A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Man arrested and handgun recovered in kidnap inquiry
Gardaí investigating a robbery in which a cash-in-transit company worker and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint have arrested one suspect, writes Conor Lally.
The search operation in north Dublin also yielded a handgun. The searches relate to the kidnapping of the couple in Monasterboice, Co Louth, on November 6th and the subsequent robbery of the Brinks Allied depot in Clonshaugh, north Dublin. Yesterday morning, a large team of gardaí raided six premises. The man arrested is in his 40s and is being detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act at Drogheda Garda station.
Cowen pays tribute to departing TDs
The Taoiseach has paid tribute to Fianna Fáil TDs Tom Kitt and Seán Ardagh who have announced they will not seek re-election to the Dáil next year.
Mr Cowen said Fianna Fáil would greatly miss Mr Kitt’s “valued contribution and his abilities” but said he respected his decision not to seek re-election.
He said Dublin South Central TD Mr Ardagh was one of the “most respected and hardest-working TDs” in the parliamentary party.
Cigarettes worth 3.6m seized
Officers from Revenue's Customs service have seized cigarettes valued at €3.6 million in two separate operations in Dublin, writes Conor Lally.
The latest seizures bring to 80 million the number of contraband cigarettes seized by the service so far this year.
The haul is valued at between €35 million and €40 million. In the latest seizure, a 40ft container at Dublin Port was found to contain some eight million cigarettes.
It is believed the haul was manufactured to order, including packaging identical to genuine packets, in Asia for an Irish gang.
No arrests have been made but investigations into the origins of the haul are continuing.
In an unrelated operation another shipment was seized in Coolock, north Dublin, after arriving at Dublin Port from China. The haul, numbering four million cigarettes, was contained in a 40ft container. Five men remain under investigation.
BoI website offline for fourth day
Bank of Ireland customers endured a fourth day of online disruption yesterday due to technical problems, writes Paul Cullen.
The bank said other services such as ATMs, Laser, branch and phone banking were back to normal after a major technical fault last Tuesday. However, the online service was expected to be unavailable until last night, the bank said. Customers unable to access accounts online were advised to contact the bank by phone.