A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Loan policy of bank criticised by judge
A District Court judge has strongly criticised banks for lending large sums of money to people without the ability to pay and then going to the courts to seek orders to recoup the debt.
Judge Michael Pattwell criticised the Bank of Ireland yesterday when it sought an instalment order against a retired nurse who owed the bank more than €6,000 in a combination of credit card and home improvement loan debt.
Judge Pattwell made an order that the woman repay €10 a month and if the bank was unhappy, "they can take their millions of profits and appeal it to the Circuit Court".
The woman told Judge Pattwell at Mitchelstown District Court that she was earning €550 a fortnight. She had a credit card limit of €3,000 and the Bank of Ireland had given her a home improvement loan of €7,000.
Judge Pattwell said the bank had a responsibility in making such facilities available to somebody on such relatively low earnings.
Man (29) guilty of manslaughter
The attacker of a man who died following an assault in a pub has been found guilty of his manslaughter at the Circuit Criminal Court in Waterford.
Edward Daly (29), Belmont Heights in Ferrybank, was found guilty of manslaughter yesterday on the fourth day of the trial.
Patrick Ryan (47), St Martin's Avenue, Waterford city, was attacked at a bar after the Waterford-Cork All-Ireland senior quarter final hurling fixture in 2005.
Mr Ryan suffered a cardiac arrest hours after the assault on July 24th, 2005, at J&J's bar, also known as The Briar Rose, in Ferrybank, Waterford.
Mr Ryan, who had sustained a dislocated finger, a fractured nose and chest and rib injuries, had a number of seizures at Waterford Regional Hospital before his death on September 10th.
Daly, who pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Mr Ryan, said he attacked him because he thought he and a friend "were trying to get off with" his wife, the court heard earlier in the trial.
Daly was remanded in custody by Judge Olive Buttimer for sentence next Thursday.
Jury convicts in sex assault case
A man has been convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of sexually assaulting his partner's friend after she had been celebrating New Year's Eve in the couple's home.
The 33-year-old Dublin man, who is deaf, had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the 43-year-old woman, who is also deaf, in his young son's bedroom, on January 1st, 2004.
The jury returned its guilty verdict on day five of the trial following less than one hour of deliberation. Judge Frank O'Donnell remanded the man in continuing custody for sentence later. 210,000 worth of drugs seized
A 42-year-old Cork city man is due to appear in court this morning in connection with a €210,000 drug seizure in north Cork on Thursday night. The man, who is from Ballinlough on Cork's southside, was arrested at about 7.30pm on Thursday when gardaí stopped a van on the Fermoy bypass and recovered a kilo of cocaine with a street value of €70,000.
In a follow-up operation, gardaí searched a flat in Mitchelstown and recovered a further 2kg of the drug with an estimated street value of €140,000.