th, with a tracheotomy in place, after the ulcer was found to be healed.
Mr Kilroy developed respiratory distress after the replacement and it was discovered it had inadvertently been placed into his right main bronchus.
A postmortem found he died of pneumonia and multi- organ failure related to the misplacement of the tube on July 15th.
“Clearly on the evidence, although he had a number of health problems, the cause of his death was the misplacement of the tube,” coroner Dr Brian Farrell said yesterday.