Other home news in brief
Photos to go on cigarette health warning
Graphic colour photographs showing the potentially fatal consequences of smoking will soon be used as part of the health warning on cigarette packets.
Legislation allowing for the use of the combined picture and text warnings to be used on tobacco products will be introduced by Minister for Health Mary Harney following public consultation.
Fourteen images have already been identified by the Government for use in the Irish market, including a photograph of a healthy lung beside a damaged lung above the slogan "smoking causes fatal cancer". Another image shows the harm smoking can do to the throat.
The Department of Health is looking for submissions from the public and interested parties on when these new warnings should be introduced.
Age limit for jury duty removed
The Government has approved a proposal to abolish the upper age limit for jury service. The decision was announced yesterday by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern.
Under the law as it stands, the Juries Act 1976 provides that every citizen aged 18 years or upwards and under the age of 70 years is qualified and liable to serve as a juror. Persons excusable from jury service as of right include those aged 65 years or upwards and under the age of 70 years.
The new provision abolishing the current references to 70 years will mean persons over 65 may continue to serve on juries if they wish but also that they may be excused if they so choose.
Gardaí name two killed in crash
Gardaí have named the men killed in last Sunday's crash near Portarlington, Co Laois as Jim Blanc (53), Emmet Street, Mountmellick, and Adam Zygadlo (21), Bay View, Mountmellick, Co Laois, a native of Poland.
Sunday tests help clear backlog
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has said attempts to clear the State's driving test backlog are "running ahead of schedule".
The RSA offered 5,000 test applicants who requested a test at short notice an opportunity to take the exam on four Sundays in May and June. It is the first time tests have been held on a Sunday.
The authority said some 1,800 people had accepted the offer, which was sent via text message.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA, said testing staff had been working extra hours to ensure a pledge by the organisation to reduce waiting times to 10 weeks was achieved. About 12,300 people were now being tested each week and that the waiting time for a test is down to 9½ weeks, compared to 65 weeks 18 months ago and 20 weeks last November.
Mr Brett said the task now was to keep the waiting time below 10 weeks and lessen it further where possible.
"Waiting times in 32 [of 52] driving test centres are now between six and eight weeks . . . 17 weeks is the longest waiting time we have at present," he said.
There are currently 131,000 people on the driving test waiting list, 80,000 of whom have been offered a date for their examination.
Further delays in McCartney trial
The trial of a man accused of the murder of Robert McCartney outside a Belfast pub three years ago has been further delayed.
The hearing before Lord Justice Higgins was due to get under way in the Belfast Crown Court on Monday but was postponed for 24 hours because Orlando Pownall QC, a key defence counsel, was unavailable.
The case of Terence Davison (51), and the cases of James McCormick (39) and Joseph Fitzpatrick (47) who are facing charges of affray, was again delayed yesterday for legal reasons.
No date has been set for the start of the trial.