Saturday/Sunday
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, delivered his 20th annual leader's address to the party's annual conference in Belfast. He said SDLP policies of negotiation, partnership and reconciliation had a major influence in bringing about the Good Friday agreement. The deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, called on Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party to end their "miserable dispute" over decommissioning and devolution.
The public transport element of the Government's soon-to-be-issued National Development Plan proposes a £2.3 billion investment in public transport throughout the State. Some £1.58 billion is needed for the Dublin region alone, for new railway lines, suburban stations, the DART, Luas and new buses.
A new pedestrian bridge was lifted into place across the Liffey between Grattan Bridge and the Ha'penny Bridge. The Millennium Bridge is due to open in late December.
Monday
The Refugee Application Centre in Lower Mount Street, Dublin, closed its doors as staff protested that the number of applicants was too great for them to handle safely. Since August new arrivals have averaged 1,000 a month. The application centre provides a one-stop-shop for emergency accommodation, welfare payments and the processing of asylum applications.
The Eastern Health Board strongly criticised suggestions of compulsory medical screening for asylum-seekers in an effort to halt the steady rise of TB. The board's chief executive officer, Mr Pat McLoughlin, expressed reservations about compulsory screening, referring to "ethical issues" and saying it would require "huge policing".
The disused Clyde Wharf area of Waterford is to be transformed into a plaza with facilities for music and theatre events. The Millennium Open Plaza on the South Quay, opposite Reginald's Tower, is to be one of the largest millennium projects in the State.
Mr Terry Rogers, the flamboyant bookmaker, poker-player and one of the most famous figures in Irish betting circles, died in Gran Canaria.
Tuesday
Mr John Ellis, the Fianna Fail TD at the centre of the controversial NIB £250,000 debt write-off, resigned from the chairmanship of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture. He will retain his Dail seat for Sligo-Leitrim.
The IFA has drawn up a list of more than 80 farmers who are owed a total of £300,000 after the collapse of the Ellis-owned company, Stanlow Trading Ltd.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, formally handed over the management, administration and funding of the courts to the new, independent Courts Service Board. Chaired by Mrs Justice Denham, it allows judges to elect representatives from among their own ranks to assist in the administration of the courts.
Bord Gais, the State gas board, announced the construction of a £200 million pipeline from Ballough in north Co Dublin to Galway and Ennis, Co Clare. The line will connect with the existing grid in Limerick, opening up the midlands and the west to piped gas supplies.
Wednesday
North Tipperary County Council refused planning permission for a £16 million landfill at a disused mine in Silvermines. It had been planned that the facility would receive 450,000 tonnes of waste a year for 25 years from several counties by rail.
Local campaigners welcomed the decision but the promoters intend to appeal to An Bord Pleanala.
The former site of the Chester Beatty library, on Shrewsbury Road in Dublin, was sold to a Galway development firm for £7.2 million. Planning approval is expected for a complex containing up to 30 apartments, the most expensive in the city.
The Prisons Service said it would convene an "urgent meeting" of the national steering group on deaths in prison following the suicide of a young Limerick man who was serving a three-month sentence in Mountjoy for a minor offence. He was the third prisoner to commit suicide in the last month.
Thursday
The Government published its spending Estimates in advance of next week's National Development Plan. Expenditure is expected to reach around £16 billion, a 10 per cent increase on this year.
Roads, housing, transport and water services received significant increases for upgrading in line with the Government's seven-year development plan. Significant increases for health and education are due largely to rising pay bills.
The MTV Music Awards ceremony at the Point Depot in Dublin was estimated to have been watched by a television audience of up to 300 million. The star-studded event was presented by Boyzone's Ronan Keating.
Talks at Stormont continued on a proposed deal which would include a Sinn Fein statement condemning violence and the appointment of an IRA interlocutor to negotiate with Gen John de Chastelain's body on decommissioning.
But unionist opponents of the proposal said it failed to guarantee short-term decommissioning.