Donegal County Council has stopped short of offering free parking in a number of town across the county but a draw is being introduced in effort to encourage people to shop local.

There have been calls for free parking in Donegal Town, Ballyshannon and the Twin Towns but instead those paying for parking will be able to sign the back of their ticket and be entered into a draw for 8,000 euro.

Stranorlar Area Councillor Martin Harley says that while he would have favoured free parking, businesses seem content with the compromise:

Letterkenny General Hospital will be part of a major new HSE initiative aimed at cracking down on alcohol abuse.

From the start of next month people who attend the emergency departments at Letterkenny General will be asked about their alcohol consumption patterns.

The aim of the initiative is to intervene at an early stage and reduce the number of people progressing to alcohol dependence.

The HSE plans to eventually roll-out the programme to hospital emergency departments nationwide.

Firefighters spent five hours overnight bringing a major blaze under control at an industrial estate in Derry.

The fire, at a building containing bales of shredded paper on the Pennyburn Industrial Estate, broke out shortly after 6 o’clock last evening

Eight crews from across the county were called to the fire.

Local Councillor Mark Durkan says the quick actions of the fire crews averted the fire spreading:

Greg Hughes presents a look back at the main stories making the headlines on Friday 27th of November

The Bishop of Raphoe has said that he would welcome an audit or any intervention which would help ensure the safety of children.

Dr Bishop Boyce was speaking as It emerged that one of the priests identified as a serial abuser in the Murphy Report served for a period in the Diocese of Raphoe.

Patrick Maguire, a member of the Columban Fathers, has served prison sentences for child sex abuse in Ireland and the UK.

He had served in the Diocese of Raphoe in 1974 and 1975.

Speaking on the Shaun Doherty Show Dr Philip Boyce said any move to protect children would be welcome:

It has been confirmed that the Letterkenny man accused of trying to kill a police officer in County Fermanagh was a reserve soldier in the Irish Army.

Gerard James McManus, from Fern Hill in Letterkenny appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempting to murder a trainee officer.

His co-accused is 32-year-old Kevin Barry Nolan, from Main Street, Blacklion in County Cavan.

The pair were also charged with having a gun and Mr McManus was further charged with using a gun to resist arrest.

Donal Kavanagh has this report :  

Fine Gael is highlighting figures which show Donegal farm incomes have fallen by 28% this year.

Deputy Joe McHugh says the statistics confirm what has been obvious locally for many months ; bad prices and bad weather are hammering Donegal farmers.

The release of the figures coincides with the visit to Donegal today of Fine Gael’s Agriculture Spokesperson Michael Creed, who is meeting with farm and fishery representatives today.

He has made a number of commitments to farmers if Fine Gael are elected to power including revisiting the issue of REPS payments and addressing the electronic sheep tagging issue.

As the fallout continues in the wake of the Murphy report, it’s emerged there are currently 17 priests facing allegations of abuse in the Derry diocese.

The figures are published in todays’s Derry Journal, with Bishop Seamus Hegarty saying all allegations have been reported to the either the PSNI or the gardai.

It’s understood that at present, there are no proceedings pending against any of the 17 priests, all of whom are still alive, but not necessarily based in the Derry diocese at present.

The diocese has also confirmed that one priest on loan to the diocese has been convicted of child sex abuse.

The last list furnished by the diocese just over four years ago revealed that 26 priests, both alive and dead, had claims made against them.

There are also a number of outstanding allegations where the identity of the priest is unknown.

The Murphy report exposed 30 years of ‘denial, arrogance and cover-up’ of clerical abuse in the Dublin archdiocese.

The Justice Minister Dermot Ahern says the report documents a scandal on an ‘astonishing’ scale, while Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said no words of apology would ever be sufficient, and admitted that the damage done to children abused by priests can never be undone

Donegal County Council is being urged to call as special meeting between councillors and job creation agencies to tackle the worsening jobs crises in the Stranorlar Electoral area.

Councillor Cora Harvey wants local representatives from the area to meet with the Donegal Enterprise Board, IDA and Enterprise Ireland to develop a strategy to increase investment and job creation.

The electoral area has been one of the worst hit in the county in the current ecenomic downturn, and Councillor Harvey says an action plan is needed.

Figures published today show that just under 85% of secondary school students who completed the Leaving Cert in Donegal this year went on to college.

Feeder school figures published in today’s papers include figures for 24 schools in Donegal at which almost 1,900 students sat the exam.

Two schools in Donegal, Milford Community School and Colaiste Cholmcille in Ballyshannon return a perfect score, with 100% of their leaving cert pupils going on to college.

They’re closely followed by Loreto Letterkenny and Mulroy College, Milford, with 95 and 93% respectively going on to college.

The Abbey Vocational School, Donegal Town, Finn Valley College in Stranorlar and Carndonagh Community School each recorded a college feeder rate of 91%.

On the opposite end of the scale, Errigal College in Letterkenny had a feeder rate of 42%, Deele College in Raphoe saw 48% of its leaving cert graduates go on to college, while Crana College in Buncrana recorded a rate of 52%.

Predictably, Donegal schools saw a higher proportion of students go on the colleges in the North and the UK. Previous studies which excluded the North and UK were accused opf painting a highly inaccurate picture of academic achievement in Donegal, with artificially low college attendence figures being published.

Meanwhile, ASTI General Secretary John White has warned that the publication of these tables gives a distorted picture of the second-level school system.