A round-up of other stories in brief...
Gardai end new search for missing boy
GARDAÍ investigating the disappearance of schoolboy Philip Cairns more than 20 years ago have completed their search of a possible burial site for his remains. Nothing was found.
The search began on Wednesday after new information was supplied by a woman who said she believed somebody had been buried at the spot about the time the boy went missing 23 years ago.
Gardaí sealed off a wooded area of Grange Golf Club in Rathfarnham, south Dublin, on Wednesday.
A team of geophysicists and experts from the Garda technical bureau as well as local gardaí worked on the site until yesterday.
The examination involved searching for evidence of past soil disturbances.
The 13-year-old schoolboy was last seen on the Ballyroan Road in Rathfarnham on Thursday, October 23rd, 1986.
Irish handling of waste 'shameful' - Indaver MD
IRELAND should be ashamed of the manner in which it deals with waste, according to the managing director of a firm behind plans for an incinerator at Ringaskiddy in Cork.
John Ahern, managing director of Indaver Ireland, said Ireland should be examining other ways of dealing with waste.
He was addressing the oral hearing into the proposed incinerator in Cork. "Ireland does not manage its waste very well - we should be ashamed of the fact that 65 per cent of our waste goes to landfill," he said.
On questions on safety issues from local objectors to the proposed incinerator, Mr Ahern said 350 installations similar to this one were operating in Europe, and queried fears that an incinerator in Ireland would present more of a danger than those operating across Europe.
French arts honour for Irishwoman
An Irishwoman is to be honoured by the French government for her work in promoting Irish sculpture, painting, theatre, cinema, literature and music in France.
The director of the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris, Sheila Pratschke, will be conferred with the Ordre National du Mérite by the French ambassador to Ireland, Yvon Roé d'Albert, in Dublin next Friday.
The former director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Co Monaghan, has been working in Paris since 2007.
Among her work since then has been a programme to restore the Irish centre's historic library, and a Franco-Irish theatrical project.
FIANNA Fáil TD for Donegal South West and former minister of state Pat "The Cope" Gallagher has been asked by the party to run in the European elections for the North West (formerly Connacht-Ulster) constituency, writes Deaglán de Bréadún.
"I have been requested to run," Mr Gallagher told The Irish Times last night. "I have not made up my mind yet."
Nominations close at noon on Monday and Mr Gallagher said that, although this was a short time, it was "long enough" for him to make up his mind.
"I can't confirm one way or the other, but I will be deciding over the weekend."
He was previously a member of the European Parliament for eight years, from 1994 to 2002.