The 24 year-old man involved in a traffic collision with a garda patrol car which resulted in the death of Garda Gary McLoughlin has been discharged from hospital today.

Martin McDermott, from Castle Grove, Raphoe is due before a special sitting of Carrick on Shannon Court this evening to face charges relating to three bench warrants.

Garda Gary McLoughlin, who was stationed in Buncrana, died just days after his patrol car was in collision with a vehicle being driven by Martin McDermott – a second garda was also injured.

McDermott, who suffered head injuries and a broken leg and toe, was thrown from his vehicle on impact with the parked patrol car and was hospitalised until today.

This evening’s court appearance relates to three outstanding warrants and no charges have been brought at this stage relating to Garda McLaughlin’s death.

It the wake of the tragedy it emerged that McDermott was handed a six-month prison sentence at a sitting of a local district court in September, but gardai were unable to execute a committal warrant because he had relocated to Northern Ireland.

He was also banned from driving for 15 years, having previously been banned for 10 years and five years for motoring offences.

Three men charged with terrorist-related offences after an attack on a house in Derry last week have been refused bail by the High Court.

20 year-old Christopher David Anthony Boas from Robert Street in Derry, is accused of owning items for use in terrorism.

43 year-old Raymond Whitehouse from Thornlea Gardens and his 19 year-old son Jordan face charges including threats to kill.

It is alleged the three forced their way into a house in Hollymount Park on Friday and tried to shoot the occupant.

Windows were smashed in the house and in the car outside.

The three are also charged with aggravated burglary, criminal damage, and possession of an offensive weapon. Mr Boast is also charged with possessing ammunition in suspicious circumstances.

Refusing bail today Mr Justice Hart said whoever was responsible for attacking the house last week had intended to inflict serious harm.

He said he could not grant bail because of the potential risk of further offending and interference with witnesses.

The case was adjourned.

An earlier hearing heard how four masked men forced their way into the home of Sean Johnston at Hollymount Park in the early hours of last Friday morning.

A police witness said the gang left the house, but Mr Johnston, who was hiding in the attic, had phoned the police. The police arrived and chased the gang along Corrody Road.

They arrested three men after their car crashed at Kildoag Road. A fourth escaped across fields.

The HSE is urging people to be considerate in how they access health services over the Christmas period.

As GPs take their holidays, Now Doc will be providing its normal range of services, but people are being urged not to attend if they can wait until their own GP surgeries reopen.

People are also being urged not to go the A&E department of Letterkenny General Hospital except in emergency situations.

Dr John Madden says it will be a particularly busy period for the Now Doc service, and people should consider before ringing the service.

After years of campaigning broadband has today been enabled in Creeslough.

There have been numerous announcements over the course of the last year that the service was imminent however local frustration became apparent after one deadline after the next was not met.

This was underlined in October when one resident said that locals had been told a plethora of lies about the arrival of the service.

Today Pat the Cope Gallagher MEP said has received confirmation that the service is now live

The future of the inter-party pact on Donegal County Council is under threat. It follows the adoption of the council’s budget budget by Fianna Fail when the other 19 members were not in the chamber.

The meeting had adjourned to allow for discussions on how a reduction in the rate could be achieved, with the county manager outlining to members how a 3% reduction might be realised. When the meeting reconvened, only the Fianna Fail members were present, but they had a quorum, and adopted the budget.

However, as this was happening, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, Labour and the Independents were meeting in a bid to secure a bigger decrease.

Fine Gael whip Terence Slowey says they were on the verge of securing agreement on a substantial rates cut, and the business community in Donegal is the real loser.

The 19 members who were not in the chamber are planning to meet in early January to decide their next step, with a vote of no confidence in the chair one of the tactics being considered.

Both Sinn Fein and Labour are involved in a pact with Fianna Fail to determine who takes the mayoral chain each year, but it’s future is now in grave doubt.

Sinn Fein whip Cllr Padraig Mac Lochlainn acknowledges that the pact does not cover the budget, but says the way in which Fianna Fail acted last evening was a disgrace.

Letterkenny Town Council has passed it’s budget for 2010, with expenditure of just over 7.3 million planned for the year. As expected, the commercial rate has been reduced by 3%. The votev was unanimous.

The budget book prepared by Town Clerk Paddy Doherty says there are two key objectives – To maintain basic frontline services, and continue to position Letterkenny as a gateway town and a host of major events.

Mayor Cllr Jim Lynch says in the present economic climate, maintaining services while reducing rates constitutes a good night’s work.

The Appeal Court in England has cast doubt on the expertise of a forensic scientist who challenged DNA evidence at the Omagh bomb trial.

Professor Allan Jamieson, who appeared as a defence witness for Sean Hoey, testified that low copy number DNA was unreliable.

The process, which allows genetic profiles of offenders to be created from very small tissue samples uses techniques only available since1999.

Delivering his judgement on Mr Hoey, Mr Justice Weir accepted the argument Prof Jamieson had put forward with another scientist, that the science of low copy number DNA had not been “validated” by the international scientific community. He said it was “unreliable” and test results were open to interpretation.

However appeal court judges in another case have largely agreed that the professor is not qualified to give expert evidence.

Prof Jamieson said he would consider the judgement carefully.

Donegal County Council has adopted its revenue budget for 2010 in controversial circumstances.

The draft budget was adopted with a small number of changes most notably a 3% reduction in commercial rates.

Before this however Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Fein and the independents were meeting to come up with their own strategy to reduce those rates further.

However while that meeting was ongoing Fianna Fail councillor returned to the chamber and adopted the budget.

Party Whip, Ciaran Brogan defended the action saying his party showed leadership however Sinn Fein’s Padraig MacLoughlain slammed the moving stating today was a bad day for democracy.

Highland Radio News has learned that up to 25 jobs could be lost at the Medisize plant in Letterkenny.

The company, based on the High Road, called staff to a meeting yesterday outlining their plans.

Medisize employs around 170 staff at its plant in Donegal producing products for the health care market. The company employs over 600 people in a number of locations across Europe.

Yesterday staff were called to a meeting and told that between 18 and 25 people will lose their jobs in Letterkenny with the consultation process with unions set to begin in January.

It is understood that two thirds of the job losses will be on the production line with the remainder being office staff.

As part of the process there is expected to be the offer of voluntary redundancy.
This afternoon the company confirmed there would be some job losses but declined to give a figure.

In a statement it says the necessary restructuring will improve its competitiveness and help secure future business in the Letterkenny plant.

A Senator is claiming that the northwest is set to lose 50 million euro in revenue with plans to host Ireland’s stage of the World Rally Championship in Dublin rather that here.

In September there was speculation that Motorsport Ireland was planning to propose Dublin as the venue for the event but that was denied.

Now Senator Marc Mac Sharry says that he has learned that Motorsport Ireland has presented a new Dublin based event to the global championship promoters excluding the Northwest.

He claims that Ireland could lose the event altogether because of the confusing messages being sent out: