Articles in the Headline Category

The optimum outcome for Emyvale and Monaghan Town traders must be the priority in the ongoing negotiations regarding the southbound lane closure and traffic diversions that would come into play when improvement works commence on the N2 from Coolkill East to Corracrin, Sinn Féin councillor Sean Conlon told Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council. The meeting heard that the project – which had been scheduled to start on Monday last – would not now commence until Monday, March 4 at the earliest as discussions were continuing between the contractor ...

THE Department of Agriculture confirmed yesterday (Wed) that extensive investigations are still ongoing across Europe into the source of the horse DNA in meat products supplied from Irish firms, including Silvercrest at Ballybay. The discovery led to the withdrawal of contracts by a number of supermarkets and fast-food chains in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Rangeland Meats at Lough Egish recommenced production after receiving clearance from the Department of Agriculture, with officials establishing that a consignment of Polish meat, containing the horse DNA, which was delivered to the company, was not ...

By PATSY McARDLE A HUGE investigation is continuing this week into horse meat DNA links to burger meats which has rocked the beef processing sector with an unwelcome focus on major suppliers in Co. Monaghan, and processing plants at Ballybay and Lough Egish near Castleblayney. THE second meat processing plant in Mid-Monaghan revealed at the weekend that positive traces of horse meat was found in stock, which was not processed. THE Department of Agriculture has confirmed findings of 75 per cent equine DNA in supplied meat stock, which had not ...

The ABP Food Group has put a new management team in place at its Silvercrest facility in Ballybay, Group Chief Executive Paul Finnerty confirmed this week. ABP announced a number of other new management and safety procedures following the confirmation by joint Dept of Agriculture and Food Safety Authority testing that the source of equine DNA introduced into burgers manufactured at Silvercrest came from an ingredient supplied from Poland. Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said that tests on samples taken from Irish food ingredients were negative, and he ...

Production at Silvercrest Foods in Ballybay has been temporarily suspended by the company until it has completed its investigation into the source of horse DNA traces detected in burger products. Preliminary details of further tests carried out by the Dept of Agriculture at the plant released last week showed that nine out of 13 burgers tested positive for traces of equine DNA. Seven samples of raw material were tested and one, sourced from another EU state, tested positive. All ingredients in the production of burgers sourced ...

BY MICHAEL MCDONNELL michael@northern-standard.ie THE RECKLESSNESS of criminals and gangs involved in diesel laundering was brought into sharp focus again this week when the source of fresh water for over 1,500 homes in south Monaghan was put in jeopardy when a leaking drum was dumped beside the Donaghmoyne Group Water Scheme’s filtration plant. Only the swift action of group scheme members on Monday morning prevented the diesel wash from leaking into Lough Nagarnaman, which supplies Monaghan’s biggest independent water scheme. Donaghmoyne GWS chairman Donal McDaid told the Northern Standard that ...

The Police Service of Northern Ireland have said that investigations are likely to continue for some time into the death on New Year’s Eve of Tydavnet teenager Jason McGovern. The nineteen-year-old student was found dead at the home of a friend in Emyvale after being the victim of two separate assaults when earlier socialising in Omagh, Co Tyrone. A subsequent post mortem showed that Mr McGovern had died from head injuries, and a murder investigation was launched. Four men and a teenage boy, all from Omagh, appeared ...

Property prices in Co Monaghan have shown “clear signs of stabilisation” during the final quarter of 2012, according to a new report. Both three-bedroom and four-bedroom properties have remained unchanged in price, while the median asking price of a three-bedroom semi in the county remains at €120,000 for the second successive quarter, the latest price survey from MyHome.ie has found. Meanwhile, the median price of four-bed semis has remained unchanged now for the third straight quarter, remaining stagnant at €195,000. Interestingly, three-bed semis in Monaghan are the cheapest ...

Comments reportedly made by a caller to the Joe Finnegan Show on Northern Sound local radio on Monday morning provoked an angry reaction when they were debated at that evening’s meeting of Monaghan Town Council, with some members describing them as an attack on the integrity of the authority’s elected membership. Fine Gael’s David Maxwell told his colleagues that a caller who was critical of aspects of the cost of the event staged in the town centre earlier in the month to mark the formal switch-on of the Monaghan ...

Co Monaghan Vocational Education Committee on Monday supported a proposal from Sinn Féin’s Sean Conlon, seconded by his party colleague Pat Treanor, calling on the Dept of Education to reverse a Budget provision for a 3% reduction in the income threshold for qualification for third level college grants. The VEC at its monthly meeting received a comprehensive overview of the implications of last week’s Budget 2013 for the education sector and debated both its favourable and adverse features at some length. At the outset a document was circulated ...