Subcontractors have been protesting in Ballybofey today over the sale of an appartment block.

The Donegal apartments, at Navenny Place, Trusk Road are going to auction with a guide price €11,700 each, but single apartments will not be sold, the complete block must be bought as one concern.

The apartments are not finished, and will require significant work.

The subcontractors claim they are collectively owed almost €900,000, and want negotiations on how that money will be paid.

Local Councillor Martin Harley joined them earlier today, and spoke from the picket to Shaun Doherty…..

The body of missing fisherman Robert Mc Laughlin has been found.

Mr Mc Laughlin, who was 41,  had been missing since November 1st, when the lobster boat Jennifer, on which he was fishing with his uncle sank off Glengad.

The body of his uncle, 65 year old Edward Doherty, was found shortly after the tragedy.

Mr Mc Laughlin’s body was found at Malin Head by a fisherman this morning,  we understand a formal identification has been made by family members.

Three men accused of IRA membership after they were arrested in Donegal earlier this year have been found guilty by the Special Criminal Court.

During their trial, the court was told the court that the prosecution case was not solely reliant on the belief evidence of a garda Chief Superintendent, but consisted of different “strands” of evidence which weighed against the accused men.

46-year-old Gerard McGarrigle of Mount Carmel Heights, Strabane, 58-year-old Desmond Donnelly of Drumall, Lisnarick, Co Fermanagh, and 61-year-old Jim Murphy of Floraville, Enniskillen, each denied membership of an illegal organisation styling itself on the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, on February 22 last.

The court heard that the three men were arrested at a garda checkpoint outside Letterkenny in the early hours of February 22.

The accused men told gardaí that they had driven to Letterkenny in the hope of securing security work at the Golden Grill nightclub. The prosecution argued that witness evidence contradicted that claim.

Meanwhile, items found in a car used by the men, including  an imitation firearm, latex gloves and cable ties.

After the court confirmed the guilty verdict this morning, the three men were remanded in custody for sentencing on December 15th.

The IMPACT trade unions is seeking an urgent meeting with the HSE to discuss what impact the recent early retirement and redundancy schemes will have on services in County Donegal.

3,700 applications have been received by the HSE from staff who have until the 30th November to finally decide when the ‘cooling off’ period ends.

IMPACT says that early indications in Donegal are that several dozen staff may go from across the county and that will have an effect on staff and service in the hospital and the community sector.

The union’s spokesperson Richy Caruthers says the HSE in Donegal needs to clarify what services it will priorities:
 

The government has been unable to say when contractors who worked not only on the new department at Letterkenny General Hospital, but also the new Buncrana Garda Station will be paid.

Michael McNamara Limited, which went in to liquidation earlier this month was responsible for both projects.

It has emerged that a number of Donegal sub contractors who worked on the Buncrana Garda Station have yet to be paid despite the project being completed some time ago.

Money for that job will be paid the McNamara Limited, or effectively its liquidator soon – however Deputy Joe McHugh, who raised the issue with government, says that is no comfort to unpaid contractors:
 

Slashing the minimum wage, cutting social welfare payments, tax hikes, new charges and public sector job losses will be announced by Government today.

The long awaited four year deficit reduction plan will be unveiled this afternoon.

It’s been billed as the plan to save teh country from financial collapse and it’ll be made public later today.

The deficit reduction – totalling about 15 billion will be made up of spending cuts of about 10 billion and five billion euro in tax hikes – frontloading of 6 billion of teh adjustment will happen next year.

So what are teh austerity measures we can expect?

* Social Welfare cuts of 5% next year, with further cuts in the following years.
* Teh minimum wage will be cut by about 12% from its current 8.65 an hour
* A new property tax or service charge of between 100 and 200 euro a year
* Up to 20,000 public sector job cuts
* Raiding the pension reserve fund to try and create jobs
* And we’ll be paying income tax levels of 2006.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and other Cabinet members will launch the plan later today – hoping it’ll convince the markets and return the economy to growth.

A meeting is being sought with the Minister for Defence by a group who wish to take over the Rockhill Army Barracks in Letterkenny and turn it in to a flagship tourism project.

The premises has been lying vacant since the start of 2009 when soldiers were moved to Finner Camp – The Rockhill House Heritage Association says the property is now falling into to disrepair.

The group has already forwarded proposals to the Minister for Tourism and met with the County Manager and the head of Failte Ireland Northwest, Paul McLoone.

Association spokesperson Adrian Gallagher says the site has huge potential, but not while it lies vacant:
 

The Mayor of Letterkenny is predicting that improvement works which are coming to an end on the town’s Main Street will help revitalise the area and bring shoppers back to the historic town centre.

Just over a million euro has been spent on the project, which will be completed by the beginning of next week.

Some questions had been raised about the disruption caused during the works, but Mayor Cllr Tadhg Culbert says the amount of work done at night was significant, and that helped ease the impact on business.

He says in the long term, any inconvenience will have proved to be worth it:

Derry man has been jailed for eight years for the manslaughter of pizza delivery man Emmett Shields who was shot dead in June 2008.

Gary Meenan, 20, from Bishop Street, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter after a murder trial had started.

Meenan’s 20-year-old girlfriend, Nadine Kelly, of 22, Celandine Court was given a one year jail term suspended for two years after she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by giving Meenan a false alibi.

As he passed sentence Mr Justice Hart said while it was accepted that Meenan had not fired the fatal shot, he was “a willing participant” in the events.

Emmett Shields was delivering pizzas when he was caught up in a confrontation with masked gunmen, including Meenan, and was shot twice.

In sentencing Kelly, Mr Justice Hart said although providing a false alibi “requires appropriate sentencing,” he did not think it right to send her to jail as she was a mother and had a clear record.

It looks like it’s time to bring out the winter woollies again this week – with a major cold snap forecast for the next few days.

Met Eireann says the worst of the weather will be over the weekend – but it will hit first on Thursday.

The cold snap means snow and sleet will hit many parts of the country – but the North-west will be worst affected.

Ground temperatures are also expected to hit as low as minus ten degrees at night.

Vincent O’Shea of Met Eireann says the weekend will see the worst of the weather.