Saturday/Sunday
The Government expressed concern that leaks from the affidavit of the chief witness in the Flood tribunal, Mr James Gogarty, would undermine the tribunal's investigations into planning abuses and corruption. Extracts in a Sunday newspaper included an allegation that "money would have to be paid" to six serving Dublin county councillors in 1989 to obtain rezonings of land.
Addressing the annual SDLP conference, the party leader, Mr John Hume, said unionists and nationalists had at last taken their future into their hands and seized control of their history, rather than letting history hold them in thrall.
Monday
It was revealed that following vigorous lobbying from the independent TD, Mr Jackie Healy-Rae, Kerry and Clare would be included among the poorest regions in the plan to divide the State in applying to Brussels for future EU structural funds.
The State has discovered an additional 36,000 hectares of forestry, making the national inventory worth at least an extra £130 million and possibly £400 million, it was learned.
The Minister for the Marine approved grants for 31 new vessels under a £12 million grant-aid programme for the whitefish fleet.
Tuesday
Preliminary drafts of the Independent Commission report on the RUC recommended that the force's membership should effectively disband and reapply to join a newly constituted police service, The Irish Times revealed. It is also understood to recommend that all symbols seen as partisan, including the flying of the Union flag, the hanging of Queen Elizabeth's picture and the force's current insignia, should be dropped.
The commission's chairman, Mr Chris Patten, said there was no truth in suggestions of a preliminary report on the RUC.
In its draft annual economic review, the OECD warned the Minister for Finance to keep public spending in check and to limit any tax cuts in the forthcoming Budget to "what is required to retain the consensus-based approach to wage formation". A number of Fianna Fail TDs, led by the Limerick-based Minister of State, Mr Willie O'Dea, criticised Cabinet members for their role in ensuring the inclusion of Clare and Kerry in the counties the Government was nominating for maximum EU funding. Mr O'Dea said he took "grave exception" to the Minister for Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, and the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, claiming to have "some inside track which will haul their region into Objective 1 status."
Wednesday
It was revealed that, following representations by the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, the Iraqi government had undertaken to pay up to £170 million owing to the Goodman group of companies. This would negate a compensation claim of over £80 million by a Goodman company, Anglo-Irish Beef Processors, against the Irish Government because of cancelled export credit facilities.
The Ulster Unionist security spokesman in the Northern Assembly, Mr Michael McGimpsey, warned that the Belfast Agreement could collapse if there were moves to disband the RUC.
The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, announced a 9 per cent increase in the charges for private and semi-private accommodation in public hospitals from January 1st.
Thursday
The Department of Justice has handed over all the files relating to the passports-for-investment scheme to the Moriarty tribunal, The Irish Times learned. The tribunal, which is investigating payments to Mr Charles Haughey and Mr Michael Lowry, had received up to 160 files in recent days.
The Government announced an unprecedented £180 million three-year investment programme for advanced scientific and other research in universities and institutes of technology. It will involve £75 million in Government capital spending, matched by £75 million in private-sector spending to be raised by the third-level institutions, and £30 million in current spending, three-quarters of it from the State.
There was mixed reaction in Northern Ireland to a report from the UN Committee Against Torture calling for a ban on plastic bullets, the closure of Castlereagh and other RUC detention centres and the "reconstruction" of the RUC.