Junior Health Mnister Kathleen Lynch is en route to Letterkenny General Hospital for the opening of the new Department of Psychiatry Admissions Unit.

Kevin Mills is Director of Nursing with the Donegal Mental Health service.

He says while the new unit is far more suited to the current needs of people with mental health problems, its predecessor at St Conal’s Hospital did serve the community well at a time when there was far less understanding of the issue…………….

A councilor has claimed that the council could be perceived as brushing under the carpet a debate on the ‘Whole Timed System of Work’

Councillor Ciaran Brogan made the remark after the press where barred from a debate on the WSW at the request of Frank McBrearty Junior.

His request was backed by most members of Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Fein.

The Whole System of Work has cost over 3.5 million euro to date and is a framework with the aim of helping the council work more efficiently.

The decision to block media coverage of the debate is understood to avoid litigation against the council or it’s members.

Questions have been raised about how the WSW contract was procured and awarded.

It is currently being tested to see if it is to be fully implemented .

Greg Hughes spoke to Cllr Brogan in Lifford this afternoon. He says the decision to meet in private was the wrong one………..

Primary schools in Donegal are among the most overcrowded in the country.

Over 80% of primary school children in the County are in class sizes greater than the EU average.

New figures from the Irish National Teachers Organisation show that 83% of pupils in Donegal are in classes of twenty or more.

While a fifth of pupils are in classes of more than thirty children.

Peter Mullen from the INTO said the government are not tackling the problem of overcrowded classrooms……

A public meeting on high-speed broadband services will be held in Buncrana tonight.

A representative from E-Net and Deputy Charlie McConalogue will be present at tonights meeting.

Fibre optic networks were installed underground in Buncrana and Carndonagh a number of years ago, but as of yet, no local businesses are using these to acess broadband.

Deputy Charlie McConalogue said the network in Letterkenny that is being used has been very sucessful…..

The HSE will this afternoon open the new Department of Psychiatry Admissions Unit at Letterkenny General Hospital.

The opening will be performed by Junior Minster Kathleen Lynch, who has responsibility for Mental Health.

Junior Health Minister, Kathleen Lynch will open the new 34 bed unit unit this afternoon after a four year period during which patients and staff were relocated to a temporary premises in Carnamuggagh.

The new unit includes both day and night areas, recreation rooms, therapy and treatment rooms and dining areas, along with residential facilities incorporating single rooms, as well as two and four bed units.

The new unit cost almost €6 million to complete, and according to the HSE, it will will support an integrated psychiatric service for a defined catchment area of approximately 145,000 people. The local Mental Health service is also continuing to focus on rehabilitation and recovery, with fully equipped occupational therapy facilities at the new unit.

Gardai in Letterkenny are investigating an assault in the Lower Main Street area of the town in the early hours of this morning.

A man in his twenties was assaulted at around 2am.

No further details have been released, but we understand the assault was a serious one.

It’s emerged that thousand year old skeletons unearthed from a ‘lost’ medieval graveyard in Co Donegal are providing vital new clues which could change the way doctors treat osteoporosis and other bone diseases in Ireland.

The skeletons, dating from between the 8th to the 17th Century, were found siome years ago at Ballyhanna near Ballyshannon. They show that medieval Irish women of advanced years suffered arthritis as people do today.

However, those who suffered from osteoporosis tended to be fitter than modern day sufferers of equivalent age.

Experts believe that a possible reason for this difference is the fact that those older people who suffered from softening and thinning of the bones in medieval times tended to be far more physically active than their modern counterparts.

Details are to be presented to a conference in Sligo next weekend.

The Sunday Times University Guide has described Letterkenny IT as the most improved college in the country, and runner up in the Institute of Technology of the Year category.

In its annual assessment which has been published today, the guide praises the college for its retention rates, which have gone from being among the worst to the best in the country.

Last year, Letterkenny I.T. was 18th in the league table of irish colleges, this year, it is ranked 10th, the biggest improvement of any college in the country, and now second only to Dublin in the I.T. rankings.

The guide recognises that Letterkenny has upped its game across the board, with a staggering improvement in retention rates. Last year, it had a drop out rate of 25%, this year, the drop out rate is just 1%, the lowest in the country.

The guide recognises the ongoing parking problems in the vicinity of the college, with parking facilities set to be developed on a 10 acre site opposite the main building.

The father of the 41 year old Kelly Jones who was found safely last Wednesaday after a four day search has spoken of his joy when he was reunited with her at Sligo General Hospital.

64 year old Rick Jones, a retired Professor at Georgia University is expected to bring Kelly home to the US on Tuesday, once she has been discharged from hospital tomorrow.

Mystery still surrounds what happened to Kelly.  She has told gardai that she blacked out on Friday week last at around 8.30pm, and woke last Tuesday night in foliage outside the unoccupied old rectory holiday home in Glencolmcille.

She broke a window pane, entered the house, and was found there the next day.

The rectory is less than 600 metres from where the search HQ was set up at Glencolmcille GAA club.

A Donegal TD says people who welcomed Martin McGuinness’ appointment as Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland should embrace his bid for the Presidency.

Martin McGuinness came third in the latest Sunday Business Post opinion poll  – with 16 percent support.

David Norris is favourite to win on 21 per cent, while Labour’s Michael D Higgins is in second place on 18 per cent.

Sinn Fein TD for Donegal North East – Padraig McLaughlin – says the anti -McGuinness rhetoric is hypocritical and partitionist…………